“Defending the Interests of European Industry”: Habeck’s Mission in Washington

Washington Robert Habeck plays the low-flyer in Washington. His trip is only a “work visit”, he emphasizes again and again. Because the EU Commission is responsible for solutions in the IRA dispute. This mantra already clashes with the scenery in the US capital.

On Tuesday morning, the Federal Minister of Economics is on his way to the White House with his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire. Ministers stroll down the sidewalk in front of the 19th-century Eisenhower Building, studded with imposing columns. This scenery reveals more than Habeck’s terminology: the visit is more important than a simple work meeting.

Le Maire also makes this clear verbally: Habeck and he came “to defend the interests of European industry”. The problem goes by the name of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the US subsidy program estimated at 370 billion euros.