France and Germany are expected to present a joint document on European industrial policy in a few days' time, French sources told EUROPE on the sidelines of the German Industry Days on Tuesday 4 June in Berlin.
“We have reached a point where decisions must be made”, said French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire at the event.
Paris and Berlin are reportedly indeed “close to an agreement” on a new Franco-German approach to reforming European competition rules, a high-ranking French source (see EUROPE 12267/14) said. The only point of disagreement still on the table is the responsibility given to the EU Council to reverse a merger decision taken by the European Commission.
Speaking after Chancellor Angela Merkel, the German Ministers of Economy, Peter Altmaier, and of Finance, Olaf Scholz, and then Mr Le Maire, defended in turn an industrial policy that would not be “a European nationalism, but which would favour the defence of common economic interests” to face the sometimes aggressive competition from China and the United States, according to Mr Altmaier's formulation.
The French minister, who is willing to do so, wanted a European continent “at the cutting edge of technology, equipped with a capitalism that is both efficient and fair, growing and protecting the environment”. “It's a vast field, but we'll get there”, he concluded. After 25 minutes of speeches in German defending public interventionism, he received a long standing ovation from representatives of German industry, using Angela Merkel's wording during the massive influx of refugees in 2015: “Wir schaffen das!”.
In concrete terms, the new Franco-German document will extend the manifesto presented in mid-February by emphasising investment protection and reciprocity in public procurement (see EUROPE 12197/5).
The fields of industrial cooperation could also be broadened. In February, France and Germany outlined a pan-European cooperation on the production of batteries for electric vehicles. New sectors would enter the race: artificial intelligence, online data storage (‘cloud computing’), cybersecurity. Germany would also like to see more industrial cooperation to develop low-carbon steel production. (Original version in French by Nathalie Steiwer)