Brussels – As announced by President Ursula von der Leyen, in the first 100 days of the new European Commission’s term, the European Commission presented the Clean Industrial Deal. The manufacturing sector, the political world, and civil society have waiting for months for this document that aims to support the competitiveness and resilience of European industry, accelerate decarbonization, and combine it with the re-industrialization of the Old Continent. After reports in recent days about the content, clarity came on the resources earmarked for the clean transition: “In the short term, the Clean Industrial Deal will mobilize over 100 billion euros to support clean Made in EU production. This amount includes an additional €1 billion in guarantees under the current multi-year financial framework,” according to the document.
For von der Leyen, the Clean Industrial Deal is “to cut the ties that still hold our companies back and make a clear business case for Europe.” For the Commissioner for Climate, Wopke Hoekstra, “it is a turning point for the European economy” and “does not turn its back on climate action.” On the contrary, “With this plan, we aim to reduce industrial emissions by up to 30 percent,” he pointed out at the press conference. The Enterprise and Made in Italy Minister, Adolfo Urso, is more cautious. “I think we judge the plan only where there are the plans for the sector,” he said in response to a question on the sidelines of a hearing before the House Environment and Production Activities joint committees on nuclear power. “There is a need for more concreteness, for adequate resources to support companies in this great challenge. It is good that we are finally talking about clean industry and not the green deal, but there is a need for speed, concreteness, and adequate resources: we need to get out of the fairytale of the Mulino Bianco,” he stressed.
In detail, the Clean Industrial Deal focuses primarily on two closely related sectors: energy-intensive industries and clean technologies. Energy-intensive industries “urgently need support to decarbonize and electrify” as “the sector faces high energy costs, unfair global competition, and complex regulations that hurt its competitiveness.” Clean technologies are “at the heart of future competitiveness and growth, as well as crucial to industrial transformation.” Moreover, the plan emphasizes that circularity is central because it is instrumental in maximizing the EU’s limited resources and reducing over-reliance on third-country raw material suppliers.
Additionally, there are business ‘drivers’ for industry to succeed in the EU. The first of these is action to reduce energy costs — on which the Commission today proposed a dedicated Action Plan — to accelerate the deployment of clean energy and electrification, complete the internal energy market with physical interconnections and efficiency, and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels. Next, the Clean Industrial Deal aims to boost demand for clean products. In this regard, “The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will increase demand for EU-made clean products by introducing sustainability, resilience, and made in Europe criteria in public and private procurements,” and “With the review of the Public Procurement Framework in 2026, the Commission will introduce sustainability, resilience, and European preference criteria in public procurement for strategic sectors.”
The third driver is that of funding. Here, the Commission will adopt a new state aid framework that will “allow for simplified and quicker approval of State aid measures for the roll-out of renewable energy, deploy industrial decarbonization, and ensure sufficient manufacturing capacity of clean tech.” It “will strengthen the Innovation Fund and propose an Industrial Decarbonization Bank, aiming for 100 billion euro in funding, based on available funds in the Innovation Fund, additional revenues resulting from parts of the ETS as well as the revision of InvestEU.” It will also “Amend the InvestEU Regulation to increase InvestEU’s risk-bearing capacity. This will mobilize up to €50 billion in additional private and public investment, including in clean tech, clean mobility, and waste reduction.” Finally, the European Investment Bank Group (EIB) will launch a series of new instruments to support the Clean Industrial Deal: a ‘Grids manufacturing package’ to provide counter-guarantees and other de-risking support to manufacturers of grid components; a joint European Commission-EIB pilot program of counter-guarantees for Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) undertaken by SMEs and energy-intensive industries; and the launch of a CleanTech guarantee Facility under the Tech EU program powered by InvestEU.
Finally, the other drivers are circularity and access to raw materials with a mechanism for European companies to come together and aggregate their demand for critical raw materials and with the adoption of a Circular Economy Act in 2026 to ensure that scarce materials are used and reused efficiently. The ultimate goal is to have 24 percent of materials circular by 2030. The Commission will act on a global scale by launching Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships and training workers with the establishment of the Union of Skills.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
