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Opening address given yesterday by President von der Leyen at the Süddeutsche Zeitung's 15th Economic Summit.

Many thanks Ms Wittwer,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to be joining you virtually today. I was asked to give a keynote speech on your discussion topic: ‘Re-start'. The issues you will be discussing here today at your Business Summit are fundamental: modernising business and society and converting to a sustainable way of living and working which preserves the health of the planet and the livelihoods of its inhabitants.

I am mentioning this as, precisely two years ago, with my then brand new Commission, I put exactly these issues at the heart of our agenda. We launched the European Green Deal and now, as a result, Europe has something which is the envy of many other regions of the world. We have a shared vision for a sustainable future. Although this is good and represents a great deal, it is, of course, not enough. The crucial part is to implement and roll out this vision, this plan, and to do so quickly. In spring of this year, we therefore adopted the first European Climate Law, agreed by all 27 Member States. This means we are now no longer looking at ‘if' but at ‘how'. Our objectives for 2030 and 2050 have therefore also been made binding in a single law. In summer of this year, my Commission then presented a detailed road map on how we will implement the European Green Deal. Sector by sector. Industry by industry. Step by step. And finally, we made the necessary investment funds available. For the very first time, we are raising capital jointly at European level, for reform and investment. Our name for this recovery plan is NextGenerationEU. Through this and the EU budget, we will be making up to EUR 2.1 trillion available in the coming years, of which one third – approximately EUR 700 billion – will go to projects under the European Green Deal.

The basic principle of the European Green Deal is clear: science has shown beyond doubt that greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and methane, are destroying the climate and, therefore, our livelihoods. Consequently, there must be a clear price tag attached to CO2. If you emit, you pay. So those who want to avoid paying will seek out new pathways, using innovation and clean technology. In other words, a CO2 price tag will also become the driver of innovation. These new pathways – or to refer to the title of this event, this ‘re-start' – have our fullest support, with public and private investment, and of course, with the right framework legislation. We are aiming for a resource-efficient, zero-carbon, circular economy. This is the logic on which everything will be built. Emissions trading will be extended from its present sectors, i.e. electricity and industry, to include buildings and transport. It must be accompanied by robust social compensation – this is only right in a social market economy. Furthermore, it must receive large-scale private and public investment, for which the right framework must be put in place, including by means of our legislation. This applies not only to Europe, but the principle of a CO2 price tag, social compensation, framework legislation and investment, is a principle which must apply throughout the world. For the transformation in other regions of the world is, at the very least, just as important as the transformation in Europe.

We all know that the situation we are starting from is very serious. We need only look at the latest report from the United Nations Climate Council. It tells us that at the moment, looking at the status quo, the world is heading towards global warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius. And we all still clearly remember the floods in Germany and Belgium, but also the forest fires of this summer. Not to mention the island states sinking into the sea, forest fires in Siberia that destroyed an area twice the size of Austria, droughts, floods, the first ever tornado in Czechia, and many other consequences of climate change. We need to act – now. This decade will determine whether we are merely driven by climate change or whether we retain active control.

If I now look at the outcome in Glasgow, then from that perspective it is just one step towards keeping the global community on track for the 1.5 degrees Celsius target. The outcome is both positive and negative. It is good that climate neutrality has been recognised as a shared target and, as such, is becoming the new norm. It is also good that for the first time the world has an intermediate target for 2030, namely a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. And there is also consensus that we need to act more quickly. The fact that in Glasgow we have agreed on a methodology, a rulebook that to a certain extent can be used to make comparisons, will help us to do so. And because we need to act more quickly, there will be a world meeting in Egypt as early as next year, where countries are to set more ambitious targets, especially those that did not live up to expectations in Glasgow. But we must also mention the negatives, and those include the fact that too few clear commitments, targets and steps have been defined by the global community. Another negative is that, in Glasgow, the poorer countries are still not receiving enough financial support from the main polluters, i.e. the industrialised countries. Greater support was promised in Paris, and that promise has been kept by Europe, but not by others. And one of the disappointments is that the phasing-out of coal has, at the very last minute, been diminished to only a reduction in the use of coal.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am firmly convinced that there is only one meaningful way forward: to implement the green and digital transformation more decisively and more rapidly. And I am equally convinced that leading the field here – if we take on that role – presents a great opportunity for Europe and Germany.

I would now like to give some examples of how this combined power of the European Union shapes global markets and therefore, of course, opens up new opportunities. Let us take climate action in Europe. That action also strengthens the global role of our currency, the euro. A very key pillar of this is our EUR 800 billion NextGenerationEU recovery programme. For the first time, we are raising capital on that scale together, as Europeans. And for the first time we are also drawing heavily on sustainable – or ‘green' – bonds. Roughly one third of NextGenerationEU is being funded by these green bonds. That is more than EUR 250 billion.

Germany currently has EUR 17 billion in federal green bonds, compared to EUR 250 billion from the European Union and NextGenerationEU. NextGenerationEU is thus by far the largest green bond programme and Europe the largest issuer of sustainable bonds in the world. That, in turn, also strengthens our common currency. The euro is already the first choice for sustainable finance. 50% of all sustainable financial instruments are issued in euro – and only 27% in dollars, to give a comparative example. Moreover, these green bonds are massively oversubscribed when we issue them. That means that we will now do everything we can to further develop that position.

