Europe’s ports welcome the Clean Industrial Deal as a first step, yet further work is needed
26 February 2025
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) welcomes the Clean Industrial Deal,
the new Commission flagship project launched today by Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen.
ESPO perceives the document a first but important step to advance on the
decarbonisation track, while making Europe more competitive and strong.
More in particular, Europe’s ports support the Commission’s intentions
to intensify efforts to ease permitting procedures in Europe, the willingness
to look into a more pragmatic approach to the definition of low carbon
hydrogen, the proposal to identify and focus on industrial clusters, theinitiatives
regarding circular economy, and the plans to lower the energy prices. Europe’s
ports also back the Commission‘s understanding that the demand side needs to be
boosted in order to build the business case for decarbonised products. Ports
share the view that there must be a market in order to successfully attract
investors.
“Ports are not only hubs in the supply chain, but through their hub function they are also
clustering many industrial activities. We see in the Clean Industrial Deal
launched today a lot of understanding of the challenges to combine
decarbonisation and competitiveness in Europe. The document is in that sense a
good first step, but a lot will depend on its concrete implementation”, says
Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO’s Secretary General.
“To give an example, the last years, important legislative efforts have been made to ease permitting procedures, in particular through the Net-Zero Industry Act and RePowerEU, but very little has changed on the ground. On the contrary, new sectoral legislation risks to further complicate and delay these processes”, adds Isabelle Ryckbost.
Related documents
No attachments.