Shocked by the recent rejection of the merger between Alstom and Siemens (see EUROPE 12188), the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, on Tuesday 12 February, outlined several avenues for reform of European competition law that would encourage the emergence of new European industrial champions capable of competing in global competition.
"Since Airbus, who are the new European industrial champions? [...] It is time to wake up and adapt our competition rules to the 21st century", asked the Mayor upon his arrival at the Ecofin Council.
Among the avenues he has set out for reforming European legislation are: - the creation of a right of evocation of the EU Council after a decision by the European Commission to reject a proposed concentration; - the establishment of a dynamic decision-making system which would allow the Commission, after a positive merger decision, to periodically assess the impact of the concentration on the market and to subsequently request new measures to promote competition; - the revision of the definition of 'relevant market' taking into account the global and not only European market.
France and Germany have already announced concrete reform proposals and are inviting other states to join them.
How can we ensure that the EU promotes a "competitive environment" conducive to the creation of "world champions" in Europe, also through mergers? - asked German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, referring to the issue of regulatory differences between Member States.
For the European Commissioner for Growth, Jyrki Katainen, it is necessary to be "very careful" about identifying the problem and the instruments needed to solve it. I am "not 100% sure that European competition policy is the source" of the competitive deficit problem and needs to be reformed, he said from Strasbourg.
European industrial strategy. These statements echo the work that nineteen Member States have started to define the outlines of an industrial strategy for the European Union that the next Commission would be responsible for implementing.
In France, the failed merger between Alstom and Siemens acts as a trigger to revive the discourse on abandoning the EU's naivety in industrial, commercial and competitive matters with China and the United States. The French government wants to put an end to the position that the EU will be able to impose its rules on its competitors. However, it has difficulty convincing people of the need for a real Community preference for European companies in the internal market.
The Mayor will travel to Berlin next week to identify, with his counterpart in Economics, Peter Altmaier, consortia for the manufacture of electric batteries as part of an important project of common European interest (IPCEI - see EUROPE 12162).
Paris is under pressure from its automotive sector, which threatens to source its supplies from Asia if Europeans do not take the initiative, while the battery is equivalent to a third of the value of an electric vehicle. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)