short-term changes announced/Further significant improvements on leakage/Competitiveness and reduction of bureaucracy not a contradiction to climate protection but a necessary prerequisite for real success

The European Commission is moving on the subject of fines for the car industry. This emerges from a document just adopted by the College of Commissioners under Ursula von der Leyen with the heading ‘Competitiveness Compass’. The passage, which was included in the document at short notice, reads: ‘As part of the dialogue, we will identify immediate solutions to safeguard industry's capacity to invest, by looking at possible flexibilities to make sure our industry remains competitive, without lowering the overall ambition of the 2025 targets.’

The environmental policy spokesperson for the largest political group in the European Parliament (Christian Democrats, Peter Liese, EPP) welcomed the development: ‘We must not give up on our climate targets. The target for 2025 in particular is by no means overambitious. But imposing fines in the current critical situation does not help anyone. Our group has therefore proposed that companies that do not meet the targets in 2025 should be given the opportunity to avoid penalties by exceeding the targets in 2026/2027. Apparently, the Commission is now also thinking along these lines. The submitted text of the Competition Compass also contains a whole series of other improvements compared to the draft originally published on Friday (leak).’

The urgent revision of the Medical Devices Regulation has made it into the document.

‘I very much welcome this, because this is not just about the competitiveness of the European medical device industry, but also about the lives of patients. Medical colleagues of mine, for example in pediatric surgery, complain that instruments needed for children with heart disease are already no longer available. A passage on the promotion of negative emissions, for example through inclusion in the ETS, was also included in the text. I pushed very hard for this point. We need negative emissions to be able to meet our climate targets in the long term and at the same time industry needs a solution for the emissions it cannot avoid, and the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, which many companies are already offering today, can be such a solution. If we create a business case for this on a large scale, the costs will come down.’

Liese reiterated his general position that reducing bureaucracy and competitiveness are not a contradiction to climate protection, but in fact a necessary prerequisite.
‘It is extremely important that the Commission sticks to the climate targets. However, we need a change in the method and this is clearly described in this document. Too much bureaucracy hampers acceptance and a lack of competitiveness is detrimental to climate protection because no one will follow Europe if we drive industry away instead of helping it to decarbonize,’ said Peter Liese.