Europe has decided to launch the construction of gigafactories to produce batteries at high volumes to reindustrialize our continent and enhance our strategic autonomy. Yet, these projects focus on lithium batteries and to a great extent neglect the emerging technology of sodium batteries.
Download — Mnenje EESO: Enhancing EU strategic autonomy and developing a greener and bluer economy: the potential of the sodium battery manufacturing sector
Clean technologies are projected to continue expanding in turnover, investments and jobs. Thanks to ambitious climate targets, the EU is a global leader in high-value inventions and was an early mover in developing a cleantech production base. However, it has lost technological leadership in several sectors and its manufacturing base is eroding.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was asked by the upcoming Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU to produce an exploratory opinion on paving the way to EU accession for the Western Balkans, underlining the benefits of the future enlargement to the region from a holistic point of view.
This own-initiative opinion stems from the European Commission call for an "Industry 5.0" based on: human centricity, sustainability and resilience. Industry 5.0 aims thus at broadening the previous concept of Industry 4.0, providing a transformative vision for a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. This opinion will reflect on how to concretely implement the concept of Industry 5.0.
This opinion is part of the EESC pilot "Enlargement Candidate Members (ECM)" where representatives from Turkey will take part in the study groups an in the Section meeting. The Turkish representatives are: Özgür Burak Akkol (Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK), for Group I), Cavit Demiral (Confederation of Turkish Real Trade for Group II) and Ayşe Yürekli (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Türkiye, for Group III).
The European Union’s ambitious climate targets have significantly impacted resource and energy-intensive industries (REIIs), which are crucial to the EU economy. These industries face rising costs due to high energy prices, carbon pricing, and regulatory changes. This opinion reflects on the optimal solutions to maintain the competitiveness of EU industry in face if the rising energy prices and the costs required to support the transition towards a low-carbon economy. The EU Youth Test at the EESC was applied to this opinion.
The adoption of the European Union Climate law has set an ambitious emission reduction target for 2030 while confirming the climate neutrality objective for 2050. According to the IPCC scenarios, keeping global warming below 1.5°C requires that global anthropogenic net emissions should be zero by around 2050. Secondly, meeting this goal requires the deployment of CDR, which can happen by means of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and removals in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector. The IPCC defines CDR as "anthropogenic activities removing CO2 from the atmosphere and durably storing it in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products".
Download — Mnenje EESO: Role of carbon removal technologies in decarbonising the European industry
This "Chapeau Communication" gives an overview of the different proposals of the 'Fit for 55' package as well as their linkages and explains the toolbox of policy measures chosen in order to attain an overall balance between fairness, emission reductions and competitiveness.
Download — Mnenje EESO: 'Fit for 55': delivering the EU's 2030 Climate Target on the way to climate neutrality
The European Green Deal announced that to protect Europe’s citizens and ecosystems, the EU needs to move towards a zero pollution ambition, and better prevent and remedy pollution from air, water, soil, and consumer products.
Download — Mnenje EESO: Zero Pollution Action Plan for air, water and soil
The EESC endorses the European Strategy for Low-Emission Mobility (the strategy), including its aims and methods, and its holistic approach, which provides coherence between transport and other policy areas. It would have liked this approach to be further developed in terms of the links between the strategy and the communication on the upgrading of the internal market. This also applies with regard to the prospects of the digital economy and the development of a sharing economy and a circular economy. It underscores the potential effects of these developments on transport patterns, and draws attention to their social implications.
Download — Mnenje EESO: Decarbonisation of transport
