Bruno Le Maire denounces “a business of standards” which harms European companies

“Europe must reconnect with competitiveness,” said Bruno Le Maire in a firm tone this Monday, during a trilateral meeting between France, Germany and Italy. Their common economic strategy includes “the simplification and debureaucratization of standards which are expensive and weaken our businesses”. The French Minister of the Economy points to a “standards business in Europe” with “companies and consulting firms which are only created to translate and explain the standards that we have invented”. “It’s a waste of time and money for our businesses,” criticizes Bruno Le Maire.

The minister thus proposes “a massive simplification” of these standards thanks to an “omnibus directive”. Concretely, “this directive would make it possible to simplify all existing standards” in order to “reduce and remove unnecessary standards which weigh on our companies”. Alongside his German and Italian counterparts, Bruno Le Maire proposed an “increase in the thresholds for the size of companies to allow our SMEs to be exempt from these obligations, from 250 to 500”. “It’s a truly radical decision that can simplify the lives of our businesses,” he assured.

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In addition to the simplification of standards, Bruno Le Maire mentioned two other pillars, including “competitiveness”. “Europe must be a champion of artificial intelligence in order to enable [us] to gain in productivity.” Added to this is a reflection from the minister on “fair competition” between the powers, “the most difficult subject” according to him. “It is also the one that should allow us to have a real debate with our trading partners like China or the United States.”

The minister recognizes that “all our products are and will remain more expensive than the products of our competitors”, particularly in relation to the costs of “decarbonizing our economy”. He thus takes as examples the production of wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles “which are more expensive than in China”. But, on this point, there is no question of changing course. Bruno Le Maire wants to be incisive and affirms that “Europe must show its teeth” to maintain the environmental quality of its productions. To achieve this, the French minister extends a hand to his counterparts and assures that “if we want to succeed, we need a common economic strategy”.