(Bloomberg) -- Ursula von der Leyen pledged to maintain the European Union’s climate ambitions, bolster competitiveness and strengthen defense industries as she sought to lock down a second term as head of the bloc’s executive arm.
Von der Leyen said she would launch a “Clean Industrial Deal” in her first 100 days in a bid to boost European manufacturing amid global competition. It comes as she maintained her commitment to the EU’s plans to make it the first climate-neutral continent by the middle of the century and said that the next European Commission would prepare the way for a 90% emissions reduction by 2040.
“The world is in a race that will dictate who will be the first to climate neutrality and first to develop the technologies that will shape the global economy for decades to come,” she wrote in a series of political guidelines for the next European Commission published Thursday. “Europe cannot afford to fall behind and lose its competitive edge in this race, nor can it leave any strategic vulnerabilities exposed.”
She also described a new approach to competition policy to ensure it reflects changes in global trends and prevents market concentration from raising prices or lowering the quality of goods or services.
“The race is on, and I want Europe to switch gears, and this starts with making business easier and faster,” she said in a speech to the European Parliament ahead of her confirmation vote.
She got a loud round of applause from lawmakers when she blasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his diplomatic forays to Russia and China while his country is serving as head of the bloc’s rotating presidency.
“Russia is banking on Europe and the West going soft. And some in Europe are playing along,” she said. “Two weeks ago, a European Union prime minister went to Moscow. This so-called peace mission was nothing but an appeasement mission.”
The chamber is set to vote Thursday afternoon on confirming her for another five-year term. The margin is expected to be close and she has been courting Green lawmakers to help make up for defections from the main parties that agreed on her nomination.
Most Green lawmakers are expected to ultimately vote to confirm her, according to people familiar with the discussions, although several will still oppose her. The people were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive talks.
The EU Green Deal and its mission to put the bloc on course for climate neutrality by the middle of the century was the centerpiece of von der Leyen’s last term. The package was designed to slash emissions in almost every sector of the economy, from scaling up renewables to phasing out the combustion engine in cars.
Competitiveness Fund
A key question will be how to fund the transition, while not losing its clean-tech sector to the likes of China and the US. Von der Leyen said that she would put forward a new “European Competitiveness Fund” as part of the bloc’s new multi-annual budget. She said that energy bills for companies and households needed to be lower.
Yet the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and the upward pressure on inflation that it created — has eroded support for climate ambition, particularly for rules that touch citizens’ lives the most.
Von der Leyen is expected to stick with the broad aims of her signature Green Deal law, but the shift to the right in the European Parliament after June elections means she has to tread a fine line between cutting emissions and overburdening citizens and business.
The focus now turns to implementing the laws that have already been agreed, making sure that EU industry and its nascent clean-tech sector remain competitive globally and that energy prices stay under control.
Thornier questions — such as how to decarbonize agriculture, which is set to be one of the highest emitting sectors in the EU by 2040 — will be more of political minefield after months of farmer protests.
Some of the highlights of the political guidelines published Thursday include:
- Appointing a new commissioner for defense and producing a new white paper on the future of European defense in the first 100 days
- Tripling the number of European Border and Coast Guard officers to 30,000
- Proposing a set of new Defense Projects of Common European Interest, starting with a European Air Shield and cyber defense
- Adding a new commission role to focus on housing and putting forward the first-ever European affordable housing plan
- Allowing e-fuels to be included in the 2035 zero-emissions mandate for cars after 2035
- Taking action on the addictive design of online platforms
- Naming a commissioner for the Mediterranean to focus on economic stability, energy, security and migration
- Tasking an equality commissioner with a new LGBTIQ strategy and a new anti-racism plan
- Ensuring access to new, tailored supercomputing capacity for AI start-ups and industry through an AI Factories initiative.
--With assistance from Lyubov Pronina and Ewa Krukowska.
(Updates with Green lawmakers likely to back von der Leyen in ninth paragraph)
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