IRA: traffic light coalition at odds + Change in CO2 strategy + German chip factory • Europe.Table

Traffic light coalition divided on response to IRA
France changes strategy to decarbonize industry
Wolfspeed to build billion-dollar chip factory in Saarland
Gas package: Geier wants to speed up Council decision
Bullmann to head Human Rights Committee
Von der Leyen confidante moves to head Directorate-General for Budget
Wolf protection: environment ministers against EU Parliament
Heads: Florian Hassler – Kretschmann’s understanding of Europe

Dear reader,

Intimidated by the USA? Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doesn’t want to give that impression. On the contrary. At the presentation of the “Green Deal Industrial Plan,” Europe’s answer to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), she stated: “We love competition.” Manuel Berkel and Markus Grabitz write about exactly what she has in mind.

France wants to cut greenhouse gases in the economy. The problem is that the industry has not really gone along with it. Now, France is changing course and adopting a new strategy. Claire Stam reports on how this came about and what the plan now looks like.

It is by all means a symbolic place where the US manufacturer Wolfspeed wants to build the world’s largest production facility for silicon carbide semiconductors. In Saarland, on the site of a former coal-fired power plant. Production of the chips is scheduled to start in 2027. The EU is pleased about this because it wants to break its dependence on Asian manufacturers.

Your
Alina Leimbach

Feature

Traffic light coalition divided on response to IRA

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has officially presented the EU’s response to the USA’s Inflation Reduction Act. In the run-up to the meeting, Germany was unable to make its contribution because the German government has not yet found a common position.

It is important to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the EU does not frantically copy the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Europe was early with the Green Deal, earlier than other economic areas – that’s what she said when she presented the program on Wednesday, which is intended to prevent the migration of future technologies to the United States. After all, industries from Europe are now being wooed there with high subsidies. The EU program is called the Green Deal Industrial Plan.

Europe is already well ahead in the net zero industries, she says, thanks in part to the massive aid provided by the EU, which she lists: the credit-financed Next Generation EU economic stimulus package with a volume of €750 billion and the REPowerEU program, with which the Union aims to break free from Russia’s energy dependence. However, the additional volume of REPowerEU so far amounts to only €20 billion.

‘We love competition’

If now Japan, India, the UK and – in the last place she mentions – the US are fueling the transformation with state money, the EU welcomes that: “We love competition.” Only then does she present how the EU intends to respond to the IRA:

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