ESMC welcomes MEPs position to support manufacturing industries of the EU

ESMC welcomes the amendments of the Net-Zero Industry Act proposed and adopted by the ITRE Committee on October 25^th. The improvements, as compared to the proposal of the European Commission, will have a positive effect on the manufacturing of net-zero products in the EU. This paws the way to a final adoption of the European Parliament position on 20^th –23^rd of November.

ESMC gladly welcomes the fact that ITRE Committee has made important improvements for the benefit of the European manufacturing industry, including solar PV manufacturing. There are three key enhancement proposals adopted, which would have a positive impact on the European manufacturing industry if finally implemented:

• The weight of sustainability and resilience contribution as a criterion in tenders extended to at least 30% in public procurements and to 35–50% in auctions, instead of 15–30% weight as originally proposed by the European Commission;
• In applying sustainability and resilience criteria, the cost difference will be assumed as disproportionate when the price difference is above 30% in public procurements and 15% in auctions. It is worth mentioning that the initial proposal of the European Commission included only a 10% price difference;
• Introduced pre-qualification criteria for public procurements and auctions ― no more than 50% of the net-zero technology part of the tender shall originate from third countries that are not signatories of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA).

It is important to emphasize that the ITRE Committee’s clear stance on limiting dependency on imports from 65% to 50% and introducing a reference to the GPA is one of the decisive elements in securing market share for the European PV manufacturers. Therefore, ESMC welcomes these proposals and expects that the final voting in November and further negotiations with the European Commission and the Member States will not reduce the positive impact proposed by the ITRE Committee, but rather lead to a strengthening of the proposals even more.

ESMC has constantly been advocating for the above improvements and has been raising the proposal that the European PV manufacturing industry should have a concrete 40% market share by 2030, with an annual increase towards this target from 2025 towards 2030, including concrete committed measures for its achievement. ITRE Committee position goes in that direction for at least public procurements and auctions. ESMC has, in addition, proposed other necessary elements to be adopted and framed in a European Solar Manufacturing Package, which would secure the European PV manufacturing industry in challenging conditions of PV modules oversupply on the European market.

Picture copyright: VOLTEC Solar