Provisional agreements were reached between co-legislators at trilogues during the last days of the Spanish Presidency

👍 Classification, labelling and packaging regulation
👍 Regulation and directive on industrial designs
👍 Construction products regulation
👍 Product liability directive
👍 Corporate sustainability due diligence directive

At the end of the COP28 UN Climate Conference in Dubai, European Union negotiators succeeded, with partners from around the world, to keep alive the possibility of delivering on the commitment in the Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. With a particular focus on the energy sector in the talks, Parties agreed to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels this decade, to take action to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030, and set the world on a pathway to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, in line with the best available science.

At a side event at COP28 on 6 December EU policy makers, visionary Mayors and “sustainability heroes” from industry discussed the capital role of cities and local industry to deliver on the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan. Valentina Superti, GROW Director for Director for Tourism, Proximity and Digitalisation, depicted the EU policy context and stressed the instrumental role of partnerships between cities and local businesses through Local Green Deals. Local Green Deals seek to accelerate a net-zero industry transition across sectors, notably through sustainable buildings, clean mobility, or decentralised renewable energy systems, while promoting competitiveness and social wellbeing. The EU’s Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is instrumental in this journey, supporting cities in the twin transition of their local economies. Watch the replay here.

Many InvestEU projects already support the goals of the Green Deal, e.g.  a start-up just founded in 2022 received an InvestEU backed equity investment for its innovative and sustainable technology for Lithium-ion Battery recycling. It allows a true circular economy instead of further depletion. The start-up managed to build up from a scratch a fully operational factory for this  complex recycling process. Eager to visit the website of this start-up, just follow the recording to learn who they are, and yet much more importantly how they make the green transition a reality thanks to EU support!  Last but not least, SMEs across the EU applied already for a dedicated EU financing, including InvestEU backed, at access2finance.eu! And you, have you?

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate mitigation in buildings can be advanced at each of the design, construction, retrofit, use and disposal stages of the life cycle. Moreover, sufficiency measures can limit the demand for energy and materials over the lifecycle of buildings. The decarbonisation of buildings and construction is a key aspect of the European Green Deal. The European Commission has proposed several policy initiatives to meet this objective, such as revisions of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). In Europe and other developed economies, renovation of buildings is a significant challenge. Action at the district level can be effective in tackling various barriers at scale. The complexity of the challenges and opportunities faced by the built environment in a climate neutral future call for a multi-disciplinary and holistic approach. In addition, social and environmental goals can be achieved simultaneously in the built environment, using participatory approaches and justice-aware interventions.

GROW held the 7th plenary meeting of the Industrial Forum in Brussels on Monday, 4 December. Commissioner Breton opened a session on the future of the EU Single Market together with Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister and President of the Delors Institute, who is drafting a high-level report on the future of the Single Market. The Commissioner, Mr Letta and Forum members then exchanged on reporting burden and on single market barriers more broadly. In addition, the meeting had a session dedicated to the Economic Security Strategy, which addressed supply chain resilience, de-risking strategies, and risks related to critical technologies. Other key topics tackled at the forum included the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, the upcoming Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report 2024, and the Industrial Forum’s workplan.

On 1 December, Commissioner Thierry Breton hosted a ministerial meeting on the European solar photovoltaic (PV) industry under the umbrella of the European Solar PV Industry Alliance. Marking the first anniversary of the Alliance, this virtual meeting gathered Ministers from the European Union and Norway, as well as representatives of the European Investment Bank and the European solar PV sector. The aim of the meeting was to address current challenges and possible solutions for bringing back solar PV manufacturing to Europe. Special focus was put on narrowing the cost gap between imported and European production and leveraging the value of European production. During the meeting, Member States shared best practices on mobilising existing financial tools at national and Union-level. The meeting also covered how to use non-price award criteria, such as social, environmental or diversification considerations, in procurement processes and auctions. Finally, Commissioner Breton announced the launch of a new Solar Academy to tackle the large skills gap in the sector by designing specific learning content, with the aim of training 100,000 workers in the next three years.

Greenland's extensive natural riches are a major asset for reaping the benefits of global value chains, as it seeks to diversify its economy in a sustainable way. 25 of the 34 critical raw materials identified by the Commission as strategically important for Europe's industry and the green transition can be found in Greenland. The MoU signed on 30 November, will contribute to the development of sustainable projects along the raw materials value chains, and to the deployment of infrastructure required to develop them.

The forum, which was held on 30 November, comprises high-level representatives from diverse interest groups. It is a key component of the EU's strategy on standardisation, playing a pivotal role in influencing the trajectory of the European single market. The forum discussed how to ensure European industry leadership in international standards-setting. Members of the forum also presented a pledge to the Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, in which they commit to work on education and skills on standardisation to ensure that Europe has the best experts in the standards-development process.

The taskforce focused on cross-border provision of services and removing barriers to renewable energy permitting. Good progress has been achieved by Member States in these two areas, but further effort is desirable to unleash the potential of the single market and to support the competitiveness of the EU economy.

