ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti on Monday called for a common European Union approach to bolstering competitiveness and protecting strategic production, in response to massive subsidies from the U.S. Reduction Act inflation (IRA).
The EU fears that the $430 billion IRA program, with its generous tax breaks for domestic production of energy sector components, could attract European companies and disadvantage European companies, from car manufacturers to technology manufacturers green.
“We support a European IRA plan with the objective of reducing inflation,” Giorgetti said in a statement released on the sidelines of a meeting with fellow eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday that the EU would adapt its state aid rules to allow governments to help their industries counter the negative impact of the IRA bill. .
Giorgetti said the EU should act in unity rather than following a country-by-country approach.
“We consider measures that promote competitiveness and protect strategic production to be positive, but at the same time we believe that any intervention must be taken at European level, preserving the integrity of the single market,” Giorgetti added.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Gavin Jones and Sandra Maler)
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