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“Today, amongst the top 40 biggest companies in the world, only five are European,” the manifesto reads.
At a joint press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, French Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, and German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier both underlined what they termed a “massive disadvantage” of European companies in comparison to their Chinese and American counterparts.
“In order to be able to create a new European champion, it is necessary to change the European regulatory framework,” Le Maire said while emphasising that countries like China heavily subsidise their own companies.
The two European countries suggested updating merger guidelines to take greater account of competition at the global rather than the European level.
In their five-page strategy paper, France and Germany also proposed giving the European Council, the forum representing member states, the right to override some antitrust decisions by the European Commission in certain “well-defined cases”.
“It’s the first time that France and Germany have put forward proposals to transform EU competition rules,” Le Maire said. “We have powerful, modern technologies and we don’t want them to serve other continents than ours.”
Speaking at a political event later on Tuesday, Le Maire called the European Commission’s refusal to let Siemens and Alstom merge an economic mistake and a political flaw.
“Sometimes there is nothing more stupid than European rules,” he said.
Alongside a change of the regulatory rules, the French-German industrial manifesto also calls for “massive investment in innovation” as well as measures to protect European technologies, companies, and markets.
Both ministers emphasised that completing the Capital Markets Union will enable European financial markets to support innovation in the industry. [...]