The recently elected chair of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Aurore Lalucq, said Europe must step up efforts to support its weakening industry to compete with China and the United States, according to Euractiv.
Lalucq warned that state-led industrial policies pursued by Washington and Beijing put Europe at serious risk of becoming “a continent of consumers” rather than producers.
The world has changed; we are no longer [experiencing] a ‘happy globalization.’ The US is defending their economy. China is also defending their economy. And we need to do the same. It’s not about being protectionist per se. We just need to stop being so naive.
Her comments came amid growing concern about the state of the European economy, with lagging productivity, weak investment, and high energy prices. Europe is also struggling as Beijing has launched an anti-dumping investigation into EU dairy products in response to preliminary tariffs of up to 36.3 per cent on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs).
The question is: Do we want to be a continent of consumers, or do we want to be one of manufacturers? If we just want to remain passive consumers, then we should not put tariffs. But then it will be over for us.
Earlier this week, former Italian Prime Minister and former ECB President Mario Draghi published a report on EU competitiveness. Lalucq praised his “accurate diagnosis” of the European economy, but criticised many policy proposals.
It’s never too late. It’s a political choice. Frankly, it’s not an easy situation [to protect Europe’s solar panel industry], but we still need to do whatever is necessary to keep our autonomy.
However, independent non-governmental organisation Finance Watch stated that Draghi underestimated Europe’s total investment needs by around €400 billion.
