Hundreds of business executives from European companies have demanded that the European Union authorities take steps to lower energy prices, warning that failure to act would cause an investment outflow and further harm European companies’ competitiveness.
“EU electricity prices in Europe still remain higher inside Europe than in competing countries. Carbon costs are unique to Europe, and the system is designed to increase costs year-on-year,” the executives said in a declaration signed by several hundred CEOs and presented at the Antwerp European Industry Summit.
“The next five years will be the most challenging for Europe’s industry in many decades,” the declaration also stated, adding that “While the situation is dire, the outcome is not inevitable. We can overcome, if you act.”
“Number one, on energy prices, that they must come down. They must take us seriously, and they must realize that that is really hampering Europe’s competitiveness,” the chief executive of the European operations of Heidelberg Materials told Reuters.
The declaration called for a reduction in electricity prices to levels from before 2021, or 44 euro per MWh, equal to some $52. “Europe is losing industrial capacity at a speed we have never seen before. This is not a temporary downturn – it is a structural competitiveness shift affecting all manufacturing sectors,” the chief executive of BASF and president of the European chemicals industry association, Markus Kamiech, said.
The declaration comes on the heels of a Financial Times interview with Kamiech who said the EU had to urgently overhaul its emissions trading system and suspend the planned phaseout of free carbon permits to avoid a collapse of its chemicals industry. According to the executive, total European company spending on these permits could hit 1 billion euro by the 2030s unless the system is revised.
In her keynote speech at the Antwerp event, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged the adverse effects of high energy prices and said that “We know the reason for this: gas drives prices up, renewables and nuclear drive prices down. The good news is we are well-positioned to lower costs.”
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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