The US Inflation Reduction Act and its consequences were once again the subject of discussion among the Member States’ ministers responsible for competitiveness and industry on Tuesday 7 February in Stockholm.
“There was a common agreement today that all short term measures that address these measures are necessary, but it’s also important that they are smart, targeted and do not hamper the longer term goals of the green transition”, said Sweden’s Minister for Trade and International Cooperation Johan Forssell after an informal meeting of ministers responsible for competitiveness.
In keeping with the Swedish line, Mr Forssell warned against making decisions too quickly and potentially damaging. In his view, changes to the State aid rules should be handled with caution.
“From the Swedish perspective, we have been focusing on not making dramatic changes in a short period of time. One could take the State aid legislation as en example. This legislation has served the EU well for many years. It’s a big thing changing that”, he said.
For him, the solution lies rather in “investment in research, reducing the regulatory burden or free trade agreements”, for which he frequently expresses his support.
Visiting Washington with his German counterpart, Robert Habeck (see other news), French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire called on EU Member States “to be clear-headed”, stressing that “Europe must accelerate its strategic shift towards green industry and industrial independence”.
On 9 and 10 February in Brussels, the heads of state or government will in turn speak on this subject. The draft conclusions of the summit were stable on this point on 6 February, according to two EU sources. This version of the document, of which EUROPE has a copy, has been only slightly modified compared to the one of 2 February, detailed in our lines (see EUROPE 13114/7).
The few changes concern the paragraph on State aid: EU leaders are expected to be even more cautious on this point. For example, in this new version, they insist on the need “to preserve the competitiveness of SMEs “.
See the draft conclusions of 6 February: https://aeur.eu/f/58q (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)