But it is also true that the European Union is ultimately responsible for only 8% of global CO2 emissions. That is why we need the rest of the world in order to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius target. But the rest of the world also needs Europe in order to succeed and make progress. Some countries do not have the resources; others lack the technology or the political clout. And for those reasons, we, as Europeans, want to build Global Gateway partnerships throughout the world in the future. In Africa but also in Asia, as well as in Latin America. In the coming weeks the European Commission will present a strategy to build partnerships in infrastructure projects and connectivity. And we will mobilise sufficient resources to make Global Gateway a powerful instrument for Europe. For let us be clear about this too: if we Europeans do not do it, then there are others who will.

We shall therefore invest in Africa in order to establish a market for green hydrogen, which then creates ties across the Mediterranean. For instance, we will invest in decarbonisation together with our US and British partners. A good example is South Africa, where we are investing together in the phasing-out of coal and thereby creating new, sustainable jobs. Germany and France are also involved in this. It is a big advantage that Europe has a reputation as a fair, reliable partner. And let us not forget that the EU is the largest single market in the world. This also makes Europe an attractive and convincing partner. We are not seeking to make others dependent through our investment but rather to ensure a fair exchange of knowledge, services and goods. And, ultimately, we are therefore investing in partnerships which spread our values and bring people together.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Shaping markets and creating new opportunities are also relevant to my second point – digitalisation. We are currently having intensive discussions about the amount of power the large internet platforms can actually wield. At the moment they determine who can trade or communicate with their assistance. They have become a kind of digital gatekeeper, which can restrict market access until they get a share of the profits or the flow of data. And there is a price to pay. Ultimately consumers pay that price by disclosing personal data. It happens with every click, regardless of whether we buy something on the Internet, read news or carry out a search. The platforms are less interested in what I did yesterday than in what I am going to do tomorrow, and why. The challenge for them is to predict and especially influence my behaviour. As things stand, we voluntarily reveal our intentions, wishes and habits. And we do so in exchange for services – digital services – which make our lives easier. In the analogue world this is governed by rules which ensure quality standards and provide protection to a certain degree. And that is what we need in the digital world as well.

This is in our hands in Europe. We can shape our own access to the digital world according to our standards. Looking around, in the USA the market traditionally comes first and the government holds back, as a matter of principle. In China it is exactly the opposite. The government decides on the use of data, and individuals have to accept that the group takes precedence over them. Europe, however, has a long tradition – a long tradition of creating a balance between the state and the market, while giving particular priority to the individual and putting people first. For us, a new technology never makes us redefine our values. For us, the individual is not just a part of a whole. The individual is not just one customer or data point out of many. The individual is, first and foremost, a person with rights who has control over his or her life. Whether in the analogue or digital world, these rights must be protected through European legislation.

To that end, my Commission presented the ‘Digital Services Act' and the ‘Digital Markets Act' – abbreviated as DSA und DMA. To put it simply, we want to apply the rules of the analogue world to the digital world as well in the future. For example, we demand that the largest platforms are transparent about how their algorithms work, since it is unacceptable that decisions with far-reaching consequences for public debate in our democracies, for example, are taken by computer programs that no one can understand, let alone control.

My Commission has put forward its legislative proposals. In the coming weeks the Council and the European Parliament will already adopt their negotiating positions. And as early as next year, in fact in the first half of the year, under the French Presidency of the Council, we can succeed in getting all these proposals turned into law. It would be the world's first comprehensive set of rules for the big gatekeeper platforms. A set of rules made in Europe.

But of course digitalisation is about much more than platforms. The pandemic has shown us the importance of having resilient global connections, not least in supply chains. This brings me to my last point. We can all now see the problems caused by our dependence on microchips from Asia. Whole factories in the European Union are at a standstill because they lack chips. If we look at car purchases in Europe, they have recently fallen by 25% compared with September 2020, even though demand is booming. And as you know yourselves, other important sectors are also affected, such as the market for medical devices, energy networks and so on.

This is not only because of a short-term mismatch between supply and demand. The main reason is that 70% of the world's independent chip production is in the hands of just two major producers, both based in East Asia. This is not sustainable for us. We know very well that the markets of the future depend on this product. Only those who can produce the next generation of semiconductors in large quantities will retain their technological and economic independence. And so in the first half of 2022 we will present a plan and, together with the Member States, provide the funding to implement it. The aim of this ‘European Chips Act' will be for companies producing chips in Europe to regain a 20% share of this fast growing global market by 2030. Today our market share has fallen to 10%. That is too low, far too low. But Europe is well placed to reach that target. We have cutting-edge European research, for example with IMEC in Belgium. We have a really strong industrial base, for example at ASML in the Netherlands. And we have an attractive ecosystem in Dresden for example, known as Silicon Saxony. We also have the market, with 450 million Europeans. This means that together, if we do it right, we can preserve and strengthen Europe's technological sovereignty, and we are determined to do so.

Ladies and gentlemen,

These are a few examples of what Europe can contribute to the future. You can see that Europe will have a major role to play in Germany's new start. I am therefore looking forward to working with the next Federal Government — and now, of course, to discuss these topics with you.

Thank you very much.

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