On labor and skills, the EU’s climate and competition chief, Teresa Ribera, has spoken at length — if not in detail — about the importance of social policy elements in the Clean Industrial Deal.
At an event on Monday, she said developing the Clean Industrial Deal “requires thinking in terms of skills, labor force and job opportunities.”
At another event last week she said: “Many of the problems we are experiencing right now … may be connected to the fact that there are many Europeans that feel that the institutions do not care about them. That we are speaking about business opportunities but we do not speak about social difficulties. That is very, very important.”
With lead markets, the Commission is referring to measures that create demand for decarbonized goods, such as setting quotas. One example would be mandating a certain percentage of climate-friendly materials in public procurement contracts.
EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told MEPs in the European Parliament’s industry committee last week that to help both emerging and traditional industries, “we need to make sure we come up with lead markets” as well as cut red tape.
As for the international element of the Clean Industrial Deal, Ribera signaled in Monday’s speech that the Commission would reach for a combination of diplomacy and trade measures.
