How the Green Deal can support European competitiveness

"If properly designed, the EU Green Deal legislation can contribute to supporting the European competitiveness, considering that European businesses are frontrunners in many fields of key importance for the green transition, not the least clean tech", BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said at the roundtable "How to make the EU greener while keeping businesses dynamism?", which was part of the Renew Europe Business Days event. He explained that the Green Deal legislation however also comes with great challenges for companies. As of now, 46 Green Deal legislative proposals have already been tabled and some are still pending. The increased regulatory burden on companies leads to rising compliance costs. It requires resources that could have been better spent on, for example, developing new circular materials and low-emission technologies. Therefore, "businesses need well-designed environmental and climate legislation that create market conditions where environmental and climate benefits go hand in hand with increased competitiveness, and that foster innovation", he stated. Martin Hojsik, Member of the European Parliament; Tuomas Hooli, CEO of the Finish company Winda Energy; and Doris Birkhofer, President of Siemens France also took part in the debate.