Could Europe be lining up behind the United States in the conflict between them and China? She seems, in any case, more and more sensitive to American sirens, as evidenced by the meeting at the White House, Friday, March 10, between Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, and Joe Biden, the American President. .
By making this trip, Ursula von der Leyen hoped to obtain adjustments from the American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides for 369 billion dollars (about 343 billion euros) in subsidies to the American green industry and which raises fears to Europeans a wave of relocations across the Atlantic. From this point of view, his approach was not a great success. On the other hand, it allowed Washington to score some points in its fight to rally Europeans to its anti-Chinese cause.
At the end of their meeting, Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen indeed committed to “start negotiations on strategic raw materials”. Brussels wishes that, when they are extracted or transformed in Europe, they are assimilated to the geographical criteria which allow, for example, an electric car sold across the Atlantic to benefit from the tax credits provided for by the IRA.
For the rest, the press release from Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen announces “strengthened cooperation between the United States and the European Union to prevent the leakage of sensitive technologies (…) to destinations that operate civil-military fusion strategies”. Understand China. It evokes “export controls” et “investments” in order to adapt “to a new geostrategic environment”.
Restrictive trade measures
Sweet words in the ears of the United States, which for years have wanted, in the name of security, to convince Europe to take restrictive trade measures against Beijing. “In this passage, Biden and von der Leyen talk about geopolitical strategy”, analyzes a senior European official for whom the former minister of Angela Merkel exceeded her mandate by not consulting the Twenty-Seven beforehand. The Council’s legal services, moreover, are studying the press release in question to see if it needs to be submitted to them.
European ambassadors to the European Union (EU), for their part, will debate, on Wednesday, March 15, the results of Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Washington. “Normally, the Commission would have come to talk to us before this trip. But as she knows that Charles Michel [président du Conseil] is represented in these meetings, she does not… What is happening is also the result of the squabble that these two engage in”regrets one of them.
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