It has been called the new gold rush – a rush to catch up with China in producing and refining the materials needed in everything from computers to cars: but has it come too late to save Europe’s car industry? Deep inside a former East German town lies the first fruits of the EU’s grand plan to “de-risk” and wean itself off dependency on imports for the green revolution. In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 140km south-west of Berlin, an Amsterdam-listed company is scrambling to complete construction of a vast factory that will be…
Tag: Ursula von der Leyen
EU softens China strategy by adopting ‘de-risking’ approach
EU leaders have launched a policy towards China of “de-risking”, a softening of its unofficial “decoupling” approach that reflects concerns over the economic damage of cutting off the world’s second-biggest economy or entering a trade war with it. The decision was agreed quickly at a summit of leaders in Brussels after the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, went into the summit with consensus among the 27 member states. The bloc took the view that supply chains for chemicals for electric vehicle batteries and semiconductors were especially vulnerable to…
When Macron met Xi: welcome to the new world disorder
It is perhaps no surprise that Emmanuel Macron is in the middle of another big international row. France’s president likes to stir things up. It is his penchant, his trademark foible. Re-elected in 2022 despite a disappointing first term, he has four years left to make a difference. After that, political oblivion beckons – and Macron will still be under 50 in April 2027. Maybe this ticking clock helps explain why he courts danger like a bare-chested surfer riding the waves on the beach at Biarritz. At home, Macron has…
The Guardian view on China and Europe: Macron’s careless words were costly | Editorial
Four years ago, Emmanuel Macron remarked that the era of European naivety on China was over. As Andrew Small establishes in his book The Rupture, the shift was not born primarily of US pressure to pick sides – though that was unquestionably felt – but of Europe’s own dealings with Beijing. Views have hardened further thanks to China’s increasing forcefulness in foreign policy, its handling of Covid and its support for Russia over Ukraine. Last month, the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a “de-risking” of relations with…
‘Sign of weakness’: Truss criticises Von der Leyen and Macron for visiting China – video
The former British prime minister Liz Truss has criticised the visit by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, to Beijing, describing it as a mistake. Speaking during a Q&A after delivering the 2023 Margaret Thatcher freedom lecture on Wednesday, Truss said: ‘The idea that we can treat China as just another global player is wrong. It is a totalitarian regime and we need to adapt our policies accordingly.’ Truss also called on western countries to take a stronger line on Taiwan The…
What happens if Putin goes nuclear in Ukraine? Biden has a choice to make
There has been much excited talk of a “turning point” following Ukraine’s rapid military advances in north-eastern Kharkiv region and what Kyiv cheerily calls its “de-occupation” by fleeing Russians. Less comforting for the western democracies is an alternative theory: that the war is approaching “a moment of maximum danger”. Worries that a cornered, desperate Vladimir Putin may resort to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons have resurfaced in the US and Europe, along with the argument, articulated by France’s Emmanuel Macron, that Russia’s president, despite his terrible crimes, should not be…