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French minister: US green plan should be ‘wake-up call’ for EU industry

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday said Washington's $430 billion plan to spur climate-friendly technologies in the United States must be seen as a wake-up call for Europe.

Wind power
Washington is putting forward an ambitious plan to support climate-friendly technologies in the US. Photo by Thomas Richter / Unsplash

The EU “must be able to sweep in front of our own door” before worrying about the effects of the US climate plan on European industry, Le Maire told AFP in Washington, where he was part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s US state visit.

Even though the EU has already “changed its approach” on promoting green industry, the US climate plan must be seen as a “wake-up call” in the European Union, he added.

Le Maire’s comments came as EU countries have poured criticism on Washington’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), seeing it as anti-competitive and a threat to European jobs, especially in the energy and auto sectors.

Subsidies for green energy

The act, designed to accelerate the US transition to a low-carbon economy, contains around $370 billion in subsidies for green energy as well as tax cuts for US-made electric cars and batteries.

Macron on Wednesday slammed the plan’s “Made in USA” provisions as “super aggressive” for European businesses.

But at a joint press conference with Macron, Biden said that he and the French leader had agreed to “discuss practical steps to coordinate and align our approaches”, though he said he would not apologize for the US plan.

Biden added the IRA was never intended to disadvantage any US allies.

Threats of retaliatory measures

Last month, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened to appeal to the World Trade Organization and consider “retaliatory measures” if the United States did not reverse its subsidies.

Le Maire also criticized the EU’s own climate spending plans, arguing that they were too cumbersome and loaded with red tape.

“If the ambition is the same” as the Europeans, the United States relies on methods that “are simpler and faster”, he said.

“They put immediate and massive tax credits where we provide state aid (to specific projects) which sometimes take two years to be adopted and are too complex to implement,” said Le Maire.

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PROTESTS

IN PICTURES: Hundreds of thousands protest against far right in France

Around 640,000 people took to the streets in France on Saturday to protest against the far right, French trade union CGT said.

IN PICTURES: Hundreds of thousands protest against far right in France

The CGT said there were 182 demonstrations across the country.

The demonstrations were called by trade unions, associations and the newly formed left-wing alliance the Nouveau Front Populaire less than a week after French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections after the far right made significant gains in European Parliament elections.

Protesters gather during an anti far-right rally  in Paris on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP)

The CGT said 250,000 people protested in Paris, while the police put the number in the capital at 75,000.

 
Demonstrators hold placards, union flags and banners at an anti far-right rally in Dijon, south-eastern France on June 15, 2024. One protester holds a banner reading “Rather the Front Populaire than the children of [Vichy leader] Petain”. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)
 
 
 

 
Demonstrators march with placards during an anti far-right rally in Nantes on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP)

And in Rennes, 25,000 demonstrators (according to the organisers, or 12,000 according to the police), joined the Pride March, where rainbow flags mixed with Palestinian flags.

“Democracy can be lost at any moment,” said Florence Audebert, 40, who used to work in the entertainment industry.

“I have often voted usefully, Chirac in 2002 against Jean-Marie Le Pen, then Macron against Marine Le Pen… So I am happy to have left-wing candidates to vote for in these legislative elections!” she added.

 
Demonstrators react as they are enveloped by tear gas during an anti far-right rally in Rennes, western France on June 15, 2024. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP)
 
The first tensions broke out shortly before 4pm at Rennes’ Place de Bretagne with police firing tear gas, according to an AFP journalist.
 
The police said that a few people were responsible for damage to banks, estate agencies, street furniture and throwing projectiles at the police, along the protest route. 
 

 
A demonstrator throws back a tear gas canister fired by police during an anti far-right rally in Nantes on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP)
 
In Nantes, the procession brought together 15,000 people according to the organisers, 8,500 according to the police, including many young people.
 

“The RN is like your ex: he says he’s changed but it’s not true”, a sign from a group of environmental law students read.  

Among them, Léonie Leblanc, 19, voted for the first time last week. “For a first election, such a result saddens me a lot. It will be tense but I believe in the Nouveau Front Populaire,” she said.

 
A protester wearing an astronaut costume holds a placard reading “I come from the future and we have won” during an anti far-right rally in Nantes on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP)
 
In the Nantes procession, a same-sex family, Chloé Mahouet-Pujol alongside his wife Natacha and their two and a half year old daughter in a stroller, is worried: “we are trying to have a second child and we are wondering what will happen to the rights of homosexual and LGBTQI+ people.”
 

 
Protesters chant and hold placards during a demonstration against the far right, in Toulouse on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)
 
Around 4.30pm, the Nantes procession split in two, with some of the demonstrators returning to the starting point in a good-natured atmosphere to the sound of a fanfare, while a hundred metres away groups of young people faced the police in a haze of tear gas, said an AFP correspondent, before calm returned.
 

The Loire-Atlantique police recorded five arrests and “no major damage”.

 

 
A protester holds a placard which reads “Rise up and vote Front Populaire” during a demonstration against the far right, in Dijon, central eastern France, on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)
 
Further demos are planned for Sunday, according to the trade unions, including in Lyon.
 
 

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