Today phase two of the European Green Deal takes place. The Clean Industrial of the European Commission, which will be presented today in Brussels, wants to relaunch the European industry and promote green technologies in crucial sectors such as renewable energy, electric cars and the production of batteries. But although the proposal is seen as a step necessary to maintain Europe’s global competitiveness, there is no shortage of new penalties for companies and families already experienced by years of economic difficulties. To increase doubts, the fact that the direction of the new plan is entrusted to Teresa Ribera, socialist vice president of the Commission and known for his extremism in terms of environmental. Furthermore, the Clean Industrial Deal could be interpreted as a response from European socialists to the “Competitiveness Bussola”, the other great plan of the European Commission revealed in recent weeks. The document presented by Von der Leyen, which lists all the initiatives to which its executive will work in the coming months, has left the popular people satisfied but has disappointed socialist and green. The plan for the clean industry, entrusted to Ribera, could contribute to rebalancing the strength relationships between the different souls that make up the “Ursula majority”.
The heart of the Clean Industrial Deal consists of a series of measures that should encourage investments, with the ambitious objective mobilize about 480 billion euros per year a figure that, despite the efforts to simplify the regulatory framework and to encourage private capital , risks being inadequate .. The plan also provides for the strengthening of state aid, but this raises the problem of how these funds are distributed and if they really manage to support in a manner Equa all industries, or if they end up promoting the usual large groups at the expense of SMEs who may not have the resources to benefit from public funding.
One of the most controversial aspects of the Clean Industrial Deal concerns the mandatory shares of “Made in Europe” products for public and private contracts, a measure that the European Commission intends to introduce to respond to the growing competition of the United States and China. Although the intent is to defend the European industry and guarantee an internal demand for green technologies, this choice risks creating new commercial barriers that penalize the smallest companies, which may have to respect expensive and difficult to implement regulations.
Families, for their part, could pay an even higher price. If on the one hand the plan promises to encourage the production of green technologies, such as solar panels and electric cars, on the other the new regulations on public and private contracts could translate into an increase in costs for consumers. The goal of a right transition, so invoked by unions and civil organizations, risks remaining only a declaration of intent if there are no concrete solutions to ensure that the transition towards a green economy not serious on the pockets of the most vulnerable families.
Another critical point concerns the management of state aid. The European Commission is designing a reform to simplify the rules and accelerate aid, but the draft of the document does not clarify enough how the funds will be allocated and if all companies will have access to these resources in an equitable way. It is easy to imagine that large multinationals, with their complex structures and their lobbying power, could enjoy a privileged treatment compared to small local realities. And, in an already volatile market context and marked by growing economic instability, the difficulties for SMEs could increase, with devastating effects on employment and on the local economic fabric.
While Europe is preparing to face a new phase of the Green Deal, the signals of an ever deeper industrial crisis are undeniable. The deindustrialization in progress has already caused the loss of millions of jobs, with sectors such as automotive and steel that continue to undergo significant cuts. The European Commission, with the Clean Industrial Deal, aims to respond to this crisis with huge investments, but the risk is that the funds are not enough or well distributed. The plan, therefore, may not be enough to contrast the hemorrhage of jobs and stop the industrial decline that is severely affecting the working classes and European families.
Although the Clean Industrial Deal can represent an important response to the challenge of sustainability and global competitiveness, its economic impact risks being devastating for those who are already in difficulty. Families and companies, in particular small ones, risk being in an even more difficult situation, with an increase in costs and a growing difficulty in accessing funding. To prevent the plan from being transformed into a further obstacle to economic growth, it will be essential that the European Commission finds a balance between the need to support the ecological transition and to guarantee social and economic sustainability for everyone.
