Future-proofing Europe?

Innovation, competitiveness, and the Clean Industrial Deal.

In this keynote interview, Neil Makaroff (Strategic Perspectives) and Florian Anderhuber (Euromines), moderated by Tomas Wyns (VUB), discussed how Europe can remain competitive while advancing its clean industrial transition. Against a backdrop of geopolitical turbulence, energy price shocks, and intensifying global competition, the debate examined the Clean Industrial Deal as a continuation of the European Green Deal rather than a break from it. Speakers stressed that competitiveness and security are inseparable from decarbonisation, but also explored the challenges of building industrial resilience, securing raw materials, and ensuring social legitimacy while Europe faces pressures from China, the US, and shifting political majorities.

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Key Highlights
Clean Industrial Deal as continuation of the Green Deal: not a rupture but an operationalisation of the original ambition, embedding industrial competitiveness alongside climate goals.
Geopolitical turbulence: war in Ukraine, dependency on external gas, and trade tensions with China and the US are reshaping Europe’s rationale for transition.
Decarbonisation as precondition for competitiveness: speakers underlined that Europe’s economic survival depends on decarbonisation, with industries like steel needing predictable demand for green products.
Critical raw materials and mining: access to secure and sustainable supplies is essential; European mining was presented as comparatively higher-standard and part of resilience-building.
Electrification as cornerstone: essential for reaching climate targets and industrial competitiveness, but hindered by high electricity costs, inconsistent fiscal incentives, and market design.
China’s dual role: simultaneously a competitor dominating value chains (batteries, solar) and a source of lessons on scaling industry and electrification.
Industrial policy tools: discussion of carbon footprint criteria, “European preference” in procurement, and the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act as ways to keep clean-tech manufacturing in Europe.
Citizen participation and legitimacy: industrial and mining projects require early community engagement to secure acceptance; citizen assemblies risk fuelling distrust if their outcomes are ignored.

Watch all recordings from the GreenDeal-NET conference

Keynote speakers

Neil Makaroff is the Director of Strategic Perspectives since 2022. Previously, he led the French climate NGO network, Réseau Action Climat France, on European policies for more than five years. He initiated and coordinated French climate movement campaigns on various climate and energy legislative packages, built synergies with different stakeholders on European policy, and created a strong NGO role in Paris to influence EU policies. 

As the person in charge of French civil society actions for the 2019 EU elections, he became one of the voices calling for bold climate reforms and a green and socially-just agenda for Europe. Neil also contributed to the French EU Council Presidency by representing the European climate movement in an ongoing dialogue with French decision-makers, contributing to some of the successful outcomes of the ‘Fit for 55’ package. Before working in Paris for the civil society on climate change, Neil worked to push EU decision-makers to support better conditions for railways in Europe, promoting investments, fair competition and infrastructure improvements for ERFA, a railway organisation based in Brussels. Prior to this, he worked for Marie-Noëlle Battistel, a member of the French National Assembly, and for the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council in Brussels.

In addition to Strategic Perspectives, Neil is involved in shaping the Jean Jaurès Foundation’s paradigm for Europe’s green transition, contributing his expertise and thoughts. He is also a board member of Transport & Environment, the leading European NGO on transport.

Florian Anderhuber is the Deputy Director General and Director for Energy, Climate & Sustainability at Euromines. He has been working on EU energy and industry policy for the past 10 years in various position in companies and the European Parliament. Currently holding the position as Deputy Director General at Euromines responsible for energy, climate and sustainability, Dr Anderhuber has a keen interest to forward the business and investment case for responsible mining operations and link the mining industry to the geopolitical and sustainability challenges the European Union currently faces.

Moderator:

Tomas Wyns is a Doctoral Researcher in the Environment and Sustainable Development cluster at the Brussels School of Governance of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Tomas has a Master's degree in Physics and is specialised in international relations and conflict management. Before joining the Brussels School of Governance, Tomas worked 5 years as a climate policy officer in the environmental administration of the Flemish government in Belgium, responsible for implementing the European Emissions Trading System and industrial energy efficiency policies. He later joined the European Climate Action Network where he coordinated the European NGO’s activities with regard to Europe’s 2020 climate and energy package, including the implementation of the reviewed EU Emissions Trading System. Tomas finally directed the Center for Clean Air Policy’s European office for two years, where he developed innovative solutions for industrial policy embedded in EU climate and energy action, assisted in the financing and development of National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in developing countries and supported Chinese authorities in the design and implementation of a pilot emissions trading system in Hubei province. Tomas has been attending the UNFCCC climate negotiations since 2007, assisting parties and stakeholders with insights into the development of post 2012 international climate action.

Tomas is working on European and international climate policy, in particular the design of the EU Emissions Trading System, post 2020 industrial and innovation policy and enhancing global climate action under a 2015 international climate agreement.