Less constraints and more flexibility: what Italy has obtained from the EU Council

The conclusions of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council that took place last week provide important indications on what will be the industrial policy orientation that the European Union will define in the coming months, in the choice between more subsidies to national industrial policies or the construction of a pan-European industrial policy. The “nationalist” demands of France and Germany in favor of a generalized relaxation of European constraints on the granting of aid by each individual state they seem to have been largely accepted. In reverse, on the construction of a fund for European sovereignty aimed at supporting investments in strategic sectors, the Council limited itself to “taking note of the Commission’s intention to propose it before the summer of 2023”. The ball was thrown into the stands. Faced with the challenge of American subsidies, Europe seems, in short, oriented to go in random order.