Marian Nastase, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ALRO, message during the reunion of Antwerp: It is time for a deep rethink - a ,, New Industrial Deal."

Th 3/6/2025 9:47 AM

Marian Nastase, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ALRO, message during the reunion of Antwerp: It is time for a deep rethink - a ,, New Industrial Deal."

On February 26, 2025, 400 business leaders gathered in Antwerp to discuss with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, about the Clean Industrial Deal. Following this meeting, the European industry is calling for urgent action from European leaders ahead of the European Council in March.

During the discussions, Ilham Kadri, President of ICCA, Cefic, and CEO of Syensqo, emphasized: "We need to turn Europe’s ambition of 'being' into a determination to 'do'. Europe is falling behind its objectives and losing valuable jobs."

The Antwerp Declaration, signed by over 1300 leaders, was a concrete call for action: 10 measures aimed at revitalizing the economy, supporting sustainability, and protecting quality jobs.

Key criteria for EU initiatives:

• Keeping Europe safe and independent
• Reducing energy prices
• Attracting investments to Europe
• Creating markets for sustainable products
• Protecting quality jobs

The Antwerp Declaration remains an urgent call to revitalize Europe’s industrial landscape. European industries are ready to fulfill their role and continue supporting policymakers in building a competitive, resilient, and sustainable future for Europe in the context of geopolitical changes.

I have represented ALRO at the event and i cannot but provide few comments and remarks on European policies as i have perceived them from the meeting:

Do they attract investment to Europe?

No.

Today, the majority of the European industries, and not only the energy intensive industries are struggling in Europe. That is the main cause of the creation of Declaration from Antwerpen! The reason of creation of Declaration from Antwerpen is to engage with the European authorities to stop the delocalization of the European industry which is a key value generator of the Union, a key source of quality jobs, and a primary vector of social, economic and defense security. And from this point over to reverse the trend and relaunch the industrial attractiveness, provide confidence and predictability for the European Industrial Leading Industries and Companies.

Time to rethink.

Do they keep Europe safe & independent?

Strategic Importance of Aluminium for European Defense. Aluminium is a critical material for modern defense applications, including:

Military Vehicles and Aircraft: Lightweight, strong, and corrosion-resistant, aluminium is essential for armored vehicles, fighter jets, and naval vessels.
Ammunition and Missile Systems: Aluminium is a key component in missile casings, advanced weapons systems, and precision-guided munitions.
Space and Communications Infrastructure: European defense and intelligence rely on satellites, drones, and advanced aerospace technologies, all of which require high-grade aluminium.

The decline of Europe’s aluminium industry threatens its ability to sustain and expand domestic defense production, increasing dependence on non-European suppliers and undermining security.

The same is valid for steel industry and for massive parts of chemical industry and other energy intensive industries.

The current tools available at the Union level are rather misleading for the political European leadership.

From a declarative standpoint, the EU funding instruments—Innovation Fund, NextGenerationEU (2021–2027), Recovery & Resilience Facility (2021–2026), and REPowerEU (2023–2030)—are often presented as mechanisms to support energy-intensive industries. However, in practice, their core function is to provide sustained financial support primarily to the energy sector, particularly to an unbalanced renewable energy landscape.

A second major shortcoming of these funding tools—though not in order of importance—is their lack of alignment with the Energy Market Design. Notably, there is no reward mechanism for companies that demonstrate exemplary compliance and successfully achieve the objectives of the Green Deal, whether at the corporate or national level. In other words, a company that attains full compliance with energy efficiency or direct emissions targets—particularly if it does so without significant reliance on EU funds—receives no recognition or incentive. Despite fulfilling two critical objectives—advancing Green Deal targets while conserving EU resources—such a company is, paradoxically, disadvantaged. It becomes, in a sense, the “foolish” company that failed to capitalize on “free money” from the European Commission.

