Strategic Agenda: EU leaders look to harness green transition to boost industry

5 months ago 37

EU leaders meeting in late June will stress the need for a competitive Europe and highlight how the green transition and a genuine energy union can support that aim, according to a draft document seen by Euractiv.

In a draft version of the EU’s five-year strategic agenda, to be adopted at a meeting on 27-28 June, leaders are expected to stress the need for a “prosperous and competitive Europe” as their key concern.

To that end, “we will harness the potential of the green and digital transitions,” the document stresses. That means a “just and fair climate transition” while reducing energy imports.

A “genuine energy union,” the long-held project of more deeply integrated European energy markets, will secure the supply of “abundant, affordable, and clean energy,” the document adds.

Towards that end, “building adequate smart network infrastructure and interconnections” will be central, leaders are expected to agree. The EU is currently not on track to meet 2025 interconnection targets for most countries.

Meanwhile, think tanks like Brussels-based Bruegel have stressed that deeper energy market integration could provide real savings to consumers.

EU leaders are expected to agree, saying that “this will increase real income and purchasing power.”

Observers are more critical. “Every few years, governments bring the competitiveness agenda back from the dead to please big business and their shareholders, with very few benefits for average people,” said Ariadna Rodrigo, policy adviser at Greenpeace Europe.

On environmental protection, the text says that national governments will “continue to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems”, while also promoting an agriculture sector that “continues to ensure food security.”