World

Chinese rivals pose 'existential threat' to Europe's solar industry

Published

11 months ago

February 13, 2024

Press Room

Chinese rivals pose 'existential threat' to Europe's solar industry

This article was originally published in Spanish

Cheap Chinese solar panels are flooding the EU market and threatening the viability of homegrown companies.

Europe’s solar industry warns it faces an “existential threat” and that unless action is taken soon, it could collapse in a matter of months.

An industry group is calling on the European Commission to introduce emergency measures, for example by stocking up on solar panels to ensure liquidity.

They say the influx of China-made solar panels, whose price is artificially lowered through generous state aid, into the EU market is to blame for the critical situation. According to the industry, Beijing has a near monopoly in the field: “China has been subsidising its industry for more than a decade,” says Johan Lindahl, secretary general of the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC).

“They decided to consider photovoltaic (PV) a strategic technology more than fifteen years ago. They have done the same in other areas such as electric vehicles and batteries,” Lindahl added.

Low prices have led companies such as Switzerland’s Meyer Burger, formerly the largest solar manufacturer in Germany, to relocateto the United States and benefit from Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Ac. Other firms, such as Solarwatt, have dismissed staff to cut down production costs.

Innovation is key

A solar module produced in China is about 50% cheaper than its European equivalent. The quality, experts say, is nevertheless comparable. The industry has therefore no choice but to innovate if it wants to survive.

Solarge, a factory in the Netherlands, produces solar panels that are lighter than traditional ones and can be installed on roofs that cannot sustain much weight.

But even with a growth strategy, the situation could become untenable, says Gerard de Leede, Solarge’s CTO and co-founder. “If it takes a year or two, many companies, and of course us, will definitely see impact,” he told Euronews. “We will have to lower our prices and we will be less competitive and less profitable.”

Currently, solar panels manufactured in Europe account for only 3% of the market. However, SolarPower Europe believes that this could rise to 40% by 2030.

The Chinese impact not only endangers companies but also hampers the bloc’s industrial autonomy. The EU is close to approving the Net-Zero Industry Act to slash red tape and ramp up domestic production of renewable systems, like solar panels, wind turbines and electric batteries. The Act was hastily designed in response to the Inflation Reduction Act but, unlike the American initiative, it does not envision tax credits and rebates.

A separate regulation aims to ban the sale in the EU of products made with forced labour, which would prohibit many goods manufactured in parts of China.

Clash with climate targets

The goal of competing against low-cost Chinese solar panels might soon clash with the long-term climate targets introduced by the bloc, which will require a massive deployment of renewable systems to completely do away with fossil fuels.

Speaking before the European Parliament in early February, Mairead McGuinness, the European Commissioner for financial services, dampened the industry’s hopes for tariffs on cheap imports, insisting that “any potential measures must be weighed against the goals we have set for the energy transition.”

For Dries Acke, policy director at SolarPower Europe, it is “important that the solar market in Europe continues to grow.” But, he warns, “any industrial strategy for manufacturing has to make sure that it does not negatively affect the continued growth of European solar markets.”

This balance is essential for the EU. Solar energy is one of the cheapest and easiest to install, so rapid deployment can make a difference in meeting climate targets. By 2030, 42.5% of all EU energy will have to come from renewable sources.

Related Topics:china Featured Renewable energies Solar Energy

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World

Chrystia Freeland, Justin Trudeau’s ‘Minister of Everything,’ Enters Race to Replace Him

Published

2 hours ago

January 17, 2025

Press Room

Chrystia Freeland, Justin Trudeau’s ‘Minister of Everything,’ Enters Race to Replace Him

Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister, whose sudden resignation in December helped set the stage for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to step down, said on Friday that she was running to replace him.

She posted her announcement on X with a six-word sentence: “I’m running to fight for Canada.”

Ms. Freeland, 56, once a close ally of Mr. Trudeau who was often called his “minister of everything,” had served as deputy prime minister since 2019, and had long been viewed as a possible successor.

