Schröder argues against de-industrialisation
The German Chancellor has held a working dinner with the president of the European Commission in order to plead his case for special treatment for German industry against the demands of the Commission's policy. Schröder said he did not want to adopt a confrontational strategy but at the same time there were important interests to be defended.
The German leader is concerned to head-off Commission attempts to liberalise car sale room franchises and a new directive on the chemical industry. He also wants to kill off the new directive on company take-overs and to find common ground on continuing coal subsidies. In short, he wants to continue with Germany's comprehensive structures of industrial protectionism against Brussels' desire to dismantle these. Schröder said that he wanted there to be a proper industrial policy for the whole of Europe so that European industry was not ,,disadvantaged"with respect to American and Japanese industry. When accused of in fact just pursuing German national interests, Schröder rather infelicitously replied, ,,German goals are identical with European goals". With 25% of European industry, he said, Germany was defending the interests of ,,European"industry when she defended her own. [Handelsblatt, 29th April 2002]
Indeed, the German Chancellor used Le Pen's victory to press his case. He joined other leaders is saying that Le Pen's victory was ,,very worrying"but seemed less worried about any alleged ,,racism", however, and more concerned with ,,Europe". ,,For the first time,"he said; ,,20% of voters have voted for an explicitly anti-European position". He said that the same trend towards re-nationalisation of EU policies could be observed in other EU states. He used this as leverage in his discussions with the Commission on industrial policy, indirectly blaming Brussels for the developments in France. [Handelsblatt, 30th April 2002]
European Foundation Intelligence Digest Issue No. 141 2nd May 2002