EU: Emmanuel Macron visits the Netherlands to talk about industry

French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte before a meeting in Rome in 2021 (photo illustration).

AP - Gregorio Borgia

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Emmanuel Macron is going to the Netherlands this Monday, January 30, for a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in order to prepare for the European Council on February 9 and 10 in Brussels.

On the menu for discussion: support for Ukraine, but also the strengthening of European industrial policy.

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With our correspondent in the region,

Laure Broulard

The French president is maneuvering to mobilize around a proactive response from the EU to the

American Inflation Reduction Act

 (IRA), which provides for massive public aid to the green technology sector.

Relaxation of the rules limiting national public aid, European sovereignty funds… If the measures proposed by Ursula von der Leyen to support European industry are viewed favorably in Paris, they are not unanimous in the north of Europe.

In an open letter sent to the Commission last week, seven member states are concerned about plans for " 

permanent or excessive untargeted subsidies

 " in response to the ERI.

Finland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Austria and Slovakia believe that this could create harmful competition between States and favor the richest countries.

The signatories also fear too direct a confrontation with Washington.

Concerns that could find an echo in the Netherlands.

Frans Timmermans, Dutch Vice-President of the European Commission, former Foreign Minister of his country, co-authored a column on the subject with two other commissioners, in the

Financial Times

.

 He worries about a possible fragmentation of the single market if the EU were to massively subsidize the industry.

►Read again: Europeans worried, the United States ready to "adjust" their climate plan

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  • Ursula von der Leyen

  • European Union

  • France

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Netherlands