Greening industry makes Europe strong and independent

"Europe must act as one to avoid becoming a pawn of major powers. Europe must also urgently work towards a unified capital market and joint green investment bonds, so that we as Europe can borrow together and at lower cost to modernise our industry."

Strasbourg, February 10, 2026 – Ahead of the industry summit in Antwerp and the informal European summit at Alden Biesen, Sara Matthieu, member of the Industry Committee in the European Parliament, warns against the course that De Wever, Merz and Meloni want to pursue: "They want to dismantle European legislation and hand more power to member states. This weakens Europe precisely when we need a strong, coordinated response to China and Trump. Their economic recipe leads to fragmentation and costs us jobs and market leadership."

Green Deal as Freedom Deal

Matthieu points out that companies are asking for clarity and investment security. "Take Volvo in Ghent: they are investing in electric cars and want Europe to stay the course. Yet De Wever presents climate policy as a problem for our industry. But the opposite is true: green energy makes us independent from dictators and already delivers far more jobs than the fossil fuel industry. China has understood this for a long time."

Slowing down the greening of our industry is, according to Matthieu, deeply misguided. "This autumn, the Commission weakened emission standards for cars under pressure from conservatives. The result? Fewer affordable European electric cars on the market, just as China is capturing our market share. Deregulation has not created a single job, but it is weakening our competitive position."

Strengthening Europe, not weakening it

"De Wever wants to push back on the European Commission and is arguing for member states to pursue their own industrial policy and give more flexible state aid to industry. That fragments us. We need the opposite: stronger European coordination," says Matthieu. "Does Flanders really think it can compete with its 2 billion in support against the deep pockets of France or Germany? We must stop squandering resources in a fragmented way and pitting member states against each other.

Draghi says it himself in his report: Europe must act as one to avoid becoming a pawn of major powers. Europe must also urgently work towards a unified capital market and joint green investment bonds, so that we as Europe can borrow together and at lower cost to modernise our industry. And the barriers within our internal market must finally be addressed."

Guaranteeing markets for green industry

Matthieu is calling for the acceleration of the Industrial Accelerator Act, which the Commission will soon propose. This law is crucial because it guarantees markets for green steel and green technologies. To scale up these products and make them affordable, producers need investment security, and that is currently insufficient.

Equally important is that the law ensures that European taxpayers' money goes to high-quality, sustainably produced Made in Europe products, rather than to Chinese producers of steel or electric vehicles. "Major power blocs such as China, the US, India and even Canada have been doing this for a long time. If we do not protect our companies, our industry will irreversibly disappear."
According to Matthieu, the law must also prevent Chinese producers from using Europe merely as an assembly plant, and ensure we can still overcome our deficit in battery production and other green technologies.

The fossil fuel lobby must no longer set the agenda

"Thousands of companies support the greening agenda, and not without reason," concludes Matthieu. "Green technology created far more jobs than the fossil fuel industry over the past decade. We must give it every opportunity. While the fossil fuel industry has no future, certainly not in Europe, De Wever wants to hand the wheel back to that lobby. That is economic suicide. Our future lies in modernising and greening, not in returning to the nineties."

Sara Matthieu is a Member of the European Parliament for Groen and Environment Coordinator for the European Greens. She sits on the Industry (ITRE), Environment (ENVI) and Employment & Social Affairs (EMPL) committees.