But the two had a bitter rift when Mr. Trudeau moved to demote her over a Zoom call in December, offering her a minister-without-portfolio role. Instead, she opted to resign and delivered a strong rebuke of Mr. Trudeau’s leadership as Canada prepares to deal with President-elect Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump has threatened to apply a tariff on Canadian exports to the United States.

Her stinging departure destabilized Mr. Trudeau’s shaky grip on power. Three weeks later, on Jan. 6, he announced he would step down as Liberal Party leader and as prime minister once a new leader was in place.

Candidates for the leadership post will campaign ahead of a national vote among party members in March. The new Liberal Party leader will also become Prime Minister of Canada and lead the party in a general election expected to take place in the spring.

Ms. Freeland said she would officially launch her campaign in person on Sunday, which could take place in Toronto, the electoral district she represents in Parliament. She will face a stiff challenge persuading Canadians that she is the candidate best suited to take on the Conservative Party and its leader, Pierre Poilievre.

The Conservatives, who have a 25 percentage point lead over the Liberals in polls, have sought to portray Ms. Freeland as part of the problem given her once-close relationship with Mr. Trudeau and her key role in his governments since 2015, when he first became prime minister.

Mr. Trudeau’s popularity has nose dived in recent years as Canadians have become increasingly frustrated with persistently high cost-of-living on everything from housing to grocery bills.

Many Canadians have also started pushing back against the government’s immigration policy, which has resulted in 2.3 million people arriving in the country in the past two years. While the government said migrants were necessary to help fill gaps in low-skilled jobs, many Canadians say the new arrivals have contributed to rising housing costs and strains on the public health care system.

Ms. Freeland had accused Mr. Trudeau of engaging in political gimmickry after her ministry clashed with his office about a temporary sales-tax break during the end-of-year holidays.

The government estimated that the tax break, which covered items like restaurant bills and some toys and clothing, would cost about 1.6 billion Canadian dollars, or $1.1 billion, which Ms. Freeland said that Canada could “ill afford” at a time when Mr. Trump is raising the specter of tariffs.

“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” Ms. Freeland said in her resignation letter. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war.”

Ms. Freeland was born and raised in Alberta and is of Ukrainian ancestry. She has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine on the global stage, denouncing Russia’s invasion.

She attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and worked as a journalist and newsroom leader at a number of news organizations, including the Financial Times and Reuters, before joining the Liberal Party in 2013. She is married to a reporter on the Culture desk of The New York Times and has three children.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, Ms. Freeland steered Canada’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico, portraying steely confidence during the tense talks with the odd moment of levity. (Ms. Freeland was photographed arriving in Washington in 2018 wearing a white T-shirt that read “Keep Calm and Negotiate NAFTA.”)

But she also angered Mr. Trump during the negotiations and his animosity has apparently not waned.

When Ms. Freeland resigned in December, Mr. Trump posted triumphantly: “Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”

Ms. Freeland, in an opinion piece published on Friday, hinted that Canada would retaliate in “the single largest trade blow the U.S. economy has ever endured.”

As finance minister, she spearheaded popular government programs to reduce the cost of day care for parents and to tackle childhood poverty.

Her announcement on Friday marks the second entry of a top contender in the Liberal Party leadership race. She will face off against Mark Carney, a former head of the central banks in Canada and England, who declared he was running on Thursday.

Mr. Carney is close friends with Ms. Freeland and is the godfather to one of her three children. He was being recruited by Mr. Trudeau’s team to take Ms. Freeland’s place in the government in December, but declined the job.

World

Pakistani court sentences ex-PM Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and 7 years in prison in graft case

Published

3 hours ago

January 17, 2025

Press Room

Pakistani court sentences ex-PM Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and 7 years in prison in graft case

A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced the country’s already-imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and seven years in jail after finding them guilty of corruption, officials and his lawyer said.

It’s yet another blow for the former premier who has been behind the bars since 2023.

The couple are accused of accepting a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for laundered money when Khan was in power.

Prosecutors say the businessman, Malik Riaz, was then allowed by Khan to pay fines that were imposed on him in another case from the same laundered money of 190 million British pounds ($240 million) that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2022 to deposit with the national exchequer.

