Joint action on energy prices, pushback against the Green Deal, fast-track legislation: EU leaders’ recipe for competitiveness

Brussels – Moving forward with the legislative agenda: swiftly, in a targeted manner, and prioritising key issues. On the issue of competitiveness, the Heads of State or Government have reached agreement on the working agenda; the 27 Member States, meeting in Brussels for the European Council summit, have defined this as one of the points on which consensus is least problematic.  However, the conclusions were released late in the evening, after more than 12 hours of meetings, underscoring the difficulty of the competitiveness issue, which is linked to rising energy prices.

 It was precisely the section on rising energy prices that held hostage the debate on competitiveness, which was split into two separate sessions: an initial discussion with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and a discussion involving only the Heads of State or Government. The first meeting served to reaffirm the inter-institutional political agreement to continue working in line with the ‘One Europe, One Market’ agenda and to accelerate the implementation of the roadmap approved at the March European Council.

 In this regard, the three institutions – the Commission, Parliament and the Council – remain focused on implementing the key initiatives needed to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, remove barriers within the Single Market and provide clean and affordable energy, while strengthening the social dimension of the European project, with a view to promoting social justice and a fairer, more inclusive Europe. The leaders have therefore set out how to proceed.

Networks, the automotive sector, businesses, AI: priorities for competitiveness

For Heads of State and Government, the legislative proposals to be pursued with renewed urgency include, first and foremost, the rules on company law (known as the 28th regime), the Industrial Accelerator Act, the European Networks Package, as well as the simplification packages in the digital, environmental and automotive sectors. The European institutions are hereby urged to complete the legislative process by the end of the year.

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The Heads of State or Government therefore reaffirm “the  urgency of making decisive progress on deepening and integrating the Single Market by removing remaining barriers, including fragmented labelling and packaging requirements and territorial supply constraints, and preventing new ones.” The immediate legislative agenda must also include simplification and the reduction of administrative burdens, affordable energy prices, progress on the Energy Union 2030 agenda, innovation, and the mobilisation of investment.

In view of all this, the European Commission is urged “to come forward with further initiatives to streamline and accelerate planning and permitting procedures, to avoid gold-plating and to reduce administrative and regulatory burdens, including by putting forward a proposal to cut reporting obligations, in particular for SMEs”.

Rising energy prices: Commission given mandate to take countermeasures

To address high energy costs, a factor holding back competitiveness and growth, the leaders call on the European Commission to “examine and put forward, as needed, further measures to address soaring energy prices in the short term while taking into account the specific circumstances of Member States, including the differences in electricity prices.” These lines reflect the desire to try to find a solution to the problem of energy prices in an orderly and coordinated manner, one that also meets Italy’s needs.

The European Council welcomes the proposed delay of part of the methane regulations, the Commission’s intention to extend the Temporary Framework for State aid in favour of the most exposed industrial sectors, its intention to develop a short-term framework to optimise the capacity and efficiency of EU refineries, and, above all, to take initiatives to bundle energy demand on a voluntary basis. On this basis, the European Commission is asked to explore European mechanisms to tackle high energy bills.