ESMC welcomes the aim for domestic content regulation in the leaked EU Clean Industrial Deal document. With this tailwind, the Net Zero Industry Act Should should follow.
“The EU must establish clear ‘Made in Europe’ criteria,” says Christoph Podewils, Secretary General of the European Solar Manufacturing Council.
Podewils has read the leaked draft of the Clean Industrial Deal, which is expected to be published by the European Commission next week. Podewils welcomes the proposal to introduce both “minimum local content requirements” and “resilience and sustainability criteria” for public tenders involving net-zero technologies such as solar.
However, while the draft Clean Industrial Deal proposes to set local content criteria as standard for public tenders, another key piece of EU legislation, the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), avoids the concept. Podewils argues for greater coherence between EU policies and urges that the same local content provisions be included in the NZIA, which focuses on strengthening public demand for European clean technologies.
“We strongly welcome the EU’s proposal for local content criteria in public procurement and renewable energy auction schemes. But EU legislation needs to be streamlined along these lines. A ‘Made in Europe’ clause should be included in the NZIA’s draft proposals,” says Podewils.
“European solar manufacturers are under extreme pressure from unfair Chinese competition. That’s why it should be a matter of course that when European Member States use public funds, they should invest in high-quality European clean technology products – such as solar – and not in Chinese products,” he adds.
This week, the ESMC will submit it’s feedback to the four public consultations on various secondary legislation under Regulation 2024/1735 of the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA). Meanwhile, on Wednesday 26 February, the European Commission will present the Clean Industrial Deal.