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Europe must accept higher short-term costs to reduce its dependence on China for clean-energy technologies, EU Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has told Euronews, warning that delaying action will make the strategic vulnerability harder and more expensive to unwind.
The EU should have confronted its reliance on China “five to ten years ago”, Hoekstra said, arguing that waiting longer would bring greater disruption and costs.
“But it will be much cheaper and much more to our advantage to do it now than be wishy washy and wait another five to 10 years,” the Dutch Commissioner said.
Europe needs to rapidly deploy solar, wind, batteries and other clean technologies to reach climate neutrality by 2050. But Hoekstra warned that heavy reliance on Chinese manufacturers for electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and energy storage risks replacing one strategic dependency with another — echoing Europe’s former dependence on Russia for cheap energy.
“This will stay with us for years to come, because the dependencies in many domains have simply become too large,” he said, describing the situation as a “dangerous and uncomfortable” vulnerability for both Europe’s climate ambitions and economic security.
Chinese companies already dominate key parts of Europe’s battery supply chain. They account for more than 80% of the bloc’s residential battery energy storage market and nearly 88% of lithium-ion battery imports, according to Wood Mackenzie.
The EU’s dependence on China for critical materials is also deep-rooted.
The issue has risen up the EU’s political agenda as the rapid expansion of wind and solar power outpaces the development of storage infrastructure. EU energy ministers recently discussed the bloc’s reliance on Chinese-made storage during a meeting under the Cyprus EU Presidency.
The wider trade relationship is also under pressure. The EU’s trade deficit with China reached a record €1 billion a day in 2025, prompting European leaders to call for a rebalancing of what they describe as “unsustainable” economic relations.
“Dialogue with China remains necessary. But it must produce results. And when dialogue is not enough, we must be ready to make full use of our instruments,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on 27 August.
Tensions have intensified as Brussels has taken measures to protect the European market, targeting Chinese companies over issues including illegal products, state subsidies and foreign investment. Beijing has threatened retaliation.
Hoekstra pointed to Europe’s solar industry as a warning of what can happen when domestic production loses out to heavily subsidised Chinese imports.
But the Commissioner went further, raising concerns about alleged Chinese interference and security risks involving critical infrastructure in Europe.
“Kill switches are being included in windmills. Espionage happens at a very high degree on European soil. Intellectual property theft in our most advanced companies happens on a weekly basis and on and on and on — that is something no government and the EU can simply allow,” he said.
The comments come as Brussels seeks tangible progress in its economic relationship with Beijing.
Technical talks between the EU and China are expected to advance in October, with EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič expected to travel to China.
For Hoekstra, however, the goal is not to end trade with China but to ensure that Europe is no longer vulnerable to a single external supplier for technologies critical to its energy transition.
The challenge, he said, is to build European capacity now — even if doing so comes with higher costs in the short term.
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