22/04/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Sunday 21 April, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, praised the importance for the European Union’s prosperity of maintaining “open markets” with other fast-growing regions of the world, noting the 74 trade agreements already concluded. “But we should not ignore it when openness becomes a risk”, she said in a speech at the opening of the Hannover Fair. She described the massive subsidies granted to electric vehicle manufacturers as “clouds on the horizon”, without mentioning China. She said that the EU will press its partners “for a level playing field for our businesses”. Otherwise, in the event of “abuse [...] we will not hesitate to use our defence tools”, she warned. See the speech: https://aeur.eu/f/bwc (MB)