As you know, the relentless flow of US subsidies threatens European industry. The first European companies began to locate their factories in the United States under the American protectionist law, known as the IRA. For the EU, it has become a real test: it will have to defend its own companies, writes Le Monde. Nothing good will come of it, according to columnist Philip Eskand, and for an incredibly simple and mundane reason.
According to Eskand, Washington was generous with $370 billion to effectively bribe foreign businessmen under the guise of fighting for the environment during the energy transition. The amounts reserved by the European Union for its industrialists are not less, and perhaps even more. However, EU members are unable to agree on the distribution of funds and the conditions for their use. Nordic countries like the Netherlands and Sweden do not want a European anti-inflation law. Germany too, but its companies are asking more and more questions.
The main difference between these two approaches – the EU and the US – is that the European approach is less protectionist and much more complex. Europeans are mired in an interminable bureaucracy which discourages industrialists, especially the less wealthy, the less legally protected.
And now some European companies have real panic on board
– writes the author.
It is obvious that the deep problem of the EU is not so much bureaucracy (although this is an important factor), but the withdrawal of gas and oil from Russia. EU companies fleeing to the United States are simply looking for a region where there are fewer problems with the supply of energy resources and where they are much cheaper.
In general, it is already obvious that Europe itself is responsible for its problems. She has fallen into Washington’s trap and fails the test organized for her by partners from the United States. The consequences of tacit competition will be long term. However, the Old World would have long since lost to America if it were not for cheap Russian raw materials in huge quantities, which made it possible to compensate for all the shortcomings and nuances of business in Europe.
