The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, today urged the European Union (EU) to act against China’s dominance in the production of clean technologies, on the eve of a trip to the Asian country.
In a debate in the European Parliament on the summit of leaders held last week, the president of the community executive reviewed the initiatives she had recently presented to increase European competitiveness vis-à-vis powers such as the United States or China, which were the subject of the meeting between the leaders.
Von der Leyen, who is visiting China on April 4, stressed that Beijing is currently the “largest producer” on a large scale of clean technologies, from batteries to solar panels, passing through electrolysers and heat pumps, something “especially worrying” due to the expansion that renewable energies will suffer, “which will correspond to 90% of the expansion of global electricity in the next five years”.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, today urged the European Union (EU) to act against China’s dominance in the production of clean technologies, on the eve of a trip to the Asian country.
In a debate in the European Parliament on the summit of leaders held last week, the president of the community executive reviewed the initiatives she had recently presented to increase European competitiveness vis-à-vis powers such as the United States or China, which were the subject of the meeting between the leaders.
Von der Leyen, who is visiting China on April 4, stressed that Beijing is currently the “largest producer” on a large scale of clean technologies, from batteries to solar panels, passing through electrolysers and heat pumps, something “especially worrying” due to the expansion that renewable energies will suffer, “which will correspond to 90% of the expansion of global electricity in the next five years”.
“In other words: China will be the biggest winner from this expansion, and if we don’t act now, this Chinese dominance over the cleantech value chain will only increase,” warned the German politician.
Most European companies in the sector that leave the EU do so when they want to grow, moving to a wider commercial deployment of the new technologies they develop, recalled Von der Leyen.
The leader of the European Commission highlighted that, to mitigate this effect, Brussels proposed a “Zero Emission Industries Law”, which aims to create the right conditions for production to continue to increase in the EU.
This measure, whose objective is for the EU to produce 30% of the clean technologies it consumes in its territory by 2030, is complemented by the new Critical Raw Materials Law, which also seeks to promote the extraction, processing and recycling of these elements in the EU and create new alliances with trusted partners to diversify supplies.
Although relations with China were not on the agenda of the summit held last Thursday and Friday, the topic was addressed after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and in view of the President’s forthcoming visits to Beijing. Frenchman, Emmanuel Macron, and Von der Leyen, on the one hand, and the head of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, on the other.
“As for China, we face reality as it is today: it is an important trading partner and has become more assertive and challenging, so we have to be clear about our role. We want to reduce the risk, not separate ourselves from it”, said, in turn, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who already visited Xi Jinping, on December 1st.
Among the MEPs who addressed the issue of China during the parliamentary debate, the leader of the EPP (centre-right), Manfred Weber, considered the European presence in the Asian country to be “good”, but questioned whether the EU will go with “a common voice” , since until now it has not formulated a common policy for China.
“After Xi’s visit to Moscow, we cannot afford to talk to China from a position of weakness, without a clear position. We need European missions to China, not national or personal trips that undermine European unity in the eyes of the world”, defended Weber.
On other matters, Von der Leyen assured that the EU will continue to support Ukraine “whatever the cost” and described the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “step forward”. .
Von der Leyen also stressed that the international community needs to do everything possible to bring home all Ukrainian children who have been illegally deported to Russia since the start of the war.
Charles Michel hailed European leaders’ commitment to sending additional arms and ammunition to Ukraine, a “big step towards a European defense system”.
*With Lusa
