For Emmanuel Macron, Europe may be "mortal," but its industry is already in need of an electroshock. In his speech at the Sorbonne on Thursday, April 25, the French President called on the European Union (EU) to stop being naïve in its global competition with the US and China. "We need to change our economic model in Europe," he said, because "the US and China have decided to stop respecting global trade rules." In particular, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the US investment plan decided by President Joe Biden in 2022 to favor manufacturers on the other side of the Atlantic, and China's policy of subsidizing its companies in the green sectors.
For the French president, the EU must respond with "a shock of joint investments," even if this means deviating from its rules regarding free competition. In particular, Europe must become a world leader by 2030 in five strategic future sectors: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, biotechnologies and new energies.
Even before his speech at the Sorbonne, industrial issues had become an integral part of the European election campaign on June 9. Indeed, the strategic autonomy championed by the French President has been undermined by several recent announcements concerning French companies. In the solar energy sector – despite being one of the government's stated priorities – Systovi, a photovoltaic panel manufacturer based near Nantes (87 employees), is winding down its operations. Placed in compulsory liquidation, the company has been unable to cope with Chinese price dumping.
In glassmaking, the historic Duralex brand (founded in 1945), weighed down by falling demand and rising energy costs, is looking for a buyer for its 230-employee plant near Orléans. Finally, in the healthcare sector, the generic drugs producer Biogaran (over 8,000 employees and 39 sites in France) is being put up for sale by the Servier group, and could be sold to an Indian entrepreneur. Three examples that illustrate, each in their own way, some of the disadvantages faced by French and European industry in the face of the Asia-America pairing: price competitiveness, energy costs and the temptation to relocate.
'China is killing us, Europe is supporting us.'
For the presidential coalition's opponents in the June 9 elections, these tensions testify to the pitfalls of EU economic policy. In its electoral program, presented on Thursday by its lead candidate, Jordan Bardella, the Rassemblement National wanted to put an end to "savage unfair competition both extra-European and intra-European" in order to "reindustrialize France."
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