ABOUT EBA250
The European Battery Alliance (EBA) was launched in October 2017 by European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič. The purpose is to ensure that all Europeans benefit from safer traffic, cleaner vehicles and more sustainable technological solutions. All this will be achieved by creating a competitive and sustainable battery cell manufacturing value chain in Europe.
The economic upside is clear: the market will have an estimated annual value of up to €250 billion by 2025. By combining European cutting-edge competences, financial strength and a cross-industrial approach, a competitive and sustainable production capacity is clearly within reach.
The industrial development programme of the European Battery Alliance is driven by EIT InnoEnergy. Thanks to its experience in supporting battery and storage innovations, EIT InnoEnergy was asked by VP Šefčovič in October 2017 “to continue its groundwork in partnership with the EU industry, academia, and financial sectors, with a view to delivering first recommendations on enabling framework conditions” by March 2018.
EIT InnoEnergy took the lead in this work, bringing together more than 120 European and non-European stakeholders representing the entire battery value chain. The result is a definition of 43 necessary actions to set up a dynamic and efficient European Battery Alliance and to capture a significant share of the rapidly expanding global battery market.
These actions were agreed upon at two high-level workshops organised by EIT InnoEnergy in December 2017 and January 2018. Among them, 18 are regarded as high-priority areas. They form a basis for defining concrete and focused projects.
Since these initial meetings the network has grown into an open ecosystem of more than 800 stakeholders actively collaborating to build a strong and competitive European battery industry.
As goes for any type of cooperation between undertakings, any EBA250 cooperation should respect EU competition rules. In particular, any form of cooperation should strive for certain principles including open access, transparency and necessity. For more information on EU competition rules, please consult the DG Competition website, and in particular the pages on the overview of antitrust rules and the applicable antitrust legislation.
Timeline
EIT InnoEnergy white paper: How Europe can become the winner in the battery market
July 2017
EIT InnoEnergy’s thought leadership and expertise in the field of energy storage led to a new assignment at the request of the European Commission. The assignment was based on EIT InnoEnergy’s proven track record of supporting and developing assets in the field, underscored by contributions in key publications and leading roles at conferences. EIT InnoEnergy drafted a white paper to reflect on the positioning of the EU in the strategic field of batteries and storage. A set of recommendations to establish a strong European battery industry was also delivered.
High-level meeting: The value chain approach
14 September 2017
Several programmes, such as the “Europe on the Move”, directives and not least the Paris Agreement, call for new solutions for energy storage. A first workshop was co-organised by EIT InnoEnergy and the European Political Strategy Centre on how Europe can become a global leader in batteries. For the first time ever the summit brought together industry stakeholders from all across the value chain and inputs supported the decision to create the European Battery Alliance.
Launch of the European Battery Alliance
11 October 2017
The European Battery Alliance (EBA) was officially launched in October 2017 by Vice-President Šefčovič with the aim of creating a competitive manufacturing value chain in Europe with sustainable battery cells at its core. EIT InnoEnergy was given the mandate to steer the industrial aspect, EBA250.
1 st EBA250 workshop: Scope and recommendations
19 December 2017
A network of 60 stakeholders responded to EIT InnoEnergy’s invitation and the first EBA250 workshop to further support the establishment of the European Battery Alliance. Research on key questions such as supply chain, technology development and market push led to a set of recommendations to the European Commission.
2 nd EBA250 workshop: Priority actions
30 January 2018
To follow-up on the December workshop, 90 stakeholders joined EIT InnoEnergy to develop the recommendations into concrete actions. The outcome was 43 necessary actions to enable the European Battery Alliance to capture a significant share of the entire value chain. Of the total of 43 actions, 18 were given high priority.
EU Industry Day
23 February 2018
18 high-priority actions resulting from the EBA250 stakeholder consultation process were presented at the Clean Energy Industrial Forum on the European Industry Day in February 2018. The EU Industry Day is a forum for key industrial stakeholders and EU political leaders and policy makers to discuss a joint vision for the long-term future of European industry. Read more
3 rd EBA250 workshop: Entering the actions phase
25 April 2018
The EU Commission stated that the European Battery Alliance “needs to continue to be industry-led in its implementation phase” and that “InnoEnergy will pursue its important implementation work”. Officially sanctioned by Vice-President Šefčovič of the EU Commission, InnoEnergy now had the mission to implement the European Battery Alliance action plan and therefore hosted a dedicated workshop that gathered together 115 stakeholders. The workshops delivered substantial input to the Strategic Action Plan for Batteries.
Strategic Action Plan for Batteries
17 May 2018
A Strategic Action Plan for Batteries that supports the measures proposed by the EBA250 stakeholders was published as part of the Clean Mobility Package in May 2018. The Clean Mobility Package is a set of initiatives initiated by the European Commission to allow all Europeans to benefit from safer traffic, less polluting vehicles and more advanced technological solutions, while supporting the competitiveness of the EU industry. Read more
4 th EBA250 workshop: Focus on standardisation
04 September 2018
As the process entered the phase of concrete actions and project formation, the need for standardisation was due for discussion. The strategy workshop was joined by Vice-President Šefčovič and gathered more than 150 participants. Following up on this, EIT InnoEnergy and CEN/CENELEC organised a conference with the aim of developing and implementing safety and performance standards for batteries. Read more
5 th EBA250 workshop: Aligning financial and business needs
29 January 2019
The fifth EBA250 meeting was held in Brussels and showed that the European battery industry is on the move. More than 200 stakeholders from across the entire battery value chain accepted EIT InnoEnergy’s invitation to meet and discuss with representatives from the financial sector on investments and funding opportunities in Europe. Read more