The EU wants to buy homegrown clean tech. Manufacturers say it may be too late.

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on POLITICO or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: The European Commission is set to publish a Public Procurement Act overhaul on 9 September, allowing public authorities to weigh sustainability, supply chain resilience and European production rather than awarding on price alone
• Contracts would generally go on best price-to-quality ratio, with quality criteria given a minimum 30% weighting — 50% for labour-intensive contracts — unless price-only can be justified
• European solar manufacturers welcome the direction but say it comes too late

🔭 The context: Two decades of Chinese price competition have closed European factories and shifted much of the supply chain east
• Belga Solar, Belgium's last panel manufacturer, through its managing director Sébastien Mahieu cites public housing renovation contracts in Wallonia awarded to a Chinese company, with no European manufacturer receiving an order
• The current framework permits green and social criteria without requiring them, and the draft does not make green procurement mandatory
• Earlier this year the Industrial Accelerator Act defined made-in-EU and low-carbon status for solar, wind, batteries and heat pumps

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Public money intended to fund the energy transition is currently procuring the cheapest available hardware, which increases deployment per euro but concentrates manufacturing in one country and one grid
• Where panels are made determines the embodied carbon in them, and a European industrial base offers shorter supply chains and production under stricter environmental regulation
• The trade-off includes domestic preference raising unit costs, and higher costs slowing installation rates

⏭️ What's next: Negotiations are not expected to conclude until late 2027, with earlier deadlines already missed and full rollout likely years away
• Steelmakers want an EU-origin condition added to the low-carbon requirement, chemical producers want key materials covered, and aluminium manufacturers want the rules extended to energy, rail and maritime projects
• Commission spokesperson Siobhan McGarry says existing EU-preference rules are too early to assess

💬 One quote: "It's now, not in three years — we have too many companies in Europe that are on the verge of collapse" — Frederic Conrads, managing partner, Belga Solar

📈 One stat: A minimum 30% weighting for quality criteria in public contracts, rising to 50% for labour-intensive ones

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