Government summit in Upper Austria

“Made in Europe” to be rewarded with a bonus

Grandly staged: The head of the federal government met with business representatives at Fronius in Sattledt.(Bild: BKA/Andy Wenzel)

With a "location summit" arranged at short notice, which took place on Thursday at Fronius in Sattledt, the turquoise-green leadership of the federal government wanted to show that they can still work together anyway. In terms of content, there was a commitment to strengthening Austria and Europe as a business location. 

It was a big crowd at the flagship technology company in Sattledt: Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Economics Minister Martin Kocher (both ÖVP) as well as Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler and Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler (both Greens) met with representatives from the business world at Fronius on Thursday morning, led by Fronius CEO Elisabeth Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß. She had recently repeatedly complained that the PV industry - Fronius specializes in inverters - was struggling with Chinese competition.

Aiming for a change in the law
After the one and a half hour meeting behind closed doors, Kogler presented a "Made-in-Europe bonus" initiated by Gewessler in front of the assembled press. This is intended to support companies that focus on European added value in photovoltaics. Gewessler would like to achieve this through an amendment to the Renewable Energies Expansion Act (EAG). "This could be done for the whole of Europe, but we could also lead the way in Austria," says Kogler. "We can certainly achieve this in Austria if we want to do it together." However, a two-thirds majority is required for the envisaged change to the law.

Nehammer calls the EU to account
However, Nehammer was cautious about a national initiative: "We are in the process of launching this initiative at a European level and the location summit is a mandate for the Minister of Economic Affairs to find ways to implement this." For Nehammer, there needs to be a European and a national level: he called for a "course correction" in the EU, "away from regulations".

Stelzer, Gewessler, Nehammer, Kocher (hidden) and Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß (from left) at Fronius.(Bild: BKA/Andy Wenzel)

Stelzer calls for more opportunities for innovation
For LH Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP), too, the main issue is "to ensure that it does not become more attractive for Austrian or Upper Austrian companies to relocate their production to other parts of the world, but to stay here". He insists that "more innovation" must be allowed in Europe again.

Praise from Fronius boss
Full support for the "Made in Europe bonus" came from the host of the summit: "In order to link future expansion targets in the field of renewable technologies more closely to European value creation, it must be possible to promote future technologies made in Europe more strongly than comparable products made in China," said Fronius boss Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß after the event.

However, the head of the PRO-GE trade union, Reinhold Binder, is not happy with the staging: "The grandly announced location summit was more of a summit and is therefore pure window dressing," he says. The government wanted to divert attention from its "years of lack of strategy".