France's economy minister Bruno Le Maire was in Berlin on Tuesday, meeting with Peter Altmaier, his German counterpart, to announce their plan for revised EU competition rules.
Le Maire Altmaier
Monsieur Le Maire and Herr Altmaier speaking at the launch of their manifesto.
The ministers released their manifesto less than two weeks after the Alstom-Siemens rail merger was blocked by the EU on grounds that it would have been harmful for competition.
Le Maire said at the time that "the current EU rules are obsolete" and had indicated that he would be discussing revision to them with Altmaier.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a separate event earlier on Tuesday that the EU's current competition rules "leave me in doubt about whether we can really produce global players."
The Franco-German manifesto for change was released on Tuesday.
In a joint statement, the two ministers said: "The choice is simple when it comes to industrial policy: unite our forces or allow our industrial base and capacity to gradually disappear."
Noting that just five of the world's top 40 companies are European, they added "Competition rules are essential but existing rules need to be revised to be able to adequately take into account industrial policy considerations."
Altmaier said that the plan would be taken to the EU and that neither country would be acting unilaterally on the matter. "It is clear that Germany and France should not decide alone when and how these rules should be changed," he said. "We will take the initiative, we will talk with our partners in the EU, with the European Parliament and with the Commission."
Speaking after the event, Le Maire was sharply critical of the EU regulations saying: "There is sometimes nothing more stupid than European rules. These rules were invented in the 20th century, and they are leading to economic and political mistakes."
He added: "We will not succeed without a European champion that's capable of investing, innovating and keeping value-add at home. We should change European competition rules to defend our interests."
The manifesto was jointly signed by both ministers and laid out a plan for the EU member states to unite industrial forces in face of global markets and increased competition, to invest more in innovation, and to protect European technologies with the goal of creating a pan-European industrial strategy allowing the continent to continue as an industrial power towards 2030.
The Altmaier-Le Maire manifesto consists of three main pillars and 14 points, including:
- Large investments in innovation - a European strategy to finance technology, becoming a world leader in AI, development of electric batteries and financial support for innovation.
- Adopt regulatory framework - in order to allow European companies to be globally competitive, update merger guidelines to better reflect the current geopolitical situation, and to allow appeals against the European Commission.
- Non-EU countries that want access in Europe must give European companies access to public tenders in their countries.
- Defend multilateralism - including bilateral trade and avoiding protectionism.
The manifesto concluded with a proposal to continuously monitor and make alterations to trade policy in order to defend European "strategic autonomy: this includes the essential and urgent modernisation of WTO rules to improve transparency, and more effectively combat unfair practices, including excessive subsidies for industry. This work is not easy in the current climate but remains essential."
The first step announced by the ministerial pair was a European car battery manufacturing plant. Germany plans to invest €1 billion and France €700 million in the project. Altmaier said that the projects would not be state held and that commercial companies would be participating in the project, though he gave no names.
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