Both should in particular promise better communication on public subsidies, and launch a dialogue on the purchase of metals necessary for the batteries of electric vehicles.

“Transatlantic economic issues will be at the center” of the discussion, when the American president receives the president of the European Commission, but we should not expect spectacular concrete announcements, said a senior White House official.

He was speaking during an interview with journalists, and did not wish to be identified.

Europeans are still looking for a parade in the face of the "Inflation Reduction Act", the gigantic subsidy program through which Joe Biden intends to encourage the energy transition in the United States by unapologetically supporting "Made in America".

The European Commission is proposing, in response, to relax the rules on State aid to support the green transition of European industrialists, who are worried about this outflow of public money from America.

In the Oval Office, Ursula von der Leyen and Joe Biden will therefore, according to the source already quoted, engage in a “dialogue on the transparency of public subsidies”, to ensure that each party “communicates” its intentions to the other.

Ursula Von Der Leyen at a press conference in front of the White House, after a meeting with President Biden, November 10, 2021 © WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives

The goal, according to the senior official, is to avoid that "our subsidies and their subsidies diverge and compete to the point of creating a zero-sum game."

Metals

The American president and his guest should also, still according to the White House, open "negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement on strategic metals" for the energy transition, especially those used for the batteries of electric cars.

The aim being, there too, to prevent the race for clean vehicles on both sides of the Atlantic from degenerating, the United States and Europe being, de facto, in competition to obtain these precious metals. .

Ukraine will obviously also be on the menu of discussions, after massive Russian strikes on Thursday, as well as China.

"The European Union has had a very active participation in the response to the conflict" and in the response to Russia, praised a senior official of the American executive.

At a time when the United States openly accuses Beijing of considering military aid to Russia, Washington would like to convince the European Union to adopt a firmer position vis-à-vis China, despite the very strong commercial ties that maintains the Asian giant with, in particular, Germany.

President Xi Jinping and Ursula von der Leyen, by videoconference from Beijing for an EU-China summit, April 1, 2022 in Brussels © Olivier Matthys / POOL/AFP/Archives

"We have seen a significant convergence of views (...) concerning our position vis-à-vis China", however assured the senior American official.

"When we deal with bilateral relations between the EU and the United States, everything is now in a triangle with China", analyzes for AFP Elvire Fabry, of the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank based in Paris.

"The Commission has made it clear that the Europeans have a specific vision of how they want to maintain relations with China," she said.

“The Biden administration has slightly readjusted the tone of its dialogue with the Europeans on this subject. It is striving to move from a logic of pressure for more alignment with the American position to a logic of consultation” with Brussels , adds the expert.

© 2023 AFP