B10‑0209/2025
European Parliament resolution on energy-intensive industries
(2025/2536(RSP))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the report of September 2024 by Mario Draghi entitled ‘On the future of European competitiveness’,
– having regard to the report of April 2024 by Enrico Letta entitled ‘Much more than a market’,
– having regard to the Commission communication of 26 February 2025 entitled ‘The Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation’ (COM(2025)0085),
– having regard to the Commission communication of 26 February 2025 entitled ‘Action Plan for Affordable Energy’ (COM(2025)0079),
– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the motion for a resolution of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy,
A. whereas energy-intensive industries (EIIs) account for a significant share of the EU’s economy and play a key role in job creation, especially in areas and regions where they are concentrated; whereas EIIs are crucial for the EU’s strategic autonomy and competitiveness, as well as for decarbonisation, taking into account their energy footprint;
B. whereas the transition to a decarbonised economy and a clean energy system must lead to reducing energy prices and must take into account all available technologies that contribute to reaching the EU’s net zero goal for 2050 in the most cost-efficient way, avoiding lock-in effects and taking into account the different energy mix across Member States, including with regard to renewables and nuclear;
C. whereas electrification is at the centre of the decarbonisation of EIIs; whereas EIIs include sectors that use fossil resources to meet temperature, pressure or reaction requirements, such as chemicals, steel, paper, plastics, mining, refineries, cement, lime, non-ferrous metals, glass, ceramics and fertilisers, for which greenhouse gas emissions are hard to reduce because they are intrinsic to the process or because of high capital or operating expenditure costs or low technological maturity;
D. whereas the energy price gap between the EU and the US and China undermines the competitiveness of the EU’s industries; whereas elevated and volatile fossil fuel prices heavily affect electricity prices and the affordable cost of renewable energy sources is not transferred to energy bills;
E. whereas an insufficiently integrated energy union poses further challenges to EIIs, in particular in relation to the lack of cross-border interconnections and the limited availability of clean energy, owing to lengthy permitting procedures or high capital or operating expenditures, as well as grid congestion;
F. whereas the emissions trading system (ETS) provided long-term investment signals and helped bring down the emissions of ETS sectors by 47 %; whereas the energy market has profoundly changed since the introduction of the ETS, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the shift from pipeline gas to liquid natural gas (LNG); whereas a lack of carbon market transparency risks hampering EIIs’ competitiveness; whereas ETS revenues are used unevenly across Member States, failing to adequately support EIIs’ decarbonisation;
G. whereas unnecessary regulatory burdens and lengthy permitting procedures undermine the business case for investing in decarbonisation in Europe; whereas the concept of overriding public interest is provided for in EU legislation; whereas complex and fragmented EU funding impedes timely investment in net-zero technologies and digitalisation, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);
H. whereas the lack of necessary private investment risks hindering EIIs’ decarbonisation; whereas relying excessively on State aid can have the unwanted consequences of exacerbating disparities and distorting competition across the EU;
I. whereas the EU’s dependencies and limited access, both in quantity and quality, to primary and secondary raw materials pose significant challenges to EIIs; whereas circularity and efficiency can help reduce the annual investment needs in industry and in energy supply; whereas currently, ferrous metals exported to non-EU countries account for more than half of all EU waste exports, raising concerns about their sound treatment;
J. whereas unfair competition from non-EU countries, including subsidised overcapacity, poses a great challenge to EU companies; whereas many regions around the world do not currently have ambitious decarbonisation targets, thus increasing the risk of carbon leakage;
K. whereas a profound transformation of EIIs cannot succeed without the involvement of local and regional communities, workers and social partners, which are heavily affected by the transition;
1. Reiterates its commitment to the EU’s decarbonisation objectives and to stable and predictable climate and industrial policies;
2. Calls on the Member States to accelerate permitting and licensing processes for clean energy projects, ensuring administrative capacity, and to facilitate grid connections to enable clean, on-site energy generation, especially in remote areas; stresses that the growth of renewables and electrification will require massive investment in grids and in flexibility, storage and distribution networks; calls on the Commission to develop, beyond the concept of overriding public interest, solutions for speeding up decarbonisation projects;
3. Believes that further action is needed to implement the electricity market design (EMD) rules, especially to promote power purchase agreements (PPAs) and two-way contracts for difference (CfDs) to reduce volatility and energy costs for EIIs; calls on the Commission to propose urgent measures to address current barriers to the signing of long-term agreements, especially for SMEs, using risk reduction instruments and guarantees, including public guarantee such as by the European Investment Bank (EIB); suggests that additional ways to decouple fossil fuel prices from electricity prices be explored, in the framework of the EMD, including with the aim of boosting long-term contracts in line with the affordable energy action plan, and by advancing the analysis of short-term markets to 2025;
