Mats Engström
The sun shines in a blue sky over Gliwice in south-western Poland as the technical university’s head of development explains research plans for low-carbon technologies. Close by, in Rybnik, a new centre for renewable energy and hydrogen is being built. It will help transform a region that has been heavily dependent on coal for decades.
Meanwhile, in the far north of Sweden, steel companies SSAB and Stegra are investing in low-carbon processes, bringing change to one of the most polluting industrial sectors. And in Cluj-Napoca, the manager of the Cluj IT cluster explains how innovative Romanian companies are using information technology to modernise and green the economy, for example by making industrial processes less carbon-intensive.
These are just some of the hundreds of European green industry initiatives. But while the sector is growing, long-term success is far from guaranteed. Global competition is getting tougher. Even if the United States has changed course under President Donald Trump, companies in China and other parts of the world are quickly transitioning to a low-carbon economy. To remain among the leaders, the EU needs to do more.
To this end, the European Commission proposed a Clean Industrial Dealin February 2025, which is now under debate by member states. Yet investment remains too low to decarbonise European industry, and much of the funding depends on the NextGenerationEU programme, which expires in 2026.
This leaves it mostly up to the next EU “multiannual financial framework” for 2028-2034, the MFF. But since the commission put forward its proposal for the budget in July this year, member states have been divided by competing demands for funding. The main antagonists are the “frugal states” and the “friends of cohesion”. The frugal four include Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, while Germany also takes a broadly restrictive position on spending. The “friends of cohesion”, on the other hand, want more money for agriculture and regional development. This includes Portugal, Spain and most central and eastern European countries. All member states agree that defence needs more funds. In other words, spending on the green industrial transition—especially through the budget’s proposed Competitiveness Fund which is designed to boost clean-technology investment and Europe’s industrial base—is under pressure from all sides.
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