The fight for a European economy that remains competitive and brings prosperity and security is much further advanced and much more serious than new bans or orders related to the European Green Deal, said MEP Jerzy Buzek on Wednesday in Katowice.
During the panel of the European Economic Congress (ECE) in Katowice, which was devoted to critical raw materials and transformation, the former Prime Minister and former President of the European Parliament noted that a few years ago it did not seem that critical raw materials could be the subject of EU concern and legislation.
– Regardless of the extent to which we will perform the tasks defined in the European Green Deal, European institutions in the last year and a half of the current term of office served more to guarantee the competitiveness of the European economy and support for entrepreneurs in the EU than to formulate new orders or prohibitions resulting from the Green Deal. Order, said Buzek.
As he added:
– The Green Deal has been confirmed by all European countries and its main principles – I wanted to emphasize this strongly, because those who today propose denying the Green Deal agreed to it themselves and de facto defined this order. We undoubtedly have no choice but to implement this program, but at the same time we must provide certainty for the European economy.
He stated that the war, as well as the interruption of supply chains during the pandemic, had dramatic effects in this respect, hence it was necessary to establish institutions that would ensure that certain goods in the EU were not normal market goods, but had extraordinary significance and were not directly subject to the rules. free market to stay safe.
– It is very important that we formulate tasks for the future European Commission. In addition to implementing the act related to critical raw materials (Critical Raw Materials Act – PAP), because it needs to be implemented, perhaps amendments will be needed, perhaps a new look at this important act, which is very close to the second key act of Net -Zero Industry Act (regulation on emission-neutral industry – PAP) – he suggested.
And he added:
– All this is a response to the actions of the American market, which wants to take many innovative companies from the European market by offering credit relief and some large and long tax breaks. Americans can afford it because they have a single market. Much more uniform than the European market after all.
As he further emphasized:
– But we have to act more delicately, that’s why the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act. If we do not want to slow down our green just transformation, and we do not want to weaken economic resilience, wise management of the supply of critical raw materials, including: diversification of their imports or – where possible – domestic production and recycling are crucial.
In his opinion, if we do not do this, we will not be able to meet the most important thing, i.e. the expectations of our citizens, but also of the business community – that we continue to have a competitive European economy that brings prosperity and security – he warned.
– And today the fight for this is much further advanced and much more serious than for new bans and orders related to the Green Deal. Please remember that we are not abandoning the Green Deal, but today entrepreneurs are the heart that can beat for citizens if we maintain the competitiveness of the economy, Buzek said.
The competitiveness of the economy – Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday – is our main task; at the same time, we must arm ourselves. Regardless of the fact that we must implement the Green Deal, we first need a good economy and we must do everything to make it safe and independent – and this also applies to armaments – he also noted.
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