Eindhoven University of Technology: Remarks by EU Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra

Ladies and gentlemen,

It’s a great honour to be here today at Eindhoven University of Technology. And it’s always a pleasure to share in a solemn moment of renewal the start of a new academic year. You just need to survive a political speech on clean economic growth. But this is the perfect place for doing that.

Eindhoven is Europe’s innovation capital. Some in this room might say this is in fact the (one and only) innovation capital of the world.  But it wasn’t pre-set that Eindhoven would look like this today.

Actually, back in the nineties this city was at least a bit in fear of collapse. Philips of course had pioneered. It shaped new products, and thereby a completely new local economy. But many observers also said that the company lacked focus, the competition was killing.

CEO Cor Boonstra decided to refocus the company on medical devices and microchips and move its headquarters to Amsterdam. That was to many around here a virtual earthquake. It is hard to imagine now, but Eindhoven and Brabant were close to panic. The engine of prosperity seemed to disappear.

It was out of sheer necessity that companies, politicians, and academia assembled. What they eventually came up with was, in many ways, typically Dutch, and typical for Brabant. They explored vision, innovation, and entrepreneurship and married them by truly working together.

Now fast forward 30 years. Just look around, in this city and in this province. Eindhoven didn’t just bounce back. It jumped to a whole new league. You now have ASML and NXP. Signify that brings lighting to the next, smarter level. Your university is prospering like never before. You are an absolute magnet for people, business and ideas.

Case for change

So, Eindhoven has shown it is excellent in creating renewal. It aced the opportunities that grew out of a crisis. And that brings me to our European Union and to our future. If you zoom out, you can’t overlook what an amazing place this is. Democracy, the rule of law, and individual freedoms are non-negotiable. Europe is wealthier than ever before, and we have the smallest divide between rich and poor on our planet. We are home to the happiest countries in the world and the best cities to live in. The longevity of our citizens outperforms that of the US. We have shown great stamina to address COVID-19, Russian brutality, and the energy crisis.

But I have to be honest with you. The outlook for the years ahead is exceptionally complicated. Europe will face a number of potentially existential challenges.

We all know that Russian aggression is back, and war might well be there beyond the end of this decade.

China is challenging us, in such a fundamental way, that it would be naive to deny that Europe has a China problem. Just read the reports of the AIVD and the MIVD, the Dutch intelligence agencies. The impact of climate change is enormous, and we have only seen the beginning of the damage.

High levels of migration and in certain cases failed integration have mushroomed into significant problems in a number of EU member states, and certainly also in our country.

AI is an amazing opportunity, but its benefits will come with great disruption and uncertainty for many of us.

The European economy, for all its strengths, simply lacks the dynamism, innovation, and entrepreneurship required to compete and deliver sustainable economic growth that we actually need.

Now, before you walk out of the room in distress: I am convinced we have the ability to tackle these issues and to shape our future. But we are in urgent need of renewal. We need the exact same spirit you showed over the past 30 years. That brings me to the topic of today: what we need is change and renewal.

We are seeing increasingly frequent extreme weather events, including both floods and droughts. People feel the need for change, but also worry about its daily implications of that change for their life. And yet it’s essential for tomorrow. Leading this change is a geopolitical, environmental, and societal necessity. It is potentially also the most profitable business case in the world.

By fostering a green economy that aligns economic growth with environmental well-being, we can create a change with the highest return on investment for climate, society, economy, independence and stability.  There are 3 areas of major change I would like us to embark on:

• a fair level playing field,
• our European single market as the engine of growth,
• and money that is required to get there.

 Creating a robust level playing field for clean growth

In the early 2000s, the solar industry was one of Europe’s crown jewels for clean growth. In the past decade, Chinese players came in, undercut in many ways our market with ultra-low prices thanks to massive government support, and almost wiped out our European’s Solar industry. We see the same thing happening in other sectors. It is derailing our economy and increasing our dependence. That is unacceptable.

We aim not to sever ties with China. But we will have to restore the balance. Equal rules for both parties, plain and simple. To achieve this, we will no longer just talk, but we also have to act, if competition continues to be unfair. Europe needs to counteract Chinese subsidies for electric cars that would otherwise overtake our European brands. We did the same in biofuels and other sectors and will continue on this path.  We need to diversify our supply and cherish key industries in Europe.

