The Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, said on Thursday that he wanted to make France “the first green industrial nation” in Europe, through a future bill accelerating the creation of new industrial sites. and incentivizing decarbonization.
“We must defend a globalization respectful of the sovereignty of nations, attached to the fight against inequalities, protective of the climate”, declared Mr. Le Maire, presenting his wishes to the economic actors in Bercy.
“With the President of the Republic, with the Prime Minister, we will therefore commit France to rapid, massive, planned green reindustrialisation. With one objective: for France to become the leading nation for green industry in Europe,” he added. The challenge, “is industrial relocation,” he insisted.
This green industrialization strategy, presented as one of the three priorities of the Ministry of the Economy along with the fall in inflation and the restoration of public finances, will go through the presentation this year of a bill on the green industry.
This text will aim in particular “to speed up the authorization process for new industrial sites”, developed the Minister. “There is no reason for us in France to take two years to develop an industrial site, sometimes three, where other major nations manage to do it in a few months”, he judged.
It is also a question of promoting national public procurement, financing industrial innovation, creating “real green savings tools” as well as a “more attractive” tax environment for green industry, according to the tenant of Bercy.
After consultation with stakeholders, the Ministry of the Economy hopes to present a text in June or July, we learned from Bercy. “Batteries, semiconductors, hydrogen, electrolysis, carbon capture, we will have to identify (…) what are the sectors that we must particularly push to succeed in green reindustrialization,” said said the ministry.
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The success of this strategy also depends on France’s energy independence, said Mr. Le Maire, pleading in particular for the decoupling, at European level, of the price of electricity from that of gas, which has soared with the war in Ukraine, a divisive subject within the EU.
“We want the first reform measures to be effective from 2023. We refuse to continue paying for carbon-free nuclear electricity at the price of electricity produced from fossil fuels,” he insisted.
The minister also pleaded for a European replica of the “Inflation Reduction Act” implemented by the United States. This American law grants generous subsidies to certain strategic industrial sectors (electric vehicles, batteries, etc.) but is accused by the Europeans of distorting competition.
While Paris and Berlin show a common mobilization so that products designed in Europe benefit from the same advantages, Mr. Le Maire declared that he would go to Washington in February, with his German counterpart Robert Habeck, to try to obtain progress on the subject.