With European funds such as RePowerEU, InvestEU, the Innovation Fund and support through the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs), tens of billions of euros of public investment are available in the coming years for a stronger and cleaner economy. The government wants a faster deployment of these funds and wants companies to have easier access to them. There is now no immediate need to set up other specific EU funds on top of this. So writes Minister Micky Adriaansens on behalf of the Cabinet in a letter to the House of Representatives about the EU proposal of February 1, 2023 for a so-called Green Deal Industrial Plan. The Netherlands has also submitted recommendations on this subject to the European Commission via a position paper.
Accelerated innovation with and application of green and digital (key) technologies, such as hydrogen, quantum, photonics and biorefinery, is essential for the economic and climate goals in the EU and the Netherlands. The government shares this European ambition, because it keeps companies competitive, makes the business climate attractive and also reduces dependence on countries outside the EU. Some of these have a strong commodity position or, like the United States, have decided, following the EU's lead, to sharply increase their public investments.
Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate): "Accelerating with sustainable and digital technologies is the way forward for entrepreneurs and researchers towards our future jobs and income. This will not happen automatically and, moreover, competition between the EU and other countries is increasing. So the government supports the path taken to provide additional support for this: where innovation is not yet sufficiently taken up by the market or an uneven playing field threatens. The Netherlands is also prepared to invest public money itself. We do that, for example, with the National Growth Fund."
The minister continued: "We must not get distracted on the route to green industry. So the Netherlands calls for all attention to ensure that European support has simple conditions and is available in as little fragmentation as possible. And to make sure that getting permits for support for making industry sustainable, for example, takes much less time. In this way we make the economic strength of the European market the strongest and also stimulate private investment."
The government writes in the position paper that with a strong focus on increasing the speed of, for example, permitting and easier access, current EU support is perfectly in line with the high ambitions for a competitive, clean European economy, green infrastructure such as hydrogen transport, and strengthening the internal market as a whole.
Additional resources and instruments, such as an EU proposal for support specifically for companies that indicate they would otherwise leave the EU, may actually cause fragmentation in available funding and distort rather than reinforce the good starting position the European market already has.
