Industry leaders have poured scorn on the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal proposal, designed to reinforce European industry and cut energy prices while still pushing the “green” approach.
EC President Ursula von der Leyen launched the planned deal in Antwerp on February 26. It came following the announcement of a strongly diluted Supply Chain Act.
“Today, Europe is making a bold business case for decarbonisation as a driver of prosperity, growth, and resilience. By committing to delivering on the Green Deal climate objectives, we are setting the stage for a sustainable future,” said Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.
According to the EC, her task is to “ensure that Europe stays on track for its goals set out in the European Green Deal, while driving the decarbonisation and industrialisation of our economy”.
While the EC has said it wanted to make European industry “sustainable, competitive and future-ready”, several leading industrialists were scathing.
Among those expressing concerns was Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of French “supermajor” oil giant TotalEnergies, who said: “We created a machine in Brussels.
“I don’t know if we should start working like Elon Musk but we have too many officials making rules. Is Europe really capable of completely rethinking its own model?”
Von der Leyen’s announcement in Antwerp came a year after 73 CEO’s issued the Antwerp Declaration for a European Industrial Deal, a call to safeguard quality jobs in Europe and urgent action to restore the business case for investments in Europe.
Yet, in an open letter published on February 26 regarding the latest EC announcement, the founder and owner of British multinational chemicals giant Ineos, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, launched an excoriating assessment of the body’s approach to the chemicals sector, which he said was “becoming extinct”.
Ratcliffe warned it “faces extinction” unless EU leaders scrapped the carbon tax and raised tariffs to protect it.
He said decarbonising Europe by deindustrialisation was “idiotic”.
“We lose jobs and security and the CO2 simply floats back over Europe anyway.
“Government policies have resulted in enormously higher energy prices and crippling carbon tax bills,” Ratcliffe said.
“Government policies will shut all petrochemicals in Europe,” he added. “All our major competitors are planning for withdrawal from Europe as government has failed to act time after time.”
Ratcliffe pointed out that the gas bill for Ineo’s petrochemicals hub in Cologne was “€100 million higher than its US equivalent”.
He called for the EU to adopt the US approach “where they value industry and its high-value employment, and they are leaving Europe behind in their dust”.
Geert Van Poelvoorde, CEO of the European branch of Luxembourg-based steel giant ArcelorMittal told public broadcaster VRT on February 26 that the Clean Industrial Deal was too vague.
US businessman Peter Huntsman, CEO of global US chemicals company Huntsman, told VRT that the European plan did not address the fundamental issues and that even without levies, energy in Europe was five times more expensive than in Texas and six times more than in China.
The EC’s proposal would maintain the push for energy-intensive industries to decarbonise and electrify. It also said it wanted to promote circularity, to maximise the European Union’s limited resources and reduce over-dependence on third-country suppliers for raw materials.
A strong economy, competitiveness, and a clean future—we're making it happen.
Europe’s rich industrial heritage has a bright future ahead.
The #CleanIndustrialDeal is our plan to support 🇪🇺 industry to make it sustainable, competitive, and future-ready ↓ pic.twitter.com/urBRMFsNej
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) February 26, 2025
To achieve affordable energy, the EC said it wanted to enact an action plan, accelerating investments in green energy and infrastructure. It also proposed the speedier issuing of permits to build green projects.
The body also said it aimed to reduce network costs and reduce charges for electricity.
Furthermore, Brussels said it wanted to boost the demand for clean products via the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act, introducing sustainability, resilience and “made-in-Europe” criteria in public and private procurements.
To support so-called climate-friendly EU manufacturing in the short term, the EC announced €100 billion in relief funding.
That, it said, would be made available via the Innovation Fund and a proposed Industrial Decarbonisation Bank.
On top of this, the EC would amend the InvestEU regulation to increase its financial risk-bearing capacity, in the hope of mobilising another €50 billion.
Europe is a continent of industrial innovation. We want it to also be a continent of industrial production.
This is why we’re putting forward the Clean Industrial Deal today.
We’re making a clear business case for Europe ↓ https://t.co/bi2NLdp67e
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 26, 2025
Alongside industry chiefs, some experts, financiers and MEPs also questioned the EC’s proposal.
Dr André Wolf, head of technology and industrial development at the German think-thank Centrum für Europäische Politic (CEP), criticised the EC, telling Brussels Signal there was “insufficient focus on market-based measures to strengthen the system integration of renewable energies”.
He said the market-based measures mentioned in the action plan should be set in stone in the interests of the internal market and implemented uniformly by the member states.
“It is important that the EU creates transparency regarding the criteria for granting loans and the extent of the risks assumed,” Wolf said.
In a presentation earlier in February, Pierre Wunsch, President of the National Bank of Belgium, noted: “Green energy will cost €70 per MWh at best, while fossil energy in the US costs €10 per MWh.”
He warned that Europe would lose a large part of its heavy industry sector.
Belgian MEP for the European Conservatives and Reformists, Johan Van Overtveldt, said on social media: “Yet another plan that can and will only be weighed against concrete measures, which are currently lacking.”
He said he was “also curious about the real impact on competitiveness. Our companies no longer care about playfulness”.
Fellow Belgian Patriots for Europe MEP Barbara Bonte said: “Europe lost access to cheap Russian gas and the only solution they came up with was to focus solely on renewable energy and climate neutrality.” She called the policies “dogmatic”.
“As a result, energy prices skyrocketed for both citizens and industries. However, this ‘Clean Deal’ continues this outdated strategy by pushing for even more electrification and insufficient green energy.
“The Green Deal policy simply carries on, now rebranded as the Clean Deal.”
The EC’s plan did find some support, though.
Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, said: “Europe accelerates on its twin decarbonisation and re-industrialisation,” with the plans.
He said they secured the “unique European model of setting decarbonisation not only as an environmental goal, but also as our economic growth strategy”.
Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, added: “The Clean Industrial Deal is our business plan: A decarbonisation strategy that re-industrialises Europe, driving competitiveness and boosting strategic independence.”
Green MEP Sara Matthieu, also a Belgian, said on X: “Climate ambition remains intact with 90 per cent emission reduction by 2040. Climate policy and competitiveness are finally seen as a unified whole,” but added that more money was needed.
