French MEP Jordaan Bardella urged the European Union to recognise that in recent years the EU has been naive in its relations with the United States and suggested that Brussels should finally work on developing a policy focused on defending its own interests.
Bardella recalled that in the summer of 2022 the United States passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which would allocate around $400 billion to finance the country’s energy transition over the next ten years.
Commenting on the decision, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed the view that such a policy “threatens to fragment the West”. For her part, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, noted that the new US law “causes concern in Europe”.
In response to the statements by European politicians, Bardella called for a strategy that would focus on the interests of the EU.
“Instead of lamenting that in a globalised world in times of crisis the US is promoting the growth of its own companies and labour market, would it not be better for the European Union to use this opportunity to recognise how naive it has been in recent years? Would the EU finally think of devising policies that prioritise re-industrialisation and job creation on its own territory?” – he said in his address to the EC.
US President Joe Biden signed the “Inflation Reduction Act” approved by Congress in August 2022. In particular, the document envisages significant subsidies for manufacturers of electric cars, batteries and energy equipment, provided that they are manufactured in the United States.
As Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission, pointed out, this law contains elements of discrimination that would harm EU companies, their ability to export to the US, and Europe’s ability to compete fairly with US products on third-country markets.
962 total views, 2 views today
