2023-08-29 20:25:00
DISPATCH — During the Meeting of Entrepreneurs of France (REF) organized by the Medef, Bruno Le Maire assured that he wanted to make the European Union a “great economic continent” capable of competing with China and the United States. For that, it would be necessary to “evolve” the rules, bet on artificial intelligence and decarbonization, or even favor “European content”.
“Europe can be the great economic continent of the 21st century with a carbon-free, fair, united economic model, more enviable than the centralized Chinese model or the American model”, declared the Minister of the Economy. According to him, to aim for “the first economic place”, the Old Continent must focus on two things: the development of generative artificial intelligence and the decarbonization of production and consumption chains.
“If we want the game to be played in the 21st century between the United States, China and Europe, and not in a dangerous face-to-face between the Chinese continent and the American continent, it is now that it is played” , he argued, considering it essential that the EU defends its “interests”.
The automotive sector is a good illustration of the issues. While Europe wants to impose the electric car from 2035, as if it were the only solution to environmental problems, China is rubbing its hands. The country has been concentrating its efforts on the development of these vehicles for years, so that it now has enough to invade the European market. According to a Figaro decryptionthe Chinese manufacturers capable of implementing their vehicles in Europe “should be ten in 2030”.
Bruno Le Maire stopped on this subject, mentioning the subsidies for said electric cars. In France, they should be subject to an “environmental score”, but this will only very little exclude Chinese imports.
“It’s quite complex. I would have preferred to be able to say that the European bonus is reserved for industrial products with European content. That’s what China does, that’s what the United States does, this is what I still cannot do in Europe because of European standards”, lamented the minister. And to plead for a valuation of the made in Europe : “Let’s change the European rules to promote European content, European production, European technologies and European employment”.
“Let’s be transgressive!”, he launched. “We have to hurry to change our standards, to simplify them and to promote European content if we want to counter the rise in the range of the Chinese”, mainly in the automotive sector.
Bruno Le Maire also felt that there was “absolute urgency” to create the capital markets union within the EU in order to promote investment.
#Europe #China #Bruno #Maire #change #economic #rules