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The European Commission approved Monday a state aid plan from seven European countries, including France and Germany to position Europe at the forefront of the global battery market, to create a kind of "Airbus des batteries ".
The ambition of the seven participating countries (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Sweden and Finland) is to create a battery excellence sector in Europe, at a time when the global market promises an explosion of demand. .
The countries of this European battery alliance will put on the table 3.2 billion euros of public aid, with the aim of leading private investment to more than 5 billion euros, says our correspondent in Brussels , Pierre Benazet .
This project is part of the ambition to revive the European industrial policy, but it also comes at a particularly favorable moment since the development of these new European batteries must participate in the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse.
This double criterion has in a way enabled the seven countries to obtain the green light from the European Commission in record time of two months, which is usually very cautious for state aid.
Create a green industrial power
In practice, 17 companies will be involved, including SMEs, with already 70 external partners expected. The goal is to create a complete sector, which will go from securing the supply of minerals until the final recycling of batteries, obviously through production, with a first pilot plant inaugurated in the Charente in the coming months.
Making Europe the first green industrial power of tomorrow: this is the goal of this alliance, which will include a major R & D component to make batteries more efficient and more respectful of the environment. " The emergence of the European battery industry will contribute to the achievement of the European Union's goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050, " said Bruno Le Maire, France's minister of energy. economy in a statement.
The fight against global warming is one of the priorities of the Commission , which is due to present its first measures in this area on Wednesday 11 December.