Macron announced a series of measures to support innovative industries and the transition towards green technology, including tax breaks in areas such as the production of batteries, electric cars, hydrogen and wind energy.
Today, Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron received the head of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX, Elon Musk, in Paris on the sidelines of the “Choose France” summit, which was held for the first time in 2018, the Elysee announced.
Macron is scheduled to meet more than 200 senior multinational officials at the Palace of Versailles for the sixth edition of the “Choose France” summit aimed at boosting foreign investment in the country.
13 billion euros of investment has already been announced, which is much higher than the value of investments announced last year, which amounted to 6 billion euros, while investments did not exceed 3.6 billion euros in 2020.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who is scheduled to have lunch with billionaire businessman Elon Musk, said the talks would cover several topics, including electric cars.
Le Maire pointed out that all the investments that are being made today are the result of months, even years of negotiations.
It is noteworthy that the Taiwanese company “Prologium” chose France to establish its first factory in Europe to manufacture car batteries, outperforming its neighbors Germany and the Netherlands.
For his part, Macron announced a series of measures to support innovative industries and the transition towards environmentally friendly technology, including tax exemptions in areas such as the production of batteries, electric cars, hydrogen and wind energy, as well as accelerating licensing for industrial projects.
Macron said Friday, during a visit to Dunkirk, in the north of the country, that “France is changing and adapting to the course of the world, and I think we are on the right path. Which is to remake the country to be more sovereign and more respectful of the climate and biodiversity.”
Macron and Musk meeting
This is not the first time that the French president has met businessman Musk, as they met in December in New Orleans during Macron’s visit to the United States.
According to the latter, they had a “clear and honest discussion” and exchanged “future green industrial projects such as the production of electric vehicles and batteries.”
As for Twitter, which Musk took over in October last year, Macron said the social platform should “make an effort to comply with European regulations” in terms of “transparent terms of use”, “strengthen content moderation” and “protect freedom of expression”. .
This meeting comes after months of protests against Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, which led to the weakening of his government in Parliament and impeded his economic strategy due to the rejection of political parties, trade unions and the French of this controversial law.
Since taking office in 2017, Macron has cut taxes on businesses and made it easier to hire and fire workers. It also made it more difficult for the unemployed to claim benefits amid other pro-business policies.
