PARIS (Reuters) – France and Germany on Monday called for boosting Europe’s green industry in response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
In a joint press release, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and German Economy Minister Robert Habeck notably propose maintaining a solid industrial base and diversifying Europe’s access to green technologies and resources.
“Our common ambition is clear: to ensure that the EU acquires indisputable leadership in terms of green industry. This is an economic as well as a political issue for European countries. Our proposals with Minister Habeck are a toolbox robust, concrete and ambitious to make the EU the leading continent for green industries,” said Bruno Le Maire, according to his cabinet.
“We look forward to working with the other Member States as well as with the Commission to meet this major challenge”, added the French Minister.
The two ministers call for access to subsidy schemes, an ambitious European green industrial policy and for the creation of a partnership between Europe and the United States providing for the joint development of standards.
“It is in our mutual interest to quickly find common ground on this and to avoid any disruption of the conditions of competition between close partners at a time when close collaboration is necessary to face the Russian war against the Ukraine,” it read.
Visiting the United States at the end of November, French President Emmanuel Macron deplored the “aggressiveness” of the IRA and the resulting massive subsidies reserved for American manufacturers.
According to their respective cabinets, the French and German ministers Bruno Le Maire and Robert Habeck should go to the United States in January 2023 to plead the European cause together with the American administration.
(Elizabeth Pineau and Tangi Salaün, editing by Kate Entringer)
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