For German Greens Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Tuesday (15 October) was supposed to be a happy day, but some of the country’s biggest industries did not share his upbeat mood.
He presented the 15 winners of the new €2.8 billion subsidy scheme for green industries, known as “Carbon Contracts for Difference” (CCfDs), in an event organised by his ministry.
The CCfDs are Habeck’s Green Party flagship project. The companies were selected through an auction-style procedure – a first for the notoriously slow admission process of government grants, as pointed out during the ceremony by the minister.
He did not fall short of praise throughout the event. The contracts “are a premiere and unique on a European level,” he said. Like “a rocket launch, the lighting of a signal fire that shows: This is the way to go!”
The ceremony presenter went further and compared the 15-year agreements to marriage contracts. After all, the German statistics office reports that marriages in Germany last 14,8 years on average.
However, just as marriages can fall apart, so too can Habeck’s matchmaking work. With his Green Party polling a mere 13% just before the federal elections in September 2025, his ministry could soon divorce the Green Party and change its political affiliation.
But even before next year, someone else was killing the buzz, a mere 1,000m from the ministry.
Germany’s main industry association, BDI, was hosting its conference on decarbonising the country’s large industrial sector.
The association’s president, Siegfried Russwurm, delivered a grim opening speech around 10 am – at the same time as Habeck was shaking hands with 14 of the 15 lucky winners of his new scheme.
“It is good that we are pursuing ambitious [climate] targets in our country [but] it would be fatal if we were to take the wrong path in implementing them, resulting in de-industrialisation,” said Russwurm in his opening remarks.
“Today, this risk has become a reality in significant parts of the industry.”
Russwurm had previously deemed the carbon contracts a “good idea” but “incredibly complicated.”
Attendees’ mood at BDI was not much brighter. Participants appeared industrious but quieter than at Habeck’s ministry – except for those who took the main stage’s microphones – and for a valid reason.
Germany expects to face its second year of recession in 2024, largely because of weaknesses in its traditionally strong industrial sector. This means that the four-decade-long success factors for the country’s industry have now turned into the opposite.
Today, the country faces high energy prices instead of receiving cheap Russian gas, an ageing population resulting in declining numbers of skilled engineers, technologies like the internal combustion engine becoming obsolete, and fragmentation instead of free global trade, Jens Burchardt of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), told the conference.
Representatives of multiple industries similarly declared how bad their situation is.
For steel, times are very ‘serious’, according to association boss Kerstin Maria Rippel. In the chemical industry, the situation is ‘dramatic’, and construction is facing a ‘crisis’ according to their respective representatives.
“Energy is simply too expensive,” said Andreas Rade, managing director of the German car industry group VDA. This hurts both battery production and keeps consumers from switching to electric cars, he added.
Even Dennis Rendschmidt of the machinery makers association VDMA – less dependent on energy prices and thus usually striking a more positive tone – talked of wasted time since 2018, noting that his comments were explicitly addressed to politicians.
One may say that despite Habeck’s efforts to please multiple companies with state support, his words did not really convince the roughly 100,000 BDI member companies that do not get a cheque.
“Houston, we have a problem,” warned Wolfgang Große Entrup, head of the chemical industry association VCI.
Casten Rolle of BDI – equally NASA-inspired – also cautioned policy-makers not to lose contact with the reality on the ground.
On Tuesday, the location difference was nowhere close to the 384,000km separating the Earth and the Moon. But it felt like two different planets.
The Roundup
Strengthening ties with the Gulf region will be vital in countering the growing Russia-Iran alliance and handling the Middle East crises, EU’s Special Representative for the Gulf region, Luigi Di Maio, told Euractiv.
Opposition slams German chancellor for avoiding migration in ‘desperate’ EU summit speech. The German chancellor preferred to echo his party’s economic priorities in parliament.
French farmers are back on the streets, accusing the government of breaking promises. Affected by multiple crises, French farmers are once again taking to the streets to demonstrate Toulouse, in the very place where farm protests began almost a year ago before spreading to other EU countries.
Nuclear Alliance members again called for including nuclear power in existing and future European legislation, while the ‘Friends of Renewables’ member states, also meeting on Tuesday (15 October), proposed a more conciliatory approach.
Sweden will boost its military defence by almost a third of its current capacity by 2030, with additional funding for civil defence, ammunition, spare parts and workshops.
The Swedish government and its hard-right ally in parliament want to introduce mandatory state-run asylum centres to improve the monitoring of asylum seekers in the country.
Germany is convinced that the current stalemate in North Macedonia’s EU accession process will be resolved after the snap elections in Bulgaria on 27 October, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday.
After a five-month market investigation, the European Commission concluded on Wednesday (16 October) that X was not a ‘gatekeeper’ under the EU’s online antitrust law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Look out for
- European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) with the EFJ, and Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism is organising in Brussels, Belgium a Connecting EU 2024 Seminar “A bastion of democracy: helping journalism survive and thrive.”
- CEPS is organising in Brussels, Belgium a Round table on “A future-ready workforce: optimising AI for people and places.”
- Bruegel is organising in Brussels, Belgium a hybrid conference “Europe’s Digital Future. Lessons from the past.”
- EPC is organising in Brussels, Belgium an online conference “EU-UK relations: Towards deeper cooperation in defence and security.”
- The College of Europe organises in Brugge, Belgium a conference on “Eleventh high-level EU Diplomacy Lecture – Middle East Peace and the EU − of wishful thinking and hard realities.”
- France Stratégie organises in Paris, France an online conference “The autonomous vehicle, is it now?”
- Petcore Europe and Circular Economy Coalition in Romania organises in Bucharest, Romania a conference “Circular Economy Coalition bridges the PET value chain between Eastern, Central and Western Europe.”
- Friends of Europe organises in Brussels, Belgium a hybrid conference on“Navigating risks and enhancing resilience: charting Europe’s energy and climate pathways.”
- IIEA is organising in Dublin, Ireland a conference on “Human Rights and Political Prisoners in Syria.”
- Ifri organises in Paris, France, a hybrid conference on “European security and strategic autonomy around the Black Sea.”
- EU leaders meet for a European Council meeting on 17-18 October 2024, in Brussels, Belgium.
- EU ministers meet for an informal meeting of trade ministers, 17-18 October 2024, in Budapest, Hungary.
[Edited by Martina Monti/Rajnish Singh]
Source: euractiv.com
