TY - RPRT A1 - Redeker, Nils A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - New needs, new prices, same money - Why the EU must raise its game to combat the war’s economic fallout N2 - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine puts EU economic policy making on the spot. At the beginning of the war, there was some uncertainty whether the combination of dampening growth, rising energy prices and new investment needs would warrant new common EU spending. However, in recent weeks the fog has cleared. It is now evident, that without additional common expenditures the EU risks undermining its common position towards Russia and that new money is needed to finance necessary investments in energy independence. KW - Russian War, Inflation, REPowerEU Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-45307 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/detail/publication/new-needs-same-money?Array=&cHash=8759da94162d39910cd9443139cc8013 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Europe’s engine or wrench in the works? French-German cooperation on EU energy policy N2 - The “Franco-German Engine” currently stutters more than in the past, especially on energy topics. At times, this obstructs urgently needed policy making at the EU level. This policy brief attempts to illuminate the differences and commonalities between Germany and France on EU energy policy. First, it provides an overview of the German and French energy landscapes and their future objectives. Second, it describes the German and French positions on four controversial energy policy areas: nuclear energy, grid expansion, electricity market reform and guaranteeing low prices for energy-intensive industry. For each area, it identifies the key Franco-German pain-points and opportunities for the way forward. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/detail/publication/french-german-cooperation-on-eu-energy-policy ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jansen, Jannik A1 - Jäger, Philipp A1 - Redeker, Nils T1 - For climate, profits, or resilience? Why, where and how the EU should respond to the Inflation Reduction Act N2 - The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has rekindled European fears of missing out in the global green technology race. However, EU member states still disagree on whether the greater risk lies in doing too much or too little. At heart, there remains significant confusion on which European sectors stand to lose competitiveness; how much the EU should fret about these losses; and whether there is a need for joint support from the EU level to avoid economic divergence. We take a first stab at the existing sectoral evidence. Our results suggest that the IRA will undercut European production costs in several sectors. This does not mean the EU must mimic the US program. However, it does mean that the EU needs to turn its piecemeal Green Deal Industrial Plan into a coherent strategy. This requires a greater focus on green industries in which Europe can develop a competitive edge and more joint financing at the EU level. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/ira-europe-response ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Lindner, Johannes A1 - Findeisen, Francesco A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Turning challenges to EU competitiveness into opportunities N2 - The EU struggles to remain internationally competitive, with pressures intensifying since the Russian war in Ukraine. Many factors, most of them long-standing, determine EU competitiveness, such as lack of skilled labour, digitalisation, or quality of infrastructure. A vast literature exists on how to address these issues. This paper takes a narrower approach by focusing on three more recent levers for the EU to ensure its future competitiveness: devising an EU industrial policy, adapting to the changing energy landscape, and positioning the EU in a geopolitically tense environment. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/turning-challenges-of-eu-competitiveness-into-opportunities ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Ditching losers: Why the EU should end support for unviable hydrogen applications N2 - Green hydrogen has become a cornerstone of the EU's industrial policy and decarbonisation plans. The EU plans to spend billions in hydrogen subsidies and provide extensive legislative support. However, its current approach risks throwing good money after bad. Producing renewable hydrogen requires a lot of energy, which means hydrogen will always remain comparatively scarce and expensive. Consequently, many hydrogen applications do not make sense at scale, neither economically nor for the climate. Yet, the EU supports all hydrogen applications without sufficiently factoring in their prospects. This policy brief argues that the EU needs to start ditching losers. Hydrogen applications that are unlikely to be viable should not get public money. To enable the EU to filter out losers, the Commission needs to take a stronger guiding role and bolster its administrative capacities. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/ditching-losers ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - The Green Deal agenda beyond Fit for 55: What the EU needs to tackle in 2023 N2 - The EU’s green agenda for 2023 is packed. Beyond finalising and implementing Fit for 55, the EU must react quickly to challenges that emerged recently and which put the climate objectives at risk. This policy position outlines four challenges that are particularly important, urgent and for which it remains unclear what the EU’s solution will look like: 1) Avoiding overcapacity of fossil fuel infrastructure; 2) Improving cross-border energy connections; 3) Reforming the electricity market; and 4) Keeping green technologies competitive in the EU. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/greendeal-agenda-beyond-fitfor55 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Transport Troubles: Why the EU must do more to be competitive with green hydrogen N2 - Renewable hydrogen is often depicted as the silver bullet for EU industry: manufacturers could use hydrogen to decarbonise production and rid themselves of their natural gas dependence. Since Europe cannot generate enough cheap hydrogen itself, the EU plans to import large volumes from world regions that have better wind and solar potential. However, transporting hydrogen over large distances will always be very expensive. Current EU policies do not factor this in sufficiently. Using a new interactive model of hydrogen transport costs, this policy brief discusses the various transport options and outlines EU policies to keep costs low. Hydrogen’s high transport costs also imply that some industries won’t be competitive in the EU in the long run, which should inform the design of public support packages for businesses in the current crisis. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/green-hydrogen-transport ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Rustbelt relics or future keystone? EU policy for energy-intensive industries N2 - Energy-intensive industries in the EU are facing two main challenges: high energy prices and transitioning to decarbonised production. However, there is as yet no convincing EU-wide strategy for this sector‘s future. Given that the spectre of ‘deindustrialisation’ has triggered a readiness to act among the member states, there is a window of opportunity for designing such a strategy and putting it on the next Commission‘s agenda. This strategy must go beyond lowering energy prices, and factor in that cost pressures on industry to relocate will persist even in the long run, that the economic and resilience value of domestic production is lower than often portrayed, and that industrial decarbonisation is not just an EU but a global must. This policy brief delves into the economic, resilience and climate dimension of supporting energy-intensive industry, aiming to colour in contours of a potential strategy, and suggesting initial policy steps the EU should take. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/energy-intensive-industries ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Flying blind? Why EU administrations need better data and analytical capacities N2 - To achieve some recent EU priorities, such as boosting clean tech manufacturing, reducing energy prices, or strengthening economic resilience, policy makers are intervening more actively in the economy. Getting these types of policies right requires a thorough understanding of the respective business environment, technologies, and market developments. This policy brief argues that the EU level lacks the data and the analytic capacities that are needed to achieve this understanding. The next EU Commission should address these shortcomings by collecting more data in the narrow areas subject to vertical government intervention, by improving how data gets collected, and by dedicating more staff to data-driven analyses. Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/detail/publication/flying-blind-why-eu-administrations-need-better-data-and-analytical-capacities ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Jäger, Philipp T1 - Almost a free lunch: Boosting investment predictability for the Green Deal N2 - Implementing the EU Green Deal requires annual investments of about €620 billion, most of which will have to be shouldered by the private sector. However, businesses and households are not investing enough as of now. An important lever for greater green investment is reducing uncertainty around such investment. At the start of the next institutional cycle, the EU should hence improve regulatory certainty for green investments, which should be palatable to most parties likely to form a majority in the Parliament. In addition, the EU should adopt concrete tools that reduce cost uncertainty for companies and households in a pragmatic manner. To this end, this policy position recommends using green lead markets and proposes moves to explore two novel mechanisms that cost taxpayers little to nothing but should boost green investments. Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/detail/publication/boosting-investment-predictability-for-the-green-deal ER -