BRUSSELS : The European Commission will not propose any new joint EU borrowing on Wednesday when it presents ideas on how to support Europe's green industry facing Chinese and U.S. competition, a draft of its"Green Deal Industrial Plan" showed on Monday.
The Commission's plan is to outline how Europe can keep its place as a manufacturing hub for green products and respond to multi-billion dollar subsidies of China and the United States. This proposal ran into opposition from at least 10, mostly northern European countries, which said the EU should not be borrowing more, if it has not been able to spend what it had already agreed to jointly raise for the 800 billion euro Recovery Fund.
Governments will be able to spend the Recovery Fund money on tax breaks or other forms of support for green investments either as a tax credit, an accelerated depreciation or a subsidy linked to the acquisition or improvement of green assets.