Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, appeared before the European Parliament’s Committee on Monetary Affairs (ECON) on Monday 27 November to discuss the European Union’s industrial policy and the measures being taken to combat the impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on the competitiveness of Europe’s ‘net-zero’ industry.
“The IRA is an ‘America first’ approach. It has to be said”, he asserted, before detailing the negative effects already being felt in the EU, such as the relocation of certain companies to the United States.
The same system of subsidies, this time from China, was also singled out by the European Commissioner, who believes that certain technologies, such as wind power, have “artificially” low prices, partly because of these subsidies.
“We must react by regaining control of the major value chains”, insisted Thierry Breton, advocating a reaction “at continental level” to build an “ambitious and assertive industrial policy”. And to present the single market and European funding as the keystone of this industrial resurrection in the face of the Chinese and American blocs.
Although MEPs were receptive to the Commissioner’s speech, they were critical of the current state of the single market. Its reform is one of the major projects of the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13280/9).
For Jonás Fernández (S&D, Spanish), the single market is “facing major problems, in capital union for example, but also in services”. As shadow rapporteur on the text introducing the STEP platform for financing European technologies (see EUROPE 13273/23), he expressed his concern at the lack of concrete money invested by the Union.
Without dismissing these problems, Mr Breton pointed out that the EU had concocted its own legislative response to the IRA, in the form of the following “triptych”: The Net-Zero Industry Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act and the ‘Chips Act’ on semiconductors. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)