Manifesto 2024-2029 : Strengthen Europe’s industrial base

On 24 January, in line with its June 2023 communication, the European Commission has presented a new package of initiatives to strengthen the European Union’s economic security. Combining a high level of ambition on sustainable policies with a competitive European-based industry is among the top challenge for the EU in the next years. To contribute to this debate, Glass for Europe puts forward concrete proposals to strengthen the Union’s industrial base in the third video of its policy manifesto.

In this latest video, Christian Quenett Head of Architectural Glass Europe at NSG and Bertrand Cazes, Glass for Europe Secretary General underline the need for a strong legislative framework to ensure that European industry can flourish, remain competitive and contribute to the sustainable transformation. At a time when international competition is boosted through national subsidies and low energy costs, predictability is a must for EU manufacturers.

Their commitment to keep manufacturing in Europe products such as high-performance glass which directly contributes to decreasing heating and cooling needs in buildings must be further encouraged. To support demand for energy efficient products, an increase in speed and momentum of the Renovation Wave is needed, with deep renovations are the centre of it.

The EU also needs to develop policies to ensure that such products remain competitive. If the Net-Zero Industry Act (currently under negotiations) and the Economic Security strategy have shown political willingness to move forward on these issues, additional concrete measures are needed. Glass for Europe is for instance calling for a fine-tuning of the taxonomy criteria to make sure companies have sufficient access to finance. It will be key to invest in the development of new low-carbon manufacturing technologies.

In parallel, institutions must ensure the development of infrastructures to which provide easy access to decarbonised energy and attract industrial investments with competitive production costs. Glass for Europe encourages the institutions to keep on working on these issues and go beyond the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism which is only a partial response as it does not compensate for the energy cost disadvantage faced by the European flat glass industry.

This video is the third in a series of five which form Glass for Europe’s manifesto entitled ‘A mandate to focus on enabling sustainable transformation’. The next videos introducing other policy priorities for the next term will follow in the upcoming weeks.