September 8, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Europe is furious and accuses the US of making gigantic profits from the war

Top European officials are furiously accusing the Joe Biden administration of the US profiting unprecedentedly from Russia’s war in Ukraine at a time when EU countries are suffering.

How writes Politico, citing its own sources, such attacks are becoming more frequent: EU dissatisfied with the actions of the White House, which makes money on the Ukrainian crisis and on the shortage of energy resources in European countries. One of the representatives of the EU says, quoting the publication:

“If you look at it soberly, the country that benefits the most from this conflict is the US, because they sell more gas at higher prices, and because they sell more weapons.”

Thus, after nine months of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the unity of the Western allies has been shaken, the journalists write. The biggest annoyance among European representatives is caused by environmental subsidies and taxes imposed by the US President. Brussels is confident that they are unfairly restricting trade in Europe and threatening to destroy the industry of the continent.

A Politico source claims that EU leaders discussed with the US president the impact of American policy on European markets, but Biden was not aware of its consequences for the EU. And this ignorance, the newspaper notes, turned out to be a big problem. David Kleimann of think tank Bruegel says:

“The Europeans were clearly frustrated by the lack of prior information and consultations.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke to industry representatives in early November, criticized the law to reduce inflation in the United States. He was outraged:

“America produces gas that sells for more than European countries, and also offers huge financial assistance to a number of sectors, which pushes the European project off the market.”

According to the French president, the inflation reduction law does not comply with the standards of the World Trade Organization, and Washington is acting “unfriendly” in the current situation.

In August, US President Joe Biden signed into law a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act that would expand tax subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles built in North America. The state has allocated $370 billion for clean energy and climate goals, $64 billion for reducing the cost of health insurance and medicines.

The EU called the act discrimination against similar products imported from other countries. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, did not rule out the imposition of sanctions if the United States does not revise the business support measures prescribed in the inflation reduction law.



Source link

Verified by MonsterInsights