To wage economic war, one must be armed. Europe seems disarmed. What tools, what instruments does it have to defend its economic interests? It may well, as in recent weeks, be particularly concerned about the fear of being stripped of its most beautiful technological and industrial jewels, it has little means to oppose it.

What are the calls for vigilance of the European Commission worth if it cannot counter hostile equity investments in businesses on the old continent? "There is nothing concrete on this issue," confesses a senior European official in the trade department. However, he adds, with the new rules enacted to respond to the health crisis, "nothing prevents a State from massively entering the capital of an enterprise that would be threatened."

Does this mean that Brussels advocates every man for himself? However, the common solutions are in the boxes of the Commission such as, for example, the creation of a European sovereign fund of 100 billion euros. A first step even if this sum represents barely 4% of the market valuation of Google and other Facebook.

The idea for this fund appeared in the summer of 2019 in a Commission working document. Barely revealed in the press at the end of August 2019, Brussels immediately denied it ... while expressing its interest in a mechanism for financing high-tech industries.

A polite formula that ultimately resulted in a first class burial until the Covid-19 crisis, when the pandemic hit Europe hard and resuscitated this idea.

This resurrection is the work of some senior officials who prefer to remain discreet and who remain convinced of the need for Europe to have a financial arm. "Europe cannot do without such a fund, explains one of them, otherwise it is all of its economic sovereignty that is collapsing as shown by this coronavirus crisis."

The Accelerator project, the embryo of a sovereign fund

In this area Brussels does not start from nowhere. Since 2015, the Commission has indirectly reflected on this question by advancing on a concept of the European Innovation Council (EIC) supported by Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas. Its principle is to promote research and transform researchers into entrepreneurs.

However, the concept remains in the boxes until 2017, when a new team takes up the idea by giving it more ambition. The new project is called Accelerator. There is no longer any question of distributing grants in vain to European companies ultimately bought by American or Chinese investors.

Accelerator authorizes direct equity investments in start-ups. "These shares, specifies one close to the file, allow the European institutions to obtain a blocking minority and to refuse foreign investments with predatory intentions."

And if ultimately the managers of Accelerator decide to sell the company, European taxpayers are not injured since the sums thus recovered in the sale fall back into the common European fund. "Even if it means losing a box, he adds, you might as well earn a few pennies in the process, unlike what is happening now where, stuffed with subsidies, a lot of boxes in need of European investors are going abroad for find some. "

A fund that would support strategic European companies

The Accelerator project should come into force very quickly and benefit from a budget of 10 billion euros for the European budget year 2021-2027, according to the Commission. At least, that was what was planned before the pandemic struck.

Will it reshuffle budget cards in favor of health and energy and digital transitions, and this to the detriment of economic security? "It is a risk, recognizes a senior official in Brussels. But if Accelerator loses its budget, it will be to the detriment of the economic future of our continent." For the time being, the promoters of Accelerator hope that their project will serve as a model for the creation of a European sovereign fund capable of coming to the aid this time of already established strategic companies.

We can think, for example, of the telecommunications equipment manufacturers Nokia and Ericsson, two European leaders in the 5G field, the only ones in the world able to compete with the Chinese giant Huawei.

These two European flagships interest the United States, which does not have successful companies in this sector. Washington estimated on February 6, through the voice of its Minister of Justice, that his country should buy one of these two companies to block the road to Huawei

It has not escaped anyone's attention that America has the means to fulfill its ambitions: a few weeks earlier, the American Congress had tabled a bipartisan bill to create a fund of $ 750 million to buy back companies at the forefront of 5G.    

Paris supports the project of a European financial arm

Nothing would please France, in full economic rearmament, more than this European sovereign fund finally sees the light of day. Paris has been discreetly campaigning for such a project for years. While he was only a candidate for the socialist primary, the future president François Hollande received a note from one of his advisers.

Dated September 7, 2011, it relates to the creation of a European sovereign wealth fund. "Controlling part of the capital is also an" anti-outsourcing weapon "", it says. Paris hopes that the Covid-19 crisis will wake up the Germans and the countries of the North, often the least enthusiastic about the idea of ​​arming Europe economically.

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