The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in Berlin on Wednesday (May 8) that Europe needs to prevent China from flooding the EU market with heavily subsidized electric cars.
“Fair competition is a good thing. We do not like the influx of Chinese electric cars heavily subsidized into our market,” von der Leyen said. This came as she spoke on the final day of the Federal Party Congress of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany.
She emphasized, “We must address this issue, we must protect our industries.” Earlier this week, von der Leyen met with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party along with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Currently, the EU is conducting an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric cars to determine whether punitive tariffs should be imposed. This investigation is expected to last for 13 months.
According to reports by Reuters, von der Leyen also urged the finance ministers of EU countries at the CDU conference to work together to complete discussions on the Capital Markets Union.
She stated, “A better-integrated Capital Markets Union could add up to €470 billion (approximately $505.25 billion) in investment to start-ups and small businesses annually.”
The European Parliament elections are scheduled for June, where CDU representatives further confirmed the party leadership position of Merz during the three-day conference. CDU is the main opposition party in Germany and currently leads by a significant margin in national polls.
Under von der Leyen’s leadership, the European Commission, responsible for overseeing trade policy among the 27 EU countries, launched an investigation in October to determine if purely electric cars manufactured in China have received distorted government subsidies and require additional tariffs.
The investigation is set to conclude in November, with the EU possibly imposing provisional tariffs in July. Brussels is expected to announce a summary of the proposed provisional tariffs by June 5 and begin collecting these tariffs by July 4.
On Monday (May 6), following a meeting with Xi Jinping in Paris, von der Leyen and Macron stated that if China does not provide fair market access to European companies, the EU is prepared to use all available trade tools to defend its economy.
She urged Chinese authorities to address the issue of “structural overcapacity” as continuous strong support for manufacturing in China has not been met with increased domestic demand, leading to an excess of production that the world cannot absorb.