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The relocation of companies mainly involves sectors that rely on high energy use.
Mr. Stefano Mallia (middle)
Companies are moving to the United States as they face administrative burdens and high energy costs in Europe, EURACTIV.cz (Czech) news network on June 12 quoted Stefano Mallia of the European Economic and Social Committee as saying.
The relocation of companies is mainly related to sectors that rely on high energy use, according to Mr. Mallia. “I would call it a real danger,” Mr. Mallia said, adding that the EU must put competitiveness at the forefront of its policymaking.
“Competitiveness needs to be at the heart of EU policy and we think that in the new European Commission there should be a European Commissioner responsible for the competitiveness of the EU economy. This is not the case at the moment,” Mallia suggested.
“Our proposal was initially opposed by the European Commission, but a few months ago, when the discussion on competitiveness was opened, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen actually said that they would do it,” Mallia noted.
Mallia also expressed his opposition to the “Net Zero” (carbon neutral) Industry Act proposed by the European Commission in response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to Mallia, the EU Act focuses only on green technologies and therefore applies a “picking winners approach”, which he and others do not support.
“What about the other sectors that need to make the transition now? We cannot afford to decide which sectors will ‘die’. We need to finance all of them if they are able and willing to make the transition,” Mallia concluded, stressing that the EU needs to have a competitiveness agenda that focuses on all sectors, something the union currently lacks.
According to News
