(Bloomberg) — Emmanuel Macron’s latest attempt to cast the European Union as a balancing power between the US and China will be tested this week as he seeks to enlist support from the Netherlands.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
The 45-year-old president will arrive in Amsterdam on Tuesday for the first state visit of a French leader in 23 years and plans to make the case for more joint EU spending, closer control over European supplies of technology and industrial goods and, crucially, a degree of skepticism about relations with the US.
But his visit risks being overshadowed by the fallout from last week’s visit Beijing, where he sought to build bridges with President Xi Jinping and mark his independence from Washington. Macron will deliver a speech on economic sovereignty at the Nexus Institute in The Hague on Tuesday afternoon in which he will appeal to European leaders not to be naive about how far they can rely on the US, according to a French official.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Macron has been pushing for a more assertive European foreign policy with closer integration and more common spending since he took power six years ago, reflecting a long-standing French approach that began with Charles De Gaulle in the 1960s.
His supporters argue that the war in Ukraine has vindicated his longstanding call for European “strategic autonomy.” His critics say that the conflict has instead shown that the EU is still unable to police its own backyard without Washington’s help and it’s primarily US aid that helped Kyiv to fight the Russian invasion.
In China, he suggested that the EU should avoid getting dragged into any potential confrontation between the Beijing and Washington, provoking a furious response from some US lawmakers, including Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has regularly opposed Macron’s European proposals, advocating instead strong cooperation with the US and a more conservative approach to fiscal policy. The Netherlands has, all the same, provided more military aid to Ukraine, despite having a much smaller economy.
The relationship between France and the Netherlands hit trouble in 2019 when the Dutch government increased its stake in the Franco-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM without warning officials in Paris. Back then, Macron’s government accused Rutte’s of acting like a market raider.
In 2020, Rutte forced Macron to scale back his plans for joint EU funding plan to help the continent recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. But officials from both countries say that relations have improved and the two countries are aiming to seal a defense agreement next year.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Nevertheless, the differences that underpinned the dispute over the recovery fund are likely to resurface as the leaders discuss their response to a massive US program to subsidize clean technology.
In response to the European Commission’s decision to repurpose some of that money as green subsidies to compete with the US, France is pushing for the EU to come up with more common funds, according to the official who asked not to be identified in line with French government rules.
Paris is arguing that without more common financing businesses could shift investment from the EU to the US to take advantage of Biden’s aid program and cheaper energy. Macron’s government plans to formulate its proposals around the summer, but wants to proceed slowly in order to bring along skeptics like the Netherlands and, perhaps most importantly, Germany, the official said.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
How to deal with China and how to respond to US demands is also likely to come up repeatedly during Macron’s trip, which also includes a meeting with Peter Wennink, the chief executive officer of ASML Holding NV, a Dutch firm that makes cutting edge equipment for semiconductor companies. Rutte’s government is tightening restrictions on the sale of ASML machinery to China, following pressure from Washington.
During the visit, Macron aims to clinch a deal to boost Franco-Dutch cooperation and homegrown tech solutions. He will attend a round table on technology and innovation along with representatives of French semiconductor company StMicroelectronics NV, which works with ASML, and technology provider Atos SE.
—With assistance from Cagan Koc.
