My op-ed, “The EU clean industrial deal needs a policy makeover,” was originally published in Sustainable Views. The full article is available to subscribers on their site.
Since the turn of the century, Europe (including Britain and Switzerland, but excluding Russia and Turkey) has gone from being home to 41 of the world’s 100 most valuable companies to a measly 15.
The continent is in the midst of a competitiveness crisis. As the forthcoming Draghi report — the much-anticipated analysis by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on how to shore up Europe’s competitiveness — will soon document, the implications for Europe’s green transition will be profound.
Against this backdrop, the European Commission recently announced a “clean industrial deal.” As this follows a long litany of previous (failed) economic reboots, there is a growing sense that this is a make-or-break moment — one in which the EU either reclaims the mantle of economic and technological powerhouse, or cements what many see as an irreversible decline.
Yet, despite the sky-high stakes and more than two decades of policy underperformance, it is evident that the Brussels machinery neither adequately recognises past shortcomings, nor genuinely seeks to learn from them. While it is good to see the EU finally taking Europe’s competitiveness problem seriously, it will not be enough to just announce another “deal”.
If policymakers, especially those in the commission, are serious about rebuilding the EU’s competitiveness, they need to improve in three core areas.
Policy planning
The commission designs and executes policy with one directorate-general in the lead. Given the narrow remit of each department, this approach has been proven to be woefully ill-suited to producing policies that are commensurate with the issues they are supposed to address.
