Frankenstein Capitalism Is Stalking Europe
After getting knocked back on Alstom-Siemens, France and Germany are eager to back the cobbling together of European champions. It’s a recipe for disaster.
France and Germany want to make more Airbus-style European industrial champions. But what happens when they start fighting over jobs and strategy?
Photograph: Hulton Archive
The European Union has long taken pride in its single market, which lets companies compete across borders and consumers enjoy cheaper prices and a wider variety of goods. A renewed push toward building “European champions” risks putting these hard-fought gains at risk.
It may also be unworkable. The change in direction comes just as the bloc’s political leaders are taking a fresh interest in acquiring stakes in private companies, in the hope of influencing their management. Any European industrial champion would be at the mercy of transnational fights for control. It’s something that bedeviled Airbus SA — possibly Europe’s biggest multinational corporate success — for years. While governments may be happy to have more influence over big companies, they won’t be so relaxed about any partner states trying to privilege their own interests within a cross-border business.