How much money does the European Union need to compete with China and the US?
How can it prevent future investments from being made overseas rather than in Europe?
Ever since the US government presented its $369 billion package to promote green technologies, the “Inflation Reduction Act”, the EU has been struggling for an answer.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has so far kept a low profile about the sums she has in mind.
But now the FAZ has an internal draft for the "Green Deal Industrial Plan" ("Green Deal Industrial Plan"), which von der Leyen wants to present on Wednesday.
Henrik Kafsack
Business correspondent in Brussels.
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It becomes concrete for the first time: “More than 170 billion euros” in investments are required in total by 2030 “for the production of net-zero technologies such as solar and wind power, batteries, heat pumps and hydrogen alone”, it says - in addition to the already planned investments in the Green Deal and the 300 billion euros planned in the Repower-EU program to further expand green technologies and thus decouple the EU from Russia.
The 170 billion euros are in square brackets.
So the number is subject to change.
EU funding to be increased
And the Commission leaves no doubt that, in its view, this sum cannot be raised without new EU funds.
The average EU investment in renewable energies in 2020 was 0.57 percent of economic output.
But there are big differences.
One state invested 1 percent, while ten others invested less than half the average.
The Commission concludes: “To avoid fragmentation of the internal market, facilitate the green transition across the Union and close the huge gap between available funds and financing needs for the scale-up of the net-zero industry, we also need the EU - Increase funding.”
How exactly the Commission intends to finance this, i.e. whether it wants to take on new EU debt for this, remains open in the paper.
It only says that the EU budget can make an important contribution.
In contrast, the EU Commission responsible for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, left no doubt in an interview with the FAZ before his visit to Berlin on Monday that he considers new EU debt to be unavoidable.
EU Council President Charles Michel is also pushing for it.
France, Italy, Spain, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are also considered supporters.
The federal government, on the other hand, rejects this with reference to the many billions of undrawn funds from the Corona fund.
Green Deal Industrial Plan to be discussed next week
The heads of state and government are to discuss the “Green Deal Industrial Plan” at their next summit in Brussels at the end of next week.
At the end of the 17-page paper, the Commission says it intends to present concrete proposals by the March summit based on a fundamental financial needs analysis.
As can already be seen from the paper, the EU Commission intends to place the Repower EU program at the center of EU financing for green technologies.
But she also wants to use money from the innovation fund, which is financed by revenues from EU emissions trading, and tap into the Invest-EU fund set up by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
He initiates private investments with little public money by covering the main risk of projects.
In the medium term, the European Sovereignty Fund announced by Commission President von der Leyen at the World Economic Forum in Davos is intended to promote “new technologies of central importance, such as microelectronics, quantum computers and artificial intelligence through to biotechnology, bioproduction and clean tech”.
Simplify funding for cross-border projects
As a first step, the Commission wants to enable the member states to subsidize the industry more than before according to the EU state aid rules.
The rules should be temporarily softened for this.
Exactly when is still open in the draft.
In this context, she also wants to simplify and accelerate the promotion of cross-border "Important Projects of Common European Interest" (IPCEI), such as those for batteries, microelectronics or hydrogen.
Green MEP Anna Cavazzini welcomed the Green Deal Industrial Plan.
"Clear rules on decarbonization and quick access to finance are crucial to boost the production of green technologies in Europe," she said.
However, if the rules for state aid are tightened, the internal market must not be jeopardized, she said.
"It is therefore important to use the aid in a targeted and temporary manner for the green transformation and to also launch a European sovereignty fund so that less financially strong member states are not sidelined."