Reaction from industrial sectors, especially automotive, has forced the French and Italian governments to put up some sort of roadblock to the EU Commission insane “Fit for 55” proposal. According to La Repubblica, Italy and France joined forces from different standpoints with critics to the EU Commission in a meeting July 13.
French President Emmanuel Macron has received a delegation from the auto industry which says the EU proposal, as it is now, is endangering 400,000 jobs; it calls for €17.5 billion of government aid for the transition. “The EU is throwing away a hundred years of European know-how and choses a technology in which the Chinese are ten years in advance,” the Automotive Platform (PFA) President Luc Chatel said according to Le Monde.
In Italy, both the M5S and the Lega components of the government majority have objected to the “Fit for 55” plan. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio (M5S) said Italy cannot afford an economic and social shock provoked by a fast green transition.
Speaking at a meeting on “Export and Made in Italy” in Ischia July 18, Di Maio said: “There is somebody in Europe who thinks that ecological transition can be completed in two years. Ecological transition will work only if our companies, our productive systems but also professionals will have enough time to adapt to the transformation. Otherwise, it won’t be a transition: it will be a shock. We will produce a drop in emissions, which however will correspond to a loss of jobs and the shutdown of companies. And we cannot afford that, in particular in Southern Italy where transition needs adequate aids for digital transition, transferral of know-how to businesses that must have the time to adapt, especially in this phase.”
