On the 26th of February, 2025, President Ursula Von der Leyen presented the Clean Industrial deal to more than 300 industry leaders gathered in Antwerp.
Ms. Von der Leyen’s presentation follows the Antwerp Declaration, which was presented to the Commission last year by business leaders from various industries and called on the Commission to propose measures to improve the competitiveness and the attractiveness for investments of the EU.
The Clean Industrial Deal aims at remedying EU companies’ competitiveness challenges, while providing incentives for decarbonisation.
- Affordable energy: the Affordable Energy Action plan should, among others, accelerate electrification while improving energy efficiency and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels;
- Boosting demand for clean products through the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act, which will also address permitting bottlenecks regarding industrial access to energy;
- Financing the clean transition: a Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework will speed up the approval of state aid to support industrial decarbonisation and the rollout of renewable energy as well as enhance clean tech manufacturing capacity;
- Circularity and access to materials: a Circular Economy Act should ensure that scarce materials are used more efficiently while an EU Critical Materials Centre should allow for the joint purchase of raw materials on behalf of companies;
- Acting on a global scale: Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships should allow for the diversification of supply chains. Investments will be mobilised through the Global Gateway. Strengthening and simplifying the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is another key priority under this heading;
- Skills and quality jobs: this priority will among others be addressed through a Union of Skills that invests in workers, quality jobs and skills’ development. Also funding will be leveraged via Erasmus+.
The Clean Industrial Deal Communication can be accessed here.
Source: European Commission
