2023-05-12 20:25:07
IIndustrial promotion remains a top priority for Emmanuel Macron. After the French President’s popularity ratings plummeted in the dispute over pension reform, he is now trying to score points with economic successes, among other things. It is no coincidence that he directs his attention to the labor market and the country’s intended reindustrialization – domains on which Macron has been investing a lot of energy for years and where, according to the government’s interpretation, the fruits of the reform work can now gradually be harvested.
More than 1.7 million jobs have been created since 2017, including 90,000 in manufacturing, the Elysée Palace calculated on Thursday at an event entitled “Accelerate our reindustrialization”. After decades of decline in industry – its share of economic output in France, at just under 10 percent, is only half as high as in Germany – a trend reversal has set in. Almost 300 new factories across the country were built under Macron’s aegis.
In his speech in front of around 400 invited company representatives on Thursday, the President evoked the strategic importance of this branch of the economy – to immunize against geopolitical tensions or crises such as pandemics, to protect the climate and biodiversity, because otherwise less environmentally friendly products might be imported, and to promote the economy as a whole country because reindustrialization is “the key to creating good jobs and thus prospects for the middle class”.
Call for a “regulatory pause”
Macron wants to follow up his words with action with a draft for a “Green Industries Law” announced for next week. It is intended to complement the recently launched “France 2030” investment program, and according to Macron, it is explicitly about “competing” with the US subsidy program Inflation Reduction Act by using the instruments approved by Brussels.
Among other things, tax credits for “green” technologies such as batteries, heat pumps and solar modules are planned. More than 20 billion euros in investments are to be triggered by the end of this decade. Macron also wants to halve the deadline for approving new factories from 18 to nine months, in particular by running environmental impact assessments and public hearings in parallel.
Close to industry: French President Emmanuel Macron talks about reindustrialization.
:
Image: AP
His call for a “regulatory break” is a topic of conversation. According to Macron, Europe is much more advanced than any other economic power in the world with its decarbonization goals or requirements for the use of pesticides, and now it first needs “stability” – otherwise there is a risk “that we are the best when it comes to regulations and the best when it comes to financing are the worst”.
But his announcement that state subsidies for electric car sales in the future based on criteria such as low CO also makes one sit up and take notice2-Creating a footprint or using recycled materials in vehicle manufacturing. In this way, the environmental bonus, which in France is up to 7000 euros, could no longer apply to the purchase of American and Asian cars. They want to “support batteries and vehicles that are produced in Europe because their CO2footprint is good,” Macron said.
#Emmanuel #Macron #promotes #industry