THE “green deal” lived, here comes “pact for competitiveness”. On Thursday April 18, European heads of state and government, meeting in Brussels, called for this initiative to be launched in order to “closing the growth, productivity and innovation gaps” between the Old Continent and North America or Asia. They thus provide a roadmap for the next Commission, whose president will be appointed after the European elections in June.
The tone is set: the economy must now be at the heart of the concerns of the European Union (EU). The fight against global warming, which was one of the markers of the mandate of Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission who is now a candidate for her succession, must now be at the service of growth.
About the “Geopolitical Commission” that Ursula von der Leyen demanded, she will have to reinvent herself by “an economic commission”insisted Charles Michel, the President of the Council, on April 17, who maintains execrable relations with Angela Merkel’s former minister. “When we build a competitiveness agenda, it is also a geopolitical question”, corrects President Emmanuel Macron. Before adding: “the Commission must be geopolitical, I find it difficult to see how to ignore questions of peace and war”.
Financing the green and digital transitions
Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, who presented his report on the internal market to European leaders, painted an alarming picture on Thursday of a European economy, largely lagging behind the United States or China. While the gross domestic product per capita has, since 1993, increased by 60% across the Atlantic and by only 30% in Europe, the decline is worrying. “We can’t wait any longer”he insists.
The dropout has accelerated in recent years. In 2023, growth painfully reached 0.5% in Europe, when it was 3.1% in the United States and 5.2% in China. As a result, the EU is less attractive: according to BusinessEurope, which represents European employers, between 2019 and 2021, foreign direct investments fell by 68%; at the same time, they jumped by 63% across the Atlantic.
If the Twenty-seven agree to line up behind a “pact for competitiveness”, they are, on the other hand, less united when it comes to determining what this project would cover. The question, in particular, of knowing how to finance the green and digital transitions – according to the Commission, Europeans will have to invest 650 billion euros per year over the next decade – but also the rise of the defense industry , they provide radically different answers.
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