Macron calls for ‘regulatory break’ in EU green laws to help industry
French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “regulatory break” on Thursday (11 May) to help industry digest the standards of the European Green Deal, a call that has caused quite a stir among observers and EU politicians.
Addressing a crowd of industrialists at the Élysée Palace on Thursday, Macron presented the pillars of the future French “green industry” law.
The legislative text will be presented at the start of next week in the Council of Ministers and aims to relaunch the industry, this time with the aim of decarbonising it in line with EU reindustrialisation objectives.
For several months, the EU has been trying to fix its energy resource supply problems particularly exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine and America’s recent green subsidy push, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
While grappling with these challenges, the EU has also set itself the target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and more than halving greenhouse gas emissions before the end of this decade.
To achieve this, the EU has already adopted several legislative texts including a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars as of 2035 and new targets on renewable energies. Others, meanwhile, have just arrived on the negotiating table.
However, to speed up industrial processes and achieve the objectives already set, Macron called for “a European regulatory pause” on environmental constraints.
“We are implementing what we have decided, but we must stop adding to it,” the president said in a speech on Thursday.
“The risk we run is, basically, of being the best performers in terms of regulation and the worst performers in terms of financing,” he added.
Reaching the targets already set at EU level “requires a certain stability so that our companies can plan ahead”, Industry Minister Roland Lescure told EURACTIV France.
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Reactions in Strasbourg
Macron’s address caused a stir amongst EU lawmakers in Strasbourg.
“It’s true that global warming is settled. It’s really time to take a break,” quipped French MEP Manon Aubry, co-president of the United Left Group (GUE), on Twitter.
Marie Toussaint, a French Green MEP and member of the European Parliament’s environment committee, told EURACTIV that Macron is “putting the final nail in the coffin of the Green Deal”.
Because of the president’s statements, EU legislative proposals currently being discussed as part of the Green Deal, such as the upcoming revision of the REACH regulation on chemicals or the EU’s proposed nature restoration “are now in danger”, she added.
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, a French MEP from the centrist Renew group affiliated with the presidential majority, described the commentators’ attack as “unfounded”, describing the president’s plan as “just common sense”.
“Continue what is planned, but don’t add to it,” she told EURACTIV France.
“[Macron] has never spoken of a moratorium or repeal of current standards or those under discussion,” the Elysée told journalists, denying accusations from Green politicians.
On the right wing of the hemicycle, French conservative MEP François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP) welcomed Macron’s words on Twitter.
“For months, we have been demanding with the EPP a legislative moratorium to put an end to the excess of standards that is weighing down all those who produce and work in Europe,” he wrote.
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What about this “regulatory break”?
But is a “regulatory break” even possible, and what does it even mean?
“Literally, a regulatory pause means nothing. It depends on what we are talking about,” environmental lawyer Arnaud Gossement told EURACTIV France.
While some EU laws or regulations are “very poorly drafted and need to be amended as soon as they are adopted”, the creation of each new industrial plant leads to a new administrative and regulatory path, he explains.
And according to him, manufacturers are not asking for fewer standards – quite the contrary.
“A manufacturer needs standards if only to evolve in an environment of fair competition,” he said, adding that “standards that are better drafted and change less often”.
Furthermore, “the [green industry] bill is made up of standards requested by industry”, he argues – something echoed by the Economy Ministry, which says the project leaves “a large place for consultation and co-construction”.
Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, director of the Europe programme at the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE), said on Twitter that Macron “talked about a lot of things that need more European regulation” such as batteries, the net-zero industry law, and crowd-in investments.
However, this does not precisely answer the question of what constitutes a break, particularly with regard to environmental constraints.
“For five years […], let’s stop adding to them [standards]”, he added.
Jean-Dominique Sénard, Chairman and CEO of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, seems to agree. “We need to give ourselves time to do this,” he told France Inter on Friday morning.
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