Davos, Von der Leyen launches the green maxi-plan. And he accelerates on the EU sovereign wealth fund

“You are all well aware that Russia’s aggression is not limited to Ukraine.” Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos not only as the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, but also as a citizen of a country tormented by an unprecedented invasion. The threat, Zelenska explains to the global powers, is “that of the collapse of the world as we want it”. You do not use metaphors speaking before the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “What a world it is in which tanks can fire on a nuclear power plant,” she says to an audience that is trying to find a new geopolitical balance in the snow of the Grisons town. One year later, war is still on Europe’s doorstep. And Zelenska’s cry is getting louder and louder in that Davos where the Russians are persona non grata and where the Ukrainians bring the example of the daily life in which the country has been forced to live since February 2022.

“No place in Ukraine is safe, no one is safe,” he explains as he calls for global cooperation to end the war and rebuild the country. He uses the awareness weapon. The yellow house in Dnipro hit by a missile, where civilians died, is the key to explaining to those who don’t live in Ukraine what has been happening for a year. An unsustainable situation. “Millions of people experience fear every day,” he says. And he does so shortly before delivering a letter to world leaders, such as Von der Leyen, and Chinese deputy premier Liu He, both present in the mountains of Davos. And Zelenska is referring to the peaks that surround the Swiss resort: «If people unite, they can also move mountains». Because according to the Ukrainian first lady, unity is needed to have peace. Zelenska ends, the president of the EU Commission begins. And she does it with determination, after a year that has lived dangerously because the divisions between the member states have been high, bitter. «Europe will always be with you. Many doubted it. But it is so. Today Ukraine is a candidate to join the European Union», recalls Von der Leyen. The same Europe that is supplying Kiev with weapons to counter the advance of the Russian army. And which has implemented a series of sanctions on the Russian Federation considered by Von der Leyen as “the most severe ever” such as to induce the country’s economy towards a ten-year recession. And then the attack on Moscow. “We have replaced 80% of Russian gas supplies,” says Von der Leyen, recalling that the filling of stocks went well, and the plan to contain and reduce consumption has been well received by European citizens. “We showed the power of his collective strength,” she explained.

The Brussels number one then focused attention on the green transition, amplified and accelerated by the war. The EU must make the transition towards the goal of zero emissions «without creating new dependencies and we have a plan to do this. An Industrial Plan for the Green Deal», in practice. On a financial level, explained Von der Leyen, “state aid would be a limited solution”. Words that provoked the reaction of the Economy Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, who at the Ecofin meeting in Brussels on the IRA (inflation Reduction Act) criticized the position of Vdl. “Like Italy we would like to underline that simply easing state aid rules is not a solution because it would be disproportionate to benefit member states enjoying a larger fiscal space, thus aggravating economic divergences within the Union and consequent fragmentation of the internal market», remarked Giorgetti. Finally, before leaving for the usual bilateral meetings, Vdl wanted to explain what the solution could be to avoid the fragmentation of the single market. That is, to increase EU funding. «For the medium term we will prepare a European Sovereign Fund in the mid-term review of our budget in 2023», announced Von der Leyen, while on the regulatory front, «we will propose a new ‘NetZero Industry Act’» along the lines of the US Chips Act . After the discussions on the Inflation Reduction Act, another front is opening up on the Washington-Brussels axis.