The European Union’s drive for ever more intrusive regulations to combat climate change are being met with resistance from member states. Despite the Commission’s best efforts to push the Green Deal, exorbitant economic costs and voter discontent has sparked a renewed interest in nuclear energy.
It speaks well for the UK that it does not follow the EU’s very restrictive approach. Perhaps its recent modest successes will inspire the UK to focus more on the opportunities offered by Brexit.
Fundamentally, the core of the problem is the EU’s adherence to the precautionary principle, which comes with a deeply unscientific intolerance for any risk.
The Chips Act is designed to mitigate European reliance on Chinese semiconductors. It is an answer to the unanticipated realisation that the EU is at a technological disadvantage.
A panel led by editor-in-chief Alvino-Mario Fantini agreed that “when you get beyond the rhetoric” of the EU’s legislative priorities, “you see something very different.”
The EU is far from perfect, but there was a time when it at least supported a framework that guaranteed free and fair competition between member states. It is tragic to see the European Commission undermining this very thing.
The West should attempt to compensate for any trade destruction, justified on the basis of geo-security, by opening up trade with parts of the world that are broadly friendly with the West. Southeast Asia is most certainly such a region.
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