{"id":3994,"date":"2022-12-20T09:40:38","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T09:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disktekstil.org\/?p=3994"},"modified":"2022-12-20T09:41:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T09:41:55","slug":"europe-must-act-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disktekstil.org\/en\/europe-must-act-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe MUST act now"},"content":{"rendered":"
For more than a year, Europe has been exposed to an extremely serious energy price crisis, which has been intensified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences. The energy crisis has dramatically reduced workers\u2019 purchasing power and is driving increased poverty, and is dramatically increasing regional and social inequalities within and between countries. Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) are being ravaged by this price surge. It represents an existential threat for the 8 million jobs dependent on the energy-intensive industries in Europe. These foundation industries provide the strategic autonomy and solid basis for Europe\u2019s entire industrial fabric. It is not exaggerated to state that we face a social and industrial emergency in Europe.<\/p>\n
Gas and electricity prices have been soaring in Europe for more than one year now. The drivers behind this spectacular price increase have created a perfect storm for European societies and industries. The post-pandemic recovery has led to a mismatch between supply and demand on the global gas markets. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the situation by dramatically reducing gas supply from Russia. These developments have made it clear that Europe strategically relies on a commodity that needs to be massively imported and which is increasingly priced on global markets and exposed to financial speculation. Energy, raw materials and equipment import dependencies have exposed Europe to supply disruptions as well as price volatility. Policy responses which exchange one import dependency for another will be counterproductive. The design of the EU electricity market in which marginal price setting effectively ties electricity prices to gas prices has driven electricity prices through the roof, far detaching prices from real production costs and increasing extraordinary windfall profits. Furthermore, the crisis in Europe’s energy system shows the weakness of a system too much based on market rules. The lack of an industrial and investment strategy to develop decarbonised electricity generation in Europe is also an important driver of the current energy crisis.\u00a0Lessons must be learnt from short-sighted political decisions around energy policy and the abject lack of industrial policy over recent years in Europe.<\/b> In response to this situation, many companies are responding with short-time working or outright closure. We are seeing increasing investment leakage from Europe, and relocations of production are happening to lower cost locations. Once industrial capacity is gone, there will be deindustrialisation, deep social and environmental damage and long-term costs for Europe.<\/p>\n
We are not an island. Our main trade partners are not impacted by this energy crisis in the same way and a number are powering ahead in ramping up key clean tech sectors. Notably, the substantial investment in clean energy products and supply chains created by the new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the US is a game-changer in terms of industrial investment and industrial policy. The IRA is an ambitious agenda for turbo-charging investment in climate action, which is welcome as the US is amongst the highest greenhouse gas emitting countries in the world. Furthermore, climate action has been tightly tied to a worker-oriented agenda with social conditionalities underpinning collectively negotiated wages and high-quality apprenticeships. In this way, the IRA demonstrates how major economies can combine climate action, industrial transformation, fair taxation and a decent work agenda.<\/b> Obviously, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, however Europe must take inspiration from the US agenda now.<\/p>\n
In the light of the crisis, Europe requires urgent, short-term measures, but not short-term thinking. The support measures needed must align with medium term measures, and the long-term objectives of the European Green Deal and gain more independence in future energy supply. This is impossible without an assertive European industrial strategy, based on solidarity.<\/p>\n
IndustriAll Europe has already adopted a series of policy documents dealing with various aspects of the energy crisis, notably on\u00a0economic governance<\/a>\u00a0and in\u00a0May at our Executive Committee<\/a>. In the same way, industriAll Europe\u2019s recent campaigns on\u00a0Just Transition<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018Together In Action for higher wages\u2019<\/a>\u00a0are key parts of our political answer to the crisis. However, the urgency of the situation demands coordinated political action now.<\/p>\n Therefore, industriAll Europe is calling for a European framework for industrial solidarity.<\/b> Only a coordinated European agenda can avoid the risk of increased regional inequalities and competition within Europe. Current state aid rules are not fit for purpose. The lack of European solidarity threatens to increase fragmentation and nationalistic solutions which potentially threaten European cooperation more broadly. No country is able to solve this situation alone. We are interdependent. Therefore, we need a common framework to ensure solidarity is hard-baked into industrial policy.<\/p>\n In the short-term, we urgently need:<\/p>\n IndustriAll Europe is calling for a European framework for industrial solidarity Only a coordinated European agenda can avoid deindustrialisation, and the risk of increased regional inequalities and competition within Europe. Current state aid rules are not fit for purpose and need to be addressed to create the basis for the far-reaching reforms needed. The lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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