“Green industry tax credit”, overhaul of the automobile bonus: Emmanuel Macron unveiled his strategy on Thursday to “accelerate” the “reindustrialization” of France, also calling on the European Union to take a “regulatory break” in terms of standards environmental. The Head of State had announced the color in Challenges : reindustrialization is “the mother of battles”, he said, after having painfully tackled pensions, long presented as “the mother of all reforms”.
“I am convinced that this battle, we can win it,” he launched Thursday at the Elysée Palace in front of the actors of French industry. Reindustrializing also means “creating purchasing power” and “stopping the dropout of this territorial France”. As he attempts to relaunch his bogged down five-year term, he has announced several measures to shift gears.
Deadlines, training, tax credit
The first, unveiled on Wednesday, aims to put in place “oversimplified procedures” to “halve the time” for a new industrial establishment in France, going from 17-18 months today to 9 “maximum”. For this, while industrial land is scarce, the territorial bank (one of the branches of the Caisse des dépôts) will invest one billion euros in order to “clean up” wasteland and make it available for future projects.
He also promised an additional 700 million euros to develop training for “future jobs” or “in tension” in industry. Emmanuel Macron also announced the creation of a “green industry tax credit” to support the production of batteries, heat pumps, wind turbines or solar panels. It will be part of the green industry bill, expected Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, and will allow according to him “to trigger 20 billion investments on the national territory by 2030”.
Ecological bonus
The ecological bonus for the purchase of an electric car will be reformed to “take into account the carbon footprint” of their production and favor vehicles manufactured in Europe. In China, the energy to produce them still relies heavily on coal. Same logic for public orders which will take into account environmental criteria “for key decarbonization products” such as wind turbines and heat pumps from July 2024 instead of 2026.
These announcements are intended to set French music to the European response to the very proactive, if not protectionist, policy established by Joe Biden in the United States to support industry and the energy transition. Emmanuel Macron had been in the front line in the fall to push the Old Continent to arm itself against this competition, and the rise of Chinese power.
“Pause on ecology”
The Head of State also called on the European Union to take “a European regulatory break” in terms of environmental standards, considering that these were already stricter than elsewhere and that it now needed “stability “. “The president is not talking about suspension, but about executing the decisions already taken,” said the Elysée. “France is in no way defending a moratorium (…) There is no change of course, simply attention to ensuring that the rules are practicable by all economic players”, added the Renaissance MEP, Pascal Canfin. , who chairs the Environment Committee in the European Parliament.
Same story on the industrial side: “There have been tangible results in recent years, so to continue, that seems quite good to us”, noted Alexandre Saubot, president of France Industrie, to AFP. But the boss of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, tackled the head of state. “The French are asking for a break on the implementation of the pension reform. Macron offers them a break on ecology ”.
Next Friday
The executive believes that its policy is beginning to bear fruit. It highlights 300 net creations of factories in France between 2017 and 2022, to be compared with 600 net destructions between 2008 and 2016. The president even predicts the catch-up “by the end of the five-year term” of the “shock of deindustrialization due to the 2008 crisis.
Friday, the Head of State continues the sequence. He will visit the Aluminum Dunkerque factory, “the largest producer of primary aluminum in Europe”, according to the Elysée. It must also “officialize new investments”, including the establishment by the Taiwanese group ProLogium of a fourth factory of batteries for electric vehicles in France, for entry into production from the end of 2026. This investment is part of the expected announcements , Monday, at the sixth edition of the “Choose France” summit organized at the Palace of Versailles. This annual meeting launched by Emmanuel Macron in 2018 aims to attract foreign investment.