Clean Industrial Deal: CEOs find European industry plans too vague
After European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen presented the Clean Industrial Deal in Antwerp on Wednesday, CEOs at the presentation expressed satisfaction that there was finally a sense of urgency but said the plans were too vague.
The intention of the plan is to make energy cheaper, adjust state aid rules and reduce administrative obligations. “The Clean Industrial Deal is to cut the ties that still hold our companies back,” Von der Leyen said. Many CEOs were happy to hear her promise, but were not sure if it will be enough.
“We need to move from all these declarations and ideas to implementation”
“We obviously hope it will be enough,” said Ivan Pelgrims, CEO of Evonik Antwerp. “For us, the situation is very difficult. We have had to carry out major cost-cutting operations over the last decade. Our site is currently running at 75 per cent of capacity. For years, we have had no prospect of improvement - it's really very bad, mainly due to the high price of natural gas.”
“The new European Commission is working hard; the ‘Antwerp Declaration’ last year was a wake-up call,” said Yves Bonte, CEO of Domo Chemicals, a company with headquarters in Ghent and large sites in Germany and France. However, he sees many obstacles. “We need to move from all these declarations and ideas to implementation,” he said. “We have a big internal market. Let our factories serve our consumers.”
Geert Van Poelvoorde, CEO of ArcelorMittal's European branch, said he saw “good things, but it needs to be more concrete, it is too vague”. Like many colleagues, he sees the action plan as a “recognition of the problem” and a “start of the solution”. “A business plan is needed for things like decarbonisation, for now we do not see that,” he added.
Van Poelvoorde also said the plan was too vague to give a definite answer about the future of ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Ghent.
Since 2021, ArcelorMittal has been working on a plan to decarbonise its Ghent plant, by shifting from traditional blast furnaces to electric ones. But the expensive greening project was put on hold by the group's leadership at the end of November.
“A European agreement specifically for the steel industry is also still being worked on, I think they will wait for that to see what will change specifically,” said Flemish minister president Matthias Diependaele. “Then we will discuss to see whether the investment in Ghent will go ahead now or not.”
On the Clean Industrial Deal, Diependaele said it was “good that there is now a vision, but this now has to be translated into concrete actions”.
“The climate goals are not being questioned, but the idea is to balance them with our economic welfare model,” he added. “Because if our companies move, we lose both our welfare and the ambitious climate goals.”
#FlandersNewsService | Syensqo CEO Ilham Kadri and European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen at the Clean Industrial Deal event in Antwerp © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
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