Bart De Wever: “Climate policy must not mean deindustrialisation”

Following the informal European summit on Competitiveness The extent to which companies in one country can compete with similar companies in another country. A law came into force in Belgium in 1996 to monitor competitiveness. This stipulates that Belgian salaries may not evolve faster than the average of those in the three neighbouring countries. The Central Economic Council (CEC) performs an annual measurement to see if the objectives have been obtained. competitiveness in Alden Biesen, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever sounded the alarm about the future of European industry—the backbone of our prosperity. “We need to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. But if that leads to Europe’s deindustrialisation, the planet will still keep warming while we simply grow poorer,” he said on De Ochtend.

The Prime Minister warned that without a strong European steel and petrochemical sector, Europe would lose its strategic autonomy altogether and become economically irrelevant compared to other global powers. “Without those sectors, we literally won’t be producing anything anymore. We would become entirely dependent on the United States and China—and right now, they’re not exactly the most accommodating trading partners.”

According to De Wever, the combination of high energy costs and climate policies is a potentially lethal mix for businesses. He therefore advocates pragmatic support measures, even if they run counter to his own principles: “We may have to subsidise those energy-intensive companies to help them weather the storm. That’s not something I’m instinctively in favour of, but it may well be necessary. At the same time, we also need to relieve our businesses of excessive administrative burdens.”

For the Prime Minister, there is no time to lose in turning the tide: “This is an urgent problem, and short-term measures are needed,” he concluded.