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The Clean Industrial Deal proposed by the European Commission will have an impact not only on the EU’s economic policy but also on the daily lives of citizens. What is sought is a balance that takes into account both the needs of industrial development and increased competitiveness of European companies and the environmental and social impact of this process, thus remaining in line with the directives proposed in previous years by the EU Commission on the topic of sustainability. “Quality” jobs, the ability to remain at the forefront of technological development but without putting the European way of life and the environment at risk, are also key points in the green transition plan that the Brussels authorities have envisaged in the past.

As the EU Commission stated, the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act “will increase demand for EU-made clean products by introducing sustainability, resilience, and ‘made in Europe’ criteria in public and private procurements”. In accordance with this view, the Commission will also review “the public procurement framework in 2026 to introduce sustainability, resilience and European preference criteria in public procurement for strategic sectors”. In order to achieve the ambitious tasks set by the EU authorities, the European workforce must have “the necessary skills to support the transition to a low-carbon economy, including skills in clean technologies, digitalisation, and entrepreneurship”. The Commission will thus establish “a union of skills that invests in workers, develops skills and creates quality jobs”. The Clean Industrial Deal will also focus on horizontal enablers necessary for a competitive economy, such as cutting red tape, fully exploiting the scale of the single market, promoting quality jobs and better coordinating policies at the EU and national levels. 

Another issue related to the EU Clean Industrial Deal is the contrast of any form of energy poverty in Europe; that is, when a household must reduce its energy consumption to a degree that negatively impacts the inhabitants’ health and wellbeing. According to the EU Commission, energy poverty “is mainly driven by 3 underlying root causes: a high proportion of household expenditure spent on energy, low income, and low energy performance of buildings and appliances”. A peculiar form of energy poverty is the one that arises during the summer. “Climate change and regular heat waves are making summer energy poverty (the inability to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures during summer) an urgent and growing issue in Europe. Heat brings significant public health, economic, and social challenges, particularly for vulnerable group”s, as the EU Commission explains. “Early findings suggest that those already affected by energy poverty during winter may struggle in summer too. While the solutions to the inability to keep cool in summer may share similarities with the inability to keep warm in winter, they also require interventions in other sectors, such as urban and spatial planning and the greening of spaces”, and for this reason, “the message is clear”: energy poverty must be tackled “by addressing its root causes through structural and targeted measures, and in particular through energy efficiency”. Therefore, EU authorities must act and cope with a number of potential limits to the development of a fair and beneficial green transition that can also boost the industrial production and the competitiveness of European firms.

Written by: Francesco Marino