EU believes that tensions with the US over subsidies will be resolved “soon”

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, assured this Friday that the differences between the bloc and the United States over the Inflation Reduction Act – a US plan to subsidize the purchase of nationally manufactured electric vehicles – will be resolved soon.

“I am convinced that we will see results soon. We need to see results soon”, Breton remarked during a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington.

Breton explained that the EU still considers that the US law is discriminatory against European companies, but emphasized that the plan will serve to promote the fight against the climate crisis, an objective that the bloc shares.

Both powers created a joint working group last year to try to resolve the tensions caused by the US plan, which threaten to lead to a war of subsidies between the two economies.

Brussels, meanwhile, is developing its own industrial plan to respond to US regulations, accelerating investments in green technologies such as hydrogen, but also to reduce Member States’ dependence on raw materials from abroad, such as rare earths. .

The call will be part of this planzero emission industry law” that the European Commission wants to present in mid-March and that it can be “a turning point” for the European industrial fabric, in the words of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

In his speech, Breton reviewed the relations between the European Union and the United States in terms of security and technology, and revealed that on Thursday he held talks with the Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, about the implementation of a common cybersecurity strategy, in which both powers have been working since last year.

The Frenchman also defended the new European defense strategy as a way to reinforce the security of the continent and, in turn, that of the Atlantic Alliance, giving incentives to member countries to contribute more to military spending.

Source: EFE