Yves-Marie CANN - Ministères Territoires Écologie Logement | LinkedIn (original) (raw)

Today at the invitation of Lars-Hendrik Röller, President Emmanuel Macron attended the Berlin global dialogue, focusing on EU Competitiveness, building on his speech at the Sorbonne last April, on the Letta and Draghi reports and on the German-French contribution for Growth adopted in Meseberg in May, largely reflected in the new European Commission policy guidelines for the next five years. Time for the EU to deliver its own agenda! From President Macron’s « Europe can die » to Mario Draghi’s risk of a « slow agony », Europe’s growth and social model is at risk, even after strong and united EU responses to the Covid pandemic and to the Russian agression in Ukraine. The EU is lagging behind the US and China. It needs to reshape its growth model, invest and deliver more, particularly on climate change, AI, defence industry, to be more competitive. Five steps will be crucial : 1) The EU needs a simplification shock with its regulations, as it faces the risk of a technological desynchronisation with the US and China, to keep its attractiveness and deepen its Single Market in key sectors (energy, telcos, financial services). 2) The EU should use its instruments to enforce and restore a level playing field in trade relations with competitors, as they do not follow WTO rules anymore. Not to become protectionists: just to be fair to EU companies, industries, farmers, as they face Chinese overcapacities and subsidies as well as the impacts of the American IRA. The EU shouldn’t be naively continuing to play by the book and ignoring it has become an adjustment factor for international players. 3) The EU needs to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 with an industrial base. We need to deliver on a Clean Industrial Deal, building on energy autonomy and based on technological neutrality (net zero industry Act, Carbon border adjustment mechanism, etc.). 4) The EU needs to deliver an industrial strategy on key sectors identified in the Versailles Summit and the German-French contribution in Meserg so as to keep the technological edge, reduce dependencies and strengthen its resilience and sovereignty: IA, quantum computing, energy, biotechs/healthcare, defence, semiconductors, etc. We need to help EU players to innovate and scale up. 5) The EU needs to invest much more in these key sectors, mobilising both public and private support. As the EU budget is not sufficient, the EU also needs to build on innovative ways that have increased its investment capacity, such as the Juncker Plan and then the first common borrowing capacity for with NextGenerationEU. The EU also needs to mobilise private money, to channel the abundant European savings so that they stay in Europe to support the clean and digital transitions as well as the European defence technological and industrial base. This means more investments in equity and achieving the capital markets union. Time for an efficient EU to rush to deliver on this agenda!