Although the debate surrounding the battery factory in Debrecen seems to be an environmental protection issue, the investment is actually being attacked because of the intensifying economic competition, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office stated in a video post on Facebook on Sunday.
According to Csaba Dömötör, "the horse's leg is sticking out", because "their problem" is not that a battery factory is being built, but that the Hungarian left is joining this campaign. He added,
the only thing worse than this would be if they received money abroad for this, say in dollars.
The politician reminded that the new EU regulations are driving car production towards electric cars. This means that, according to the European Commission's proposal, only zero-emission vehicles could be put on the EU market from 2035. Therefore, a huge competition for production capacities has started, and in these years it will be decided where the dominant electric car factories will be. And cars need batteries, which means that there are many more battery factories than there are now, namely near the car factories.
The upswing of the industry is indicated by the fact that the construction of 15 battery factories was announced in the United States in two years, and many of these are already operating in the largest European countries, in France, Italy or Spain, he continued.
According to him, the competition has also started in the region. Romania and the Czech Republic also want to start production, and the largest such factory in Europe is in Poland.
Hungary has also entered this competition, and if the investments are realized, even as a country of ten million people, it will be able to be in third place in battery production by 2030. This means many thousands of jobs and important bridgeheads in the industry of the future. The CATL investment in Debrecen is part of this plan.
He emphasized that this new factory would also make batteries for domestic car factories, including for BMW, which is investing in Debrecen. Nine thousand new jobs would be created and this would mean enormous tax revenue for the city for decades, he indicated, then reminded:
the same company built the same factory in Thuringia, Germany, in a place governed by socialists and greens who "embraced" the whole thing.
The Minister of Environmental Protection there argued in favor of supporting the investment that "the possibilities inherent in clean energy played an important role. Renewable energy is the basis of attractive business locations, future-proof workplaces and a greater degree of climate protection. We are on the right track here in Thuringia.”
In connection with this, Csaba Dömötör finally asked the question: what means clean energy, the future and jobs in Germany, why is it said in Debrecen that it destroys the environment?
Source: Origo
Featured Image: MH