Take for example hydrogen. This month, we will propose the house rules for Europe’s next auction of support for hydrogen projects. While the first auction showed that European electrolysers have a good presence, China is now oversupplying them at ever-lower costs. So, I will ensure that the next auction is different. We will have explicit criteria to build European electrolyser supply chains.

If European cybersecurity and safety cannot be guaranteed, if our data cannot be guaranteed, they cannot get support. We need to move towards competitive energy prices for our companies. Energy prices have a significant effect on production costs in various industries, from chemical plants to computer chips. Today, energy prices in Europe are structurally higher than in the US and China.

If we want our companies to become clean and green, we need European rules for energy pricing that enable our industry to make that transition and really stay competitive.

The Single Market

The EU is one of the world’s major economic blocs still, and the Single Market is one of our biggest assets. But we need to revamp it into a true engine for clean economic growth. Doing business in Europe must become simpler, project permitting must become quicker, and we establish the lead markets for the future—from clean tech to the circular economy.

Standard solutions and standardized rules maximize the chances of success. For example, take EV charging stations. Many of you are part of the transition and drive electric cars. We lead in that field with Dutch players like FastNed and EvBox. Of course, the safety of these stations is non-negotiable. However, different regulations per country disable standardization, unnecessarily hindering growth. For the future of Europe, that’s not tenable.

Right from the start of the new political cycle, I favour a clear action agenda to remove such national barriers. Furthermore, we need to speed up permitting for business projects and business cases across Member States.

When Germany eased permitting rules for renewables, their growth went through the roof. Europe sets the tone and pace with laws, rules, and regulations on essential themes like climate, human oversight, and Artificial Intelligence. Now that we have the rules, we must empower our business to innovate.

The Single Market is the perfect place to kick-start clean growth markets like the circular economy. We come from a world where we are disposing the vast majority of our goods we use. I am convinced we will go to a world that completely reverses that.

In the future, we will reuse almost all the bottles, jeans, and furniture that we have used in our households. Companies will do the same with materials like bricks and wood. It’s cool, and it’s common sense. And, perhaps even more important, it will be a big business. So let’s set the parameters to make it happen.

And finally, government contracts should create lead markets in our single market rather than honouring the party that is just offering the lowest price possible. Of course, it is important. Smart tenders set company goals to use clean energy and use each other’s materials. If we pull that off, we will tremendously accelerate clean innovation.

Money is needed

Ladies and gentlemen, that brings me to my third and final pillar. Money, financing, investments.

Collaboration is a hallmark of Dutch expertise, as is the pragmatic inquiry: “wat kost dat?” “What will this all cost?”

Let’s be clear. It will require substantial investment. Public, private, and a combination of the two.

On public money. In every public office I have held, I have advocated for national governments and the EU to prioritise funding the future. And thus spend more on R&D, clean energy, clean technology, artificial intelligence, and innovation itself. It is a necessity, and also a great business case for society.

On private sector money, which will be the bulk of the funding. If a student here develops a groundbreaking platform like FastNed or Adyen and aims to expand across Europe, they should have seamless access to financing opportunities throughout the continent. It is up to us, to the next commission, to me to make that happen.

Therefore, the moment is ripe to finally move towards a Capital Markets Union, eliminating obstacles that prevent the free flow of banking, and particularly venture capital and private equity across Member States.

The economic potential is huge. Just look at the US and see how they benefit from having that in place.

Finally, we have to bridge the worlds of government and business in the domain of investments and create hybrid financing vehicles. Call it a “green investment toolbox,” where public co-funding or guarantees crowd in far bigger amounts of private investments.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, we celebrate another year of developing tomorrow’s talent. I hope you manage to keep your university a community where all people, in all their diversity, feel at home, at ease, and at peace.

And where academic freedom and open debate continues to blossom, and where the best ideas, and in the end reason itself, prevail. That is the essence of academia.

Let me conclude with a departing thought to the students in the room. When I look at you, and I think back about the time I was in your shoes, I am reminded by how often I screwed up. I made so many mistakes when I was a student. In my studies. In organisational activities. In friendships. In love.

And these experiences were precisely what made it meaningful. Made it worthwhile. Made it fun.

Life is about trial and error. So, I implore you: please make the most of it. Don’t be hampered by conventions. Try new things. Meet new people. Learn about new ideas. And when you fall, you get up and you move forward.

Thank you.

Source – EU Commission