This new EU-wide technical system will allow Member States to handle cross-border administrative tasks more efficiently and eliminate persistent transaction costs that remain after the digitisation of public services. Whether it is a citizen changing their address or businesses obtaining essential permits to provide services in another country, this system will enable Member States to get the required evidence directly from the official registries, upon a citizen or business’ request.

The upcoming enhanced new TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) will be packed with a myriad of improvements, new features and expanded functionalities. It will feature a new look and integrate state-of-the-art IT technologies. You will enjoy intuitive navigation and new options to personalise their accounts. The search function will be supported by a highly performant search engine for fast and easy information retrieval.

The high-level conference for the 15th anniversary of IMI took place on 30th November in Brussels. It was an inspiring exchange moment between experienced and visionary professionals fully engaged into strengthening the digital single market. Representatives of Member States and from Commission services and bodies, industries and research, and policy centres joined in for this celebration, as an additional testimony that at the core of IMI working successfully on a daily basis lies a widespread network of dedicated experts.

On 1 December, with the support of the European Commission, health industry associations, along with their networks and training providers, have established a large scale partnership to enhance skills development across Europe. The partnership’s ambition is to create a shared model for skills development fostering collaboration in pooling knowledge, experiences and resources. It aims to engage in concrete upskilling and reskilling initiatives, promoting learning opportunities and ‘on the job’ training to strengthen the health industry’s resilience and equip its professionals with the skills they need. This initiative is designed to complement already existing large scale partnership focused on the skills of healthcare professionals in care units.

The first Supply Chains and Industrial Policy Dialogue (SCIPD) between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the EU took place on 5 December. This was the 5th meeting between DG GROW and the Ministry for Trade, Industry and Energy since the establishment of the cooperation mechanism between the two administrations in 2014. Following a long period of inactivity – as the last Industrial Policy Dialogue took place in 2020 – this year’s SCIPD aimed to put the emphasis on restarting cooperation and on promoting closer exchanges on supply chain and resilience matters.

To increase tariff transparency, the European Commission publishes the prices of the most used cross-border parcel delivery services on a dedicated webpage. This online tool can be used to send check how much it costs to send parcels from any EU Member State to another and what companies provide the service. Choosing the service that suits them best, they may #SaveOnDelivery.

GROW organised a conference on “Blockchain for Industry” on 9 November, bringing together more than 100 academics, business and government-related experts. The aim of the event was to take a deep dive into how blockchain-based tools and business models can help promote the twin transition of our economy and single market, and what it takes to help industry make use of it.

In this episode of Business Planet, Euronews is at the SME Assembly in Bilbao to see how European businesses are weathering the storm of multiple global crises through innovation.

On 14 December, at the Platform’s 2^nd annual conference, namely in a panel “ From standards to action- fostering a holistic approach to sustainable finance for SMEs”, GROW explained how the Commission supports SMEs in their green transition, notably in context of the SME Relief package. The EU’s green transition cannot take place without SMEs as they represent 99,8% of all non-financial companies, more than 2/3 of all jobs – and also more than 2/3 of Europe’s industrial pollution, and they are important drivers of the innovation needed to achieve the goals of the European Green Deal. The Commission is supporting SMEs through various initiatives to access the necessary finance to play their role in this transition; among others, a sustainability guarantee is available under the InvestEU programme to encourage banks to provide green loans to SMEs. Sustainability advisors under the Enterprise Europe Network provide technical support to SMEs.

On 28 November, all the cities shortlisted in the 2 competition streams (2024 European Capital of Smart Tourism and 2024 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism) presented their cases in front of a European jury. The Jury comprised representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Committee of the Regions and Belgium (the Member State which will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2024). After listening to all the pitches and grilling the candidates a series of questions, the Jury decided upon the winners...
👉 Dublin will be the 2024 European Capital of Smart Tourism
👉 and Grosseto will be the 2024 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism

The European Commission has launched a project to quantify the overall environmental impacts of hotel accommodation services: The Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) is a comprehensive and transparent Life Cycle Assessment method, promoted by the European Commission, for EU products, goods or - in this case – hotel accommodation services.

On 30 November, the 8^th meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Committee in Trade configuration (ACTC) allowed for a comprehensive discussion on bilateral trade issues and provided an overview of the implementation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

The European Union, in collaboration with EU Member States, seeks to obtain a better overview of European companies operating or interested in operating in different international markets. The collected anonymous replies will be used to frame the agenda of EU Business Forums, trade negotiations and policy dialogues. They will also help to better target the discussions to the concrete areas that can attract more European investments in a given (third) country. Have a look at the ongoing consultations taking place in Ghana (here), Jamaica (here), Jordan, (here), Laos (here), Malawi (here), Mozambique (here), Nepal (here), Pakistan (here) and Zimbabwe (here).

The InvestEU Financing Europe’s Future event will highlight the opportunities offered by InvestEU, showcase InvestEU beneficiaries, and provide an opportunity for engagement with InvestEU partners and stakeholders. Registrations are open!

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