Introducing an order-of-merit system for energy-intensive consumers would provide both a well-deserved reward for high-performing companies and a strong incentive for the broader industry. This approach would mirror the existing order-of-merit system applied to energy producers, fostering a more balanced and merit-based framework. And this is just an example.

And we need to face the reality in which we are living today and tomorrow: we will not see electrical tanks very soon!

Time to rethink!

Do they lower energy costs?

No.

Implement preferential long-term energy contracts for aluminium producers to stabilize costs and ensure competitive electricity pricing.
Reestablish the nuclear energy base in Europe.
Revitalization of Energy-Intensive Industries: To aid industries forced to halt operations due to the energy crisis since 2021, we propose to maintain a stable allocation of free CO2 certificates for a six-year period (2025-2031).
Restoration of Free Allocation: The allocation of free CO2 certificates should be reinstated to 2020 levels, reversing the reductions initiated that year.
Enhancing Competitiveness: A 25% increase in free allocation for aluminium and steel should be introduced to mitigate the impact of U.S. tariffs on aluminium and steel, ensuring European industries remain competitive. This percent may vary subject to the levies imposed by US Administration on European steel and aluminium.
Duty and Levies Exemptions for Strategic Sectors: In order to strengthen European industrial resilience and security, we propose an exemption from all duty and levies obligations for products listed under ETS, manufactured in European Union, that are specifically intended for the national and European defence sector. This exemption would support the defence industry by ensuring cost-effective access to critical raw materials and products, reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy.
Expand compensation for indirect carbon costs under EU-ETS to 85% of eligible expenses, aligning with policies in leading EU nations.
Remove regulatory and tax burdens on energy consumption for strategic industries, particularly for electro-intensive sectors like aluminium.
Facilitate direct access to renewable energy through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) to reduce dependency on volatile energy markets.
Accelerate the deployment of the flexible assets across Europe in order to provide the necessary support for balancing the increase of new renewables capacities and make the wind and solar energy affordable.
Given the anticipated financial constraints at the EU level—stemming from countries' reluctance to increase their contributions in this area—and considering the new strategic and urgent priority of European defense, we firmly believe that H₂ pipelines, CO₂ pipelines, and CO₂ mineral injection/storage should be postponed by at least a decade. At their current stage of technological development, these initiatives risk draining billions of euros in taxpayer money while delivering minimal, if any, benefits—except, of course, for the companies that would receive these funds without tangible returns.

These are only few practical and easy to implement ideas. Many more are floating around ready to be discussed on a first track basis.

Time to rethink.

Do they create markets for sustainable products?

Every sustainable product should be marketed freely not in an administrative way. Is there a market for it or we are obliged by European law/norms/regulations to use it?

Time to rethink

Do they secure quality jobs?

Today we see unfortunately the opposite. We see a strong focus on SMEs but Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) cannot thrive in isolation. They depend on industrial clusters and large enterprises for stability. Instead of indiscriminately funding SMEs, the Union should:

Strengthen industrial ecosystems that support SMEs.
Prioritize investments in large industries that sustain extensive supply chains.
Focus financial aid on innovation-driven growth rather than short-term consumption.

Also, as always when the things go south, we hear that we need to reduce bureaucracy.

Reducing bureaucracy has been a misleading political mantra for decades. The Roman Empire thrived for over a thousand years thanks to its bureaucratic structure, which ensured stability and order. However, bureaucracy must be:

Efficient and mission-oriented, avoiding political decision-making.
A tool for implementing strategic policies, not a substitute for political leadership.
Streamlined when necessary but preserved as a pillar of effective governance.
A weak bureaucracy means a weak state. A weak European bureaucracy means a weak European Union.

Time to rethink.

But…

While the general atmosphere was rather grim, there is hope and there is commitment on the industry side to engage at the highest levels with European authorities, with European Commission, with European Chair, President von der Leyen, to work together toward a common goal: to have a New Deal, to have a New Industrial Deal, to have New Clean Industrial Deal.