Vestager pitches new ‘systematic’ defence of European clean technologies

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced new investigations into Chinese-supplied wind farms in Europe and pitched a fresh international approach to protecting clean tech from unfair competition while visiting the United States on Tuesday (9 April).

“We can’t afford to see what happened on solar panels happening again on electric vehicles, wind or essential chips,” Vestager said during a speech at Princeton University on the importance of new technologies and of controlling part of their development from global competition.

Europe once led in solar PV technology, but domestic manufacturers are now struggling to counter cheap imports from China.

Pointing to clean tech competition’s twin economic and geopolitical dimensions, Vestager said, “In a world powered by technology, those who lead are those who control the most critical technologies and their supply chains.”

While announcing fresh investigations into several wind projects, the commissioner acknowledged that this case-by-case approach would not suffice. “We need a systematic approach. And we need it before it is too late.”

New international ‘trustworthiness’ criteria

The competition tsar called for creating an international list of ‘trustworthiness’ criteria for critical clean technologies, including a product’s environmental footprint, whether producers respect labour rights and cybersecurity concerns.

These criteria would then be used by “like-minded” trading partners – such as  G7 countries – as a basis for public procurement or when incentivising climate-friendly industries.

Vestager says this framework would create a competitive advantage for domestic producers who adhere to such standards while avoiding a wasteful subsidy race between countries.

She compared this approach favourably against the US’s ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ which financially incentivises local production and which, she said, “forced us (the EU) to react by enabling matching subsidies”.

With its Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), the EU aims to produce 40% of clean technologies in Europe by 2030.

The NZIA regulates how renewable support auctions and public procurement procedures should include criteria other than the price, such as environmental sustainability and supply chain resilience.

Like Vestager’s proposed ‘trustworthiness’ criteria, the NZIA’s ‘non-price’ criteria should, in practice, favour domestic European production. 

New tools, new inquiries

The vice president also announced that “we are launching a new inquiry into Chinese suppliers of wind turbines,” citing projects in Spain, Greece, France, Romania, and Bulgaria.

The investigations will be launched under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation –  a 2023 EU law which allows Brussels to probe companies bidding in public tenders in the bloc larger than €250 million.

At the beginning of April, the EU launched two investigations, based on this regulation, to determine whether subsidies had enabled Chinese companies to submit unfair bids for public energy contracts in Europe. The first one concerned the supply of trains in Bulgaria. The second concern is the 110 megawatts of solar panels in Romania. 

Yesterday’s fresh inquiries followed “indications that certain wind manufacturers and other companies active in the internal market may benefit from foreign subsidies which grant them an unfair advantage,” EC’s communication services told Euractiv. 

“This investigation follows the European Wind Power Action Plan in which the Commission committed to closely monitor potential foreign subsidies which create distortions of competition”, the spokesperson added. 

Europe increasingly defensive of its clean tech manufacturing

In Brussels, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, indicated on Tuesday that the European Commission will sign up to the Solar Charter – a document committing EU countries and the Commission to support domestic producers.

The Charter, mirroring a similar December 2023  show of support for the wind industry, will be signed the following Monday (15 April) on the sidelines of the next meeting of EU energy ministers.

The previous Monday (8 April), French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Energy, Bruno Le Maire, took advantage of a trilateral meeting organised in France with his German counterpart, Robert Habeck, and his Italian counterpart, Adolpho Urso, to propose that 50% of the order must be European one in the EU public procurement.

According to his office, the French minister is even proposing this apply beyond the clean technologies covered by the NZIA.

Meanwhile, they said enthusiasm is a little less marked on the German side for the moment. “[German political leaders] want to make sure we’re able to meet the thresholds we’ve set ourselves,” the French office explained.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Alice Taylor]

Read more with Euractiv