“We have to prevent China from producing our cars,” Weber said in a debate in the European Parliament on the report by Italian Mario Draghi on the competitiveness of Europe. Bas Eickhout (GroenLinks-PvdA) also expressed his concerns about the poor situation of the European car industry in the debate. “We seem to be much too late with the production of electric cars,” Eickhout said. He referred to the Audi factory in Brussels, where 3,000 jobs may disappear. The German Volkswagen group, of which Audi is a part, is in big trouble. Factories will probably also be closed in Germany. “The European economy has been neglected for a long time. China and the United States are much further ahead,” Eickhout said later. That is also one of the most important observations of Draghi, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Central Bank, in his report on the future of European competitiveness. According to Draghi, it is crucial that the European Union quickly improves its competitiveness. Both Weber and Eickhout are positive about the report that Draghi explained in the European Parliament on Tuesday. Weber called the report “an essential basis for our work”. Eickhout emphasized that the investments proposed by Draghi, some 800 billion euros per year, are necessary. The social democratic group of the European Parliament also supports the investments that Draghi believes are necessary to make Europe economically healthy again. “No member state can do this alone”, said the Dutch MEP Mohammed Chahim (GroenLinks-PvdA). “We do this together or not at all.” The liberal group Renew supports the report. “Draghi calls for rapid and radical action”, said Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (D66, part of Renew). “We really have to do this.” A number of other European groups are sceptical about additional investments by EU member states or are strongly opposed to them. The Patriots for Europe, the third party in the European Parliament, see no merit in Draghi’s proposals. If these go ahead, the member states will lose their sovereignty in the eyes of the faction, and the party is strongly opposed to this. The PVV is part of the Patriots.
Source: www.autoweek.nl
