After his visit to China, Emmanuel Macron is in the Netherlands on Tuesday. The purpose of this trip is both diplomatic and economic with the signing of “a pact for innovation”. What is it about ?
Emmanuel Macron planned to sign Wednesday, April 12 with his Dutch counterpart “a pact for innovation”. The aim is to establish or strengthen cooperation between Paris and The Hague in sectors as strategic as the defense industry, energy, artificial intelligence, or even quantum physics, which makes it possible to multiply the power of computer calculation.
The objective of this partnership is to take advantage of the geographical proximity of the two countries. For example, STmicroelectronics, which manufactures chips in France, can get closer to the Dutch company ASML, which produces machines to produce these same chips. An essential technology. All over Europe, car manufacturers need it.
The model that the Élysée wants to duplicate is the agreement signed in the fall of 2022 between automotive manufacturers in the Hauts de France region and Dutch companies in the sector. A few hundred kilometers apart, some fifty companies and research centers have chosen to combine their skills, to set up their sector more quickly in electric cars and, in particular, to create “gigafactories” together. in the heart of Europe.
Create European economic giants
Given the geopolitical context, the Élysée considers that it is urgent to have an economy on European soil that is less dependent on China, but also on the United States. We talked a lot about economic sovereignty at the time of Covid-19 for health and certain industries. The idea is to accelerate in terms of green industry, invest in the decarbonization of the economy.
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Emmanuel Macron’s wish is also to counter Joe Biden’s American plan. The French president insists: no European country will be able to compete if it does things alone, in its corner. But the risk is that it remains wishful thinking in the face of the billions of euros deployed by the United States to attract factories and industries to the American continent.
In the meantime, our relations with Germany having been less fluid lately, it is no coincidence that France is seeking to get closer to the Netherlands, from a commercial and technological point of view.