4. Calls on the Commission to assess the possibility of scaling up best practice for EIIs from Member States, such as Italy’s energy release; calls on the Commission to develop recommendations for reducing the exposure of consumers, and especially EIIs, to rising energy costs, such as by reducing taxes and levies and harmonising network charges, while ensuring public investment in grids;
5. Calls for the enhancement of energy system integration, in particular in relation to cross-border interconnections, to ensure clean and resilient energy supply; asks for increased investment in flexibility, such as storage, including pumped storage hydropower and heat and waste heat storage, and demand response, to optimise grid stability; recalls the importance of energy efficiency in bringing costs down;
6. Underlines the need to phase out natural gas as soon as possible; stresses that some sectors cannot rely substantially on electrification in the short to medium term; calls on the Member States – over the same time span and for these limited sectors – to develop measures to address gas price spikes in duly justified cases; calls on the Commission to develop tools to ensure gas supply at a mitigated cost, by enabling demand aggregation, building on AggregateEU, and joint gas purchasing, while keeping decarbonisation objectives; highlights the importance of encouraging stable contracts with gas suppliers, diversifying supply routes and improving market transparency and stability, in line with current legislation; calls for an impact assessment in the upcoming ETS review to analyse the relationship between the gas market and CO2 prices and the role of the market stability reserve and its parameters;
7. Calls on the Commission to support EIIs in adopting clean and net-zero technologies, including hydrogen, and energy-efficient production methods by strengthening funding mechanisms and ensuring that ETS revenue is used effectively by Member States; calls for EU-level support to be complemented by State aid that allows for targeted support to EIIs, while preserving a level playing field within the single market;
8. Calls for InvestEU to be topped up before the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) and for leftover Resilience and Recovery Facility loans to support investment in EII decarbonisation; notes that the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform already allows for flexibility within current programmes but that this is insufficient; insists that the upcoming MFF increase funding to support EIIs, building on the Innovation Fund and the Connecting Europe Facility – Energy or through the competitiveness fund; stresses that the European Hydrogen Bank and the carbon contracts for difference programme need to be scaled up; calls on the Commission to build on the Net-Zero Industry Act[1] in the upcoming decarbonisation accelerator act, to streamline the processes for granting permits and strategic project status;
9. Stresses the need to simplify bureaucratic procedures to enhance the attractiveness of private investment and support EIIs’ transition; believes that both InvestEU and the EIB are pivotal in catalysing private financing, especially through de-risking measures;
10. Emphasises the need to secure access to critical raw materials; stresses that the upcoming circular economy act should improve resource efficiency, including through better waste management of products containing critical raw materials, as well as fostering the demand and availability of secondary raw materials; stresses the need to define those secondary raw materials that are strategic and that should be subject to export monitoring, such as steel and metal scrap, and to tackle any imbalance in their supply and demand, including by exploring export restrictions; insists on the effective enforcement of the Waste Shipment Regulation[2];
11. Calls on the Commission to make full and efficient use of trade defence instruments; calls on the Commission to find a permanent solution to address unfair competition and structural overcapacity, before the expiry of current steel safeguard measures in 2026; calls on the Commission to engage with the US in relation to the announced tariffs on EU imports and avoid any harmful escalation;
12. Stresses that an effective implementation of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is essential to ensure a level playing field for EU industries and prevent carbon leakage, taking into account the impact of the parallel phasing out of the ETS free allowances and the risk of increased production costs; calls on the Commission to address the risks of resource shuffling and circumvention of the CBAM; asks, furthermore, for the implementation of an effective solution for EU exporters and an analysis of the possible extension to further sectors and downstream products, preceded by an impact assessment;
13. Calls for the creation of lead markets for clean and circular European products, via non-price criteria in EU public procurement, such as sustainability and resilience and a European preference for strategic sectors, as well as by creating voluntary labelling schemes and minimum EU content requirements in a cost-effective way;
14. Highlights the importance of a just transition to assist areas heavily reliant on EIIs, by keeping and creating quality jobs through upskilling and reskilling programmes for workers and through the effective use of regional support mechanisms, such as the Just Transition Fund and the Cohesion Fund; stresses that public support will be pivotal for the transition of EIIs and that this support should be tied to their commitment to safeguarding employment and working conditions and preventing off-shoring; welcomes the Union of Skills initiative to ensure a good match between skills and labour market demands;
15. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.