Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment - An Overview of the work of the High Level Group

Speaker: Geert-Jan Koopman, Director for Industrial Policy and Economic Reform, DG Enterprise, European Commission
 
Chair: Michael Wriglesworth, Associate Fellow, CEPS
 
Date: 21 February 2007
 
On Wednesday 21 February CEPS hosted a lunchtime discussion with Gert-Jan Koopman, Director for Industrial Policy and Economic Reform in DG Enterprise of the European Commission, who outlined the main results of the work he conducted within the framework of the High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment. In his speech, he presented the main characteristics and aims of the High Level Group (HLG), and how they had developed over time.
 
Above all, he stressed the importance of the method, which fostered common understanding among the different stakeholders within the HLG: not only European Commissioners, Ministers and Members of the European Parliament, but also representatives of industry, members of environmental NGOs, consumers and trade unions. In this respect, the members of the group could be seen as a representative sample, which can better reflect the real interests of society at large.
 
After a brief historical overview of the previous HLG reports ands recommendations, Koopman focused mainly on the future reorientation of the work of the group, which will concentrate on two main points:

• The European emissions trading system, and how to link it with emission performance of other countries (above all United States, China and India) in order to drive the development of international benchmarks and to achieve greater competitiveness through the adoption of common standards (here, the speaker also stressed the importance of negotiating international standards without imposing them);
   
• The industrial policies required to promote environmental technologies.

The HLG recommends the use of incentives and performing subsidies (when it is proved that they are appropriate and not environmentally harmful) as political instruments to promote common objectives.
European Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) will also, according to Koopman, play an important role in speeding up innovation and boosting technology developments. The latter will on the one hand improve the sectoral international competitiveness and on the other be helpful in facing the increasing scarcity problems as well as the overall climate challenges that the EU is confronted with.
 
The EU and EIIs should therefore cooperate to identify the key markets in which technology issues have to be addressed, try to fill the gap in term of technological capabilities and resources across geography and sectors, and sustain community, national and local innovation programmes.
 
Even if the EU’s energy-saving target of 20 per cent by 2020 currently seems hard to reach (in spite of the great European potential in this regard), the work of the HLG has highlighted the importance of stimulating the demand for more sustainable intermediate products, and the necessity for both the public and private sector to improve energy efficiency and conservation. For example, Koopmann recommended that the relative cost-effectiveness of measures should be based on full lifetime analysis.
 
Read the full text of the First and Second High Level Group's Reports.