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Competition Policy

The European Green Deal

Energy transition and climate change are existential challenges to Europe and to the world. To overcome these challenges, Europe has set up the European Green Deal, a new growth strategy that will transform the European Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, where:

  • There are no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
  • Economic growth is decoupled from resource use
  • No person and no place is left behind

The European Green Deal is EU’s plan to make our economy sustainable. We can do this by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities. 

Competition policy is not in the lead when it comes to fighting climate change and protecting the environment. There are better, much more effective ways, such as regulation and taxation. Competition policy, however, can complement regulation making our economy greener. State aid rules already encourage governments to invest in renewable energy and support EU countries to pool their investments in important projects of common European interest. On the other hand, antitrust and merger rules help to keep the pressure on business to use scarce resources efficiently and to innovate.

However, reaching the ambitious Green Deal objectives will require an enhanced role for competition policy. For this reason, DG Competition organized in February a conference hosted by Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager on the role of Competition Policy contributing to the European Green Deal and launched a call for contributions to bring together the different perspectives on this important topic.