The European Green Deal aims to make Europe the first climateneutral continent by 2050. This is not going to be an easy journey.

To be successful, the European Green Deal will have to foster major shifts in the European industrial structure, including transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy and from combustion engine cars to electric cars. Shifting economies from brown to green would be a major, historic socio-economic transformation. Not by coincidence, this challenge is often referred to as an industrial revolution against a deadline. In this context of broad, paradigmatic, change for European industry, a ‘green industrial policy’ will be fundamental to Europe’s climate change ambitions.

In March 2020, the European Commission published a New Industrial Strategy for Europe (COM (2020) 102 final). Despite its focus on the twin green and digital transitions, the strategy failed to provide the coherent European Union green industrial policy framework that is required to turn the green transition into an industrial opportunity for Europe. In her September 2020 State of the Union speech, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to update the industrial strategy in the first half of 2021. This Blueprint aims to contribute to this debate, by setting out a set of principles and guidelines for the development of a strong EU green industrial policy.

These principle and guidelines have been developed on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the existing literature on industrial policy design and selected case studies. There are limits to what the market and the state can each deliver. For a successful green industrial policy, mechanisms will be needed to make them work together efficiently.