European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said last year that she would create a new European Sovereignty Fund to help EU companies compete with president Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But whereas the US is pumping $369 bn (€340 bn) into key industries like batteries, resistance from European capitals — notably Berlin — meant that the EU executive could only commit to a weak €10 billion, under its mid-term review of its budget (MFF) announced today.
The IRA focuses on scaling up the production of green manufacturing by offering, for example, tax credits for batteries and wind turbines. The EU, on the other hand, plans to funnel the small funds it has made available to mostly research and development. Rather than provide fresh funds, the newly proposed ‘Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform’ overwhelmingly reshuffles money already available under existing funding plans. While a lot of money has been made available by Germany and France to support their own industries, this is not enough to compete with the US or China.
Actually, EU has higher priorities: €50 billion for Ukraine and €15 billion for migrants.
Source: EC, CleanTechnica
