German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has called on EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) to withdraw environmental protection plans that harm the competitiveness of European businesses. “European regulations need a pragmatic balance between the protection of jobs and a strong, competitive European economy on the one hand and climate and environmental policy goals on the other” Scholz writes in a letter dated January 2, as reported by the ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ (Friday edition). Where planned measures harm competitiveness, they should be “put on hold or even completely withdrawn”.
Scholz cites the example of “too strict guidelines for green hydrogen”. The EU Commission had defined hydrogen as renewable or green if it is produced with power from renewable sources. To prevent the increased power demand for hydrogen production from being met by the startup of coal and gas power plants, the Commission determined that additional capacities of renewable energy sources need to be created for green hydrogen.
The SPD politician also criticized the new EU sustainability directive. The added value does not “correspond to the bureaucratic burden on companies”, Scholz said. A two-year delay in reporting obligations and an increase in the thresholds for affected companies in terms of turnover and number of employees seem to him “urgently necessary”.
Looking at the automotive industry, the Chancellor considers “additional purchase impulses” for the high-speed development of e-mobility as necessary. “I ask the European Commission to take a corresponding short-term initiative.” Scholz also demands that the talks with China on the withdrawal of European tariffs on Chinese e-cars be brought to a mutually agreeable conclusion.
“It is urgently necessary to have common European impulses to reduce bureaucratic costs and increase the innovation capacity of our companies”, Scholz said. We are facing the “driving task” of reducing strategic dependencies and bringing the EU to the “world’s top” in “key sectors”.