6 DEAD AS PROTESTS ERUPT IN PAKISTAN OVER JAILED FORMER PRIME MINISTER IMRAN KHAN

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan addresses the media in Lahore, Pakistan. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)

Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest in 2023 that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.

According to Khan’s legal team, Khan laughed and his wife, Bushra Bibi, smiled when judge Nasir Javed read the verdict.

Later, Khan and Bibi were taken into custody by prison officials after the announcement of the verdict, according to officials. She had earlier served a prison sentence in another graft case until she was freed on bail by a court in October. She recently led a rally to demand her husband’s release.

Later, a post from Khan’s account on the X platform urged his supporters not to panic over the verdict, under which the al-Qadir University built by his wife’s charity will also be taken over by authorities in the Punjab province.

“I will never accept this dictatorship and I will stay in the prison cell for as long as I have to in the struggle against this dictatorship, but I will not compromise on my principles and the struggle for the true freedom of the nation,” Khan wrote. Khan’s family has said such posts are shared with his consent.

Faisal Chaudhry, a defense lawyer, said the court verdict could be challenged in the superior courts.

Shortly after the announcement of the verdict, lawmakers from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party rallied outside the parliament in the capital, Islamabad, saying the former premier had been wrongly punished.

INDIA STEPS UP DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH THE TALIBAN AS RIVAL PAKISTAN LOSES INFLUENCE IN AFGHANISTAN

Security standing guard in front of a vehicle.

Guards protecting a vehicle outside of a compound in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/W.K. Yousufzai)

“This is a bogus case, and we will approach an appeals court against this decision,” said Omar Ayub Khan, a senior party leader who is not related to the former premier.

Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, had previously been convicted on charges of corruption, revealing official secrets and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts and sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Under Pakistani law, he is to serve the terms concurrently — meaning, the length of the longest of the sentences.

Some of Khan’s supporters were also present outside the Adiala prison in the city of Rawalpindi, and they chanted slogans against the government, demanding the release of their leader.

On Thursday, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters in Islamabad that there was “irrefutable evidence” against Khan and his wife in the “mega corruption scandal.” Tarar said that Khan even did not tell his own Cabinet members about the money that was returned to Pakistan by Britain.

Tarar also claimed that Khan built a new sprawling house in the eastern city of Lahore after giving benefits to the business tycoon, and that he was unable to prove that from where he got the money from to build it.

The latest development came a day after Khan’s PTI party held a crucial round of talks with representatives of the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to demand the release of all political detainees, including Khan and other party leaders.

Sharif became prime minister following the February 2024 election, which PTI claims was rigged.

World

Commission claims slashing of foreign offices still under negotiation

Published

3 hours ago

January 17, 2025

Press Room

Commission claims slashing of foreign offices still under negotiation

The European Commission said that ‘reflections are ongoing’ over the downsizing of the international hubs under the department for international partnerships.

Plans to slash EU international partnerships from more than four in five hubs worldwide revealed today by Euronews remain under negotiation, a Commission spokesperson said today.

Euronews reported that Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) presence in 100 delegations worldwide is set for reduction to 18 hubs on the basis of an internal planning document seen by this news service.

“Reflections are ongoing within the Commission and no decision has been taken [on the issue],” European Commission spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Anitta Hipper said when asked for details of the savings and staff moves that the plans entailed, declining to comment further on the document.

Hipper insisted that the EU presence on the ground in foreign offices would be maintained, and said that work is ongoing to see how effectively delegations can deliver on all EU policies, taking into account “budget realities and political priorities”.

DG INTPA is planning slashing more than four in five of its hubs worldwide – reducing from around 100 delegations to 18 hubs – according to a document seen by Euronews.

The DG will maintain 18 hubs in Africa, Asia and Latin American/Caribbean, according to the document, in strategic areas for the institution. You can see in this map where these hub offices will be located in detail:

“It is essential to move to portfolios that are more strategic and less fragmented and an optimised resource allocation across multiple countries,” the document said.

“The current INTPA operating model is based on the de-concentration process of 25 years ago, whereby INTPA staff are distributed across ‘cooperation sections’ within 100 Delegation worldwide,” the document said, adding: “This model no longer meets the needs for increased strategic focus and operation agility.”