The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire pleaded Monday for systematically having 60% “European content” in decarbonization technologies, in order to resist less expensive products coming in particular from China.
Noting that these products manufactured in Europe are more expensive than in China, “because they are more low-carbon”, Mr. Le Maire estimated that “either we favor them and we will be able to develop these sectors, or we leave them to the logic of the market and we die.
He was speaking during a presentation to the press of the Rendez-vous de Bercy which will be devoted Tuesday to the theme “Growth and Climate” in the presence of numerous experts, including Bill Gates.
“It is not a question of protectionism but of rebalancing production costs by taking into account the environmental cost,” affirmed the minister.
He declared his support for initiatives aimed at favoring European products, in particular those contained in the European regulation for a “net zero” industry.
“But we must go further and now promote European content products in a simpler and more direct way: you install an offshore wind farm, you buy electric vehicles, you make a subsidy for electric vehicles or batteries, there must be 60% European content,” he said, without going into details.
“I know that it clashed with European doctrine, that’s perhaps why it’s a good solution,” he said ironically.
He will “carry this message with great vigor before the European elections” in June.
Mr. Le Maire wants France to be “the European leader” of the ecological transition, recalling that “it has the best climate record” – thanks to nuclear power, and is “one of the rare countries in the world to have provided proof that the decoupling between climate and growth was possible.
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