For Emmanuel Macron, if Europe can be “deadly”, its industry already needs an electric shock. In his speech given at the Sorbonne on Thursday April 25, the Head of State called on the European Union (EU) to stop being “naive” in global competition with the United States and China. “We must change the economic model in Europe”he declared, because “the United States and China have decided to no longer respect global trade rules”. In particular, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the American investment plan decided by President Joe Biden in 2022 to favor manufacturers across the Atlantic, and China’s subsidy policy towards its companies in the green areas.
For the President of the Republic, the EU must respond with “a shock of joint investments”even if it means “derogate” to its rules of free competition. In particular, Europe must become by 2030 a ” world leader “ in five “strategic sectors of tomorrow” : artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, biotechnologies and new energies.
Even before the speech at the Sorbonne, industrial issues had entered the campaign for the European elections on June 9. Because “strategic autonomy” defended by the Head of State is undermined by several recent announcements concerning French companies. In solar energy – although a stated government priority – Systovi, a manufacturer of photovoltaic panels installed near Nantes (87 employees), is stopping its activities. Placed in compulsory liquidation, the company is unable to cope with Chinese dumping on prices.
In glassmaking, the historic brand Duralex (founded in 1945), burdened by the drop in demand and the rise in its energy costs, is looking for a buyer for its factory of 230 employees near Orléans. Finally, in health, the producer of generic drugs Biogaran (more than 8,000 employees and 39 sites in France) is being put up for sale by the Servier group, and could be sold to an Indian entrepreneur. Three examples which illustrate, each in their own way, certain handicaps of French and European industry facing the Asia-America couple: competitiveness on prices, the cost of energy and the temptation of relocation.
“China is killing us, Europe condones”
For the opponents of the presidential coalition in the June 9 elections, these tensions demonstrate the pitfalls of community economic policy. In its electoral program, presented Thursday by its head of list, Jordan Bardella, the National Rally wants in particular to put an end to the “wild unfair competition both extra-European and intra-European” For “re-industrialize France”.
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