Sustainable competitiveness? Balancing the need for a green economy with economic growth

Keynote speech: Geert-Jan Koopman, Director for Industrial Policy and Economic Reforms, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission

Panelists: Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, MEP and Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, European Parliament;
Peter Cartwright, Chairman, Centre Européen des Silicones;
Camille Bonenfant-Jeanneney, Adviser for Industrial Affairs, Permanent Representation of France to the EU

Date: Tuesday 8 April 2008

The meeting opened with an intervention by Gert-Jan Koopman, Director for Industrial Policy and Economic Reforms, in DG Enterprise, who challenged some of the most commonly held assumptions about the trade-off between sustainable growth and reinforced international competitiveness.
 
In his view, rendering Europe's economic structure more environmentally friendly would also bring considerable economic gains in the medium-long term. In order to achieve this, however, the EU's growth strategy would have to meet certain conditions. First of all, there is the need to adopt a win-win perspective: according to Koopman's analysis, it is possible to reduce the European CO2 emissions by up to 10%, without entailing any additional economic cost. Secondly, it is necessary to implement long term policy frameworks which, given the high degree of uncertainty in global markets at moment, should also be devised with the assistance of innovative economic instruments for the estimation of costs. Moreover, these policies should be aimed at setting correct standards and better regulation practices that could drive forward incentives for innovation. Finally, at a sectoral level, he called for an in-depth analysis of the different types of impact, and for structural reforms on the labour market side.
 
Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Member of the European Parliament, commented on Koopman's speech, suggesting that an excessive focus on the sustainable dimension of growth risks is leading to losses of competitiveness on an international level. In particular, he drew on the example of European regulations: when they are too rigid, they are less likely to be adopted by the EU's main competitors, especially emerging countries such as China or India. Therefore, the EU should rather implement standard systems within multinational organisations, such as the Green Box measures at WTO level. Moreover, he argued the EU should reinforce its stable position, especially in light of the current US economic stagnation, and avoid formulating standards on a purely ethical basis. European policies should therefore be aimed at achieving a deeper level of integration between the environmental approach and the Lisbon Agenda perspective.
 
The event continued with remarks by Peter Cartwright, Chairman of the Centre Européen des Silicones, who underlined the need for a balance between environmental constraints and economic wealth. In this vein, he highlighted that efficacious innovation policies could at the same time stimulate environmentally friendly structural changes, and guarantee competitive performances.
 
The round of interventions was concluded by Camille Bonenfant-Jeanneney, Adviser for Industrial Affairs at the Permanent Representation of France to the EU, who stressed how energy and climate change issues account for two of the four main priorities of the forthcoming French Presidency. She then highlighted how the creation of a new super-ministry for Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and Planning, hierarchically second only to the Prime Minister, signalled the high degree of importance attached by the French Presidency to environmental issues. Madame Bonenfant-Jeanneney made reference to the Emissions Trading Scheme, but explained that it was probably too early to disclose details about this.

Click here to download the slides of Mr. Koopman's presentation.