KEY MESSAGES
- Eurelectric welcomes the EU’s long-term goal of diversifying supply chains and developing competitive European supply chains, especially in strategic local industries.
- Our members procure end-products from and supply electricity for European industry and see the principle of ‘open strategic autonomy’ as the balanced approach needed in relevant EU industrial policy legislation such as the recently published Industry Accelerator Act and supporting policy framework.
- As a general consideration, newly proposed ‘Made in Europe’ requirements, while being an important part of this balanced approach, must not be overly stringent to:
- Maintain the affordability of the energy transition and avoid equipment availability issues
- Incentivise electrification
- Meet future demand for clean technologies
- Ensure proper market functioning and a level playing field between public and private market participants.
- Support long-term investment certainty and regulatory stability
- To strike the right balance, Eurelectric recommends:
- A thorough impact assessment of mandatory local content requirements to identify where they add real value
- Progressive implementation, starting first with the European value chains most at risk and where we stand to gain the most
- Strengthen cooperation and partnerships with reliable and trustworthy actors outside the EU
- Provide regulatory certainty to maintain investor confidence