Hearing of Executive Vice-President-designate Stéphane Séjourné

On Tuesday, four parliamentary committees questioned Stéphane Séjourné, French candidate for the Prosperity and Industrial Strategy portfolio.

In his introductory statement to the Industry, Research and Energy, Internal Market and Consumers, Economic Affairs and Environment Public Health and Food Safety committees, Mr Séjourné announced a future pact on clean industry to lay the foundations "for an industrial policy suited to our time", stressing that the EU will need to decarbonise and reindustrialise simultaneously. He advocated focusing on the strategic sectors with the highest potential and socioeconomic impact, promoting lowering energy prices, and developing thriving markets for products such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Mr. Séjourné promised to reduce bureaucracy for companies and pledged to introduce an SME passport to avoid firms having to constantly prove their legal status. He emphasised that huge investments are needed to prevent the most innovative companies from leaving the EU. To win the global investment battle, the Commissioner-designate plans to set up an EU Competitiveness Fund and use InvestEU to increase public funding and create synergies between public and private investment.

Mr. Séjourné underlined his commitment to strengthening the single market, stressing that: “Right now we have 27 markets.” The Commissioner-designate also promised that EU public procurements would take criteria such as quality, sustainability and resilience into greater account in the future.

Support to the steel, automotive and aeronautic industries

MEPs questioned the Executive-Vice-President designate on his plans to support the European steel industry, and asked whether the Commission would stick to agreed decarbonisation targets in the automotive sector. Mr Séjourné replied that the steel industry may receive additional support from the European Investment Bank. He stressed that the automotive industry requires predictability and pledged to act on the demand side to help carmakers meet their targets.

MEPs also asked about possible support for the aeronautics industry. Mr Séjourné replied that the sector will be covered in the Clean Industrial Deal.

Several MEPs inquired on how to fill the annual investment gap of 800 billion Euro mentioned in the Draghi report. The Commissioner-designate pointed to the creation of a Savings and Investments Union and of new savings products to stimulate household savings. To improve SME access to finance, he committed to pursuing funds from capital markets instead of relying predominantly on banks.

Other MEPs questioned the Commissioner-designate about protecting EU companies from unfair competition and EU consumers from below-standard goods made in third countries. In his reply, Mr Séjourné stressed the need to finalise customs reform to ensure better checks at EU borders.

Press point

At the end of the hearing, Committee Chairs Aurore Lalucq (ECON), Anna Cavazzini (IMCO) and Antonio Decaro (ENVI) held a press point outside the meeting room: watch it here.

Next steps

The committee chair and political group coordinators will meet without delay after the hearing to assess the performance and qualification of the Commissioner-designate.

Based on the committee recommendations, the Conference of Presidents (EP President Metsola and political group chairs) is set to conduct the final evaluation and declare the hearings closed on 21 November. Once the Conference of Presidents declares all hearings closed, the evaluation letters will be published.

The election by MEPs of the full college of Commissioners (by a majority of the votes cast, by roll-call) is currently scheduled to take place during the 25-28 November plenary session in Strasbourg.