EU investigates suppliers of Chinese wind turbines

During a visit to the United States, the EU competition commissioner announced a new investigation into wind power projects in Europe supplied by China. She also presented a new international approach to protecting clean technologies from unfair competition.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced that the EU is launching a new investigation into Chinese wind turbine suppliers, concerning projects in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria. Euractiv reports.

The investigation will be launched under the 2023 Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which allows Brussels to scrutinise companies participating in public procurement tenders worth more than 250 million euros in the bloc.

“In a world driven by technology, those who control the most critical technologies and their supply chains are the leaders,” Vestager said, pointing to the dual economic and geopolitical dimension of competition in clean technologies.

Although the commissioner announced new investigations into several wind power projects, she also acknowledged that this case-by-case approach would not be enough.

“We need a systematic approach. And we need it before it is too late,” she explained.

Earlier suspicions

At the beginning of April, the EU launchedtwo investigations under the regulation to determine whether subsidies had enabled Chinese companies to submit unfair bids for public energy contracts in Europe. The first concerned train deliveries in Bulgaria. The second concerns 110 megawatts of solar panels in Romania.

The new investigations followed “indications that some wind turbine manufacturers and other companies operating in the internal market may be benefiting from foreign subsidies that give them an unfair advantage,” the European Commission’s communications service told Euractiv.

“This investigation follows the European Wind Power Action Plan, in which the Commission committed to closely monitoring any foreign subsidies that distort competition,” a spokesperson added.

Putting European clean technologies first

European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton indicated in Brussels on Tuesday that the European Commission would sign the Solar Charter, a document committing EU countries and the Commission to supporting domestic manufacturers.

The charter, which reflects a similar show of support for the wind industry in December 2023, will be signed at the next meeting of EU energy ministers.

“We cannot afford to see what happened with solar panels repeated with electric cars, wind power or basic chips,” Vestager said during a speech at Princeton University on the importance of new technologies and controlling part of their development in the face of global competition.

Trustworthiness criteria

An international list of “trustworthiness” criteria should be drawn up for critical clean technologies, including a product’s environmental footprint, respect for labour rights and cybersecurity.

These criteria would then be used by “like-minded” trading partners—for example, G7 countries—as a basis for public procurement or incentives for climate-friendly industries.

According to Vestager, this framework would give domestic manufacturers that meet these standards a competitive advantage while preventing wasteful subsidy races between countries.