French president tells fellow European leaders the bloc is falling behind the US and China because of over-regulation and under-investment

French president tells fellow European leaders the bloc is falling behind the US and China because of over-regulation and under-investment

The EU “could die” unless it makes itself more competitive with the US and China, Emmanuel Macron has warned.

The French president said the bloc was over-regulating and under-investing at the Berlin Global Dialogue event.

Washington and Beijing both outstripped the EU in economic output and investment, he said, before calling on the bloc to complete its banking union package of financial rules.

Member states also needed to press for global trade rules to be kept fair, he added, according to Bloomberg.

  • Naich@lemmings.worldEnglish
    1142·
    2 months ago

    Call me a mad old communist stooge but I count quality of life rather than economic output as a marker of success.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      273·
      2 months ago

      True to an extent but you need economic output to give you weight in the international stage. Otherwise you start getting pushed around by other superpowers.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        2 months ago

        Also you need at least a reasonable amount of economic output to have good quality of life. I’m not saying good quality of life should be defined as full-blown sigma grindset consumerism, but I don’t think most people would define it as cottagecore subsistence farming, either.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          51·
          2 months ago

          You know, if you look at actual subsistence farmers, I never get a cottagecore vibe. They can and do use modern bits and pieces to make their work a little less back-breaking, as they can scavenge or occasionally buy them. A pole lathe is less aesthetic when it’s powered by a cut-off bungie cord.

        • kent_ehEnglish
          31·
          2 months ago

          a reasonable amount of economic output

          There’s a vast difference between "reasonable " and “max_profits nothing else matters”.

      • drspod@lemmy.mlEnglish
        141·
        2 months ago

        Otherwise you start getting pushed around by other superpowers

        This is more a coincidence of the status quo rather than a consequence of an inherent correlation between economic output and geopolitical power.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        31·
        2 months ago

        And also just buy things that are nice for ordinary people. In the West we don’t feel it, but in a place like Africa the inability to produce anything high-tech themselves hurts.

        • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          It would hurt much less, if the countries wouldn’t get fucked in trade “agreements” for their agricultural products and resources.

          This aspect is kind of where the whole “free market, everyone specializes, everyone wins” theory fails, as the “less developed” economies get pushed around diplomatically and militarily, rather than being allowed to participate in a fair market.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            Corrupt wealth extraction from Africa is real, and significant on their end (but not ours, we do it for cents off each dollar).

            A lot of African economies are managing to grow explosively anyway, though, as anyone who pays attention to the continent can tell you.

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    554·
    2 months ago

    No they are not. They are kicking the rest of the worlds ass in standard of living. What that useless frog leg is saying the regulations are preventing his rich masters from being even richer.

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
    401·
    2 months ago

    De-regulation only helps rich assholes get richer. What he really means is the rich are getting marginally less rich right now, and they don’t like it.

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    141·
    2 months ago

    The EU car industry, in particular German carmakers are at the verge of a crisis because they lobbied so successfully against more regulations, that they fell behind on innovation. Now China is swooping up the EV market.

    The problem with regulation is never regulation. It is a problem of inefficient bureaucratic processes of enforcing it. In order to have efficient processes you need to invest well into the public sector, which is something Neoliberals like Macron fiercely oppose.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    While I’m generally sympathetic to the idea that the EU should strive to be more economically-competitive, I’m also skeptical that economic competitiveness represents an existential threat for the EU.

    I’d also point out that the devil is in the details of what specific changes one plans to make. France has a lot of EU regulation and economic restrictions that they like. I suspect that a lot of people might point to the Common Agricultural Policy as something to reduce in size, though it’s generally benefitted France at the expense of some other members.