The competitive position of Europe and the Netherlands in the global economy is under pressure. We want to be less dependent on critical raw materials and accelerate the production of cleaner (energy) technologies such as batteries, wind and solar. The European Commission today released proposals to support this. The cabinet sees the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and the strategy for long-term competitiveness as steps in the right direction, but has several points of attention for the implementation.
Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate): "European cooperation is needed to tackle unwanted dependence on non-EU countries as well as to stimulate innovation to make industry more sustainable. This goes beyond additional public funding, but also involves faster licensing and simpler rules. Everything that is needed to make business easier and to focus on the results we need to accelerate sustainability must be included."
The minister continued: "This can be even better later in the elaboration. For example, through better coherence between energy, environmental and nature legislation, which at present sometimes conflict with each other and delay sustainable innovations. But also by including semi-finished products in the EU proposal for critical raw materials. And in the European proposal for cleaner industry, not only looking at green energy technology, but also stimulating other innovations such as biorefinery and chemical recycling. The cabinet will now study these EU proposals closely in order to contribute to their elaboration."
The EU proposal for the Net Zero Industry Act focuses on simplifying rules, speeding up permit procedures and improving access to (private) financing for clean technology. Additional efforts to reduce the regulatory burden and improve the coherence between legislation are spearheads for the Cabinet.
The European Commission is now focusing the NZIA primarily on a number of sectors that strengthen the production capacity of green energy technologies. But it is important for industry sustainability to look more broadly at increased support for promising technologies and experimental space for sustainable innovation.
With the Critical Raw Materials Act , the EU plans to start achieving sufficient availability of critical raw materials such as lithium and cobalt. Critical raw materials are needed for such things as batteries, wind turbines, semiconductors, hydrogen production, solar panels and LED lighting.
The Dutch cabinet has also spoken out to address risks of new dependencies. For some of these critical raw materials, we currently depend on third countries that own 90% of world production. Increasingly, in addition to economic influence, control over critical raw materials can also be used as a geopolitical weapon. In a previously published proposal, Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK) makes the case that in addition to raw materials, semi-finished products will soon have to be part of the CRMA, because unwanted dependencies occur there as well.
Moreover, in addition to building more refining, processing, assembly, recycling and transportation capacity in the Netherlands and the EU, it is preferable to cooperate with other resource-rich countries. That supply chain is the expertise of companies themselves. However, the CRMA is a tool for coordination in addition to understanding. For example, in spreading risks by focusing on less scarce alternatives, circularity and alternative suppliers through innovation.
A well-functioning internal market underlies competitiveness and the pursuit of less dependency in the EU. The Netherlands therefore argues that the European Commission should not only pay attention to legislation, but also to the adoption by and application of that legislation in member states everywhere. In addition, actively monitoring a level playing field in the EU internal market is itself a necessity, such as in addressing improper advantages through subsidies in tenders.
The responsible ministers, including Micky Adriaansens (EZK) on behalf of the Netherlands, will discuss the NZIA, the CRMA and the strategy for a long-term well-functioning internal market in the EU Competitiveness Council in the coming months. After agreement in this Council and after negotiations with the European Parliament, this package will be translated into regulations.
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