But when it comes to protecting Europe from global threats, these neighbors may as well be on different planets.
At an event in Berlin this week, the French president warned that the EU “could die” and that if it continues with a “classical” free-trade agenda, it will be “out of the market” in two or three years. He made the case that Europe should embrace a more protectionist agenda if it wants to survive.
Scholz meanwhile argued that a push to protect European industries from unfair trade practices “must not lead to us harming ourselves.”
With China increasingly assertive especially in critical new carbon-neutral technology and supply chains, the EU has some choices to make if it wants to compete. Those decisions will require a large degree of consensus from national leaders. And the bloc’s two biggest powers can’t seem to agree.
European Union member countries did not oppose a proposal on Friday to impose duties on Made-in-China electric vehicles, as expected, overcoming a last-minute push by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to stop them.
Ten countries voted in favor and five against, while 12 abstained, several diplomats familiar with the results of the vote in the Trade Defence Instruments Committee told POLITICO.