"We must rebuild the ECSC": Patrick Pouyanné defends a more integrated Europe

While François Villeroy de Galhau donned a green "Make Europe Great Again" cap at the Aix-en-Provence economic meetings in response to Donald Trump's, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné defended a more integrated European Union on Saturday, similar to what existed with the European Coal and Steel Community. He criticized the competition policy that prevents the emergence of "European champions."

"We must now realize that the only way out of this is certainly not to reason as we want to do today, on the borders of each country. There is a European continent (that) must be deepened, we must rebuild the ECSC," explained the head of the French energy giant during the Economic Meetings in Aix-en-Provence.

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The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), a treaty signed by six countries including France, Germany and Italy to pool the management of these industries, was one of the foundations of the EU in 1952. "For example, we don't want to build wind turbines in France. But the Germans like wind turbines: let's build them in Germany and build nuclear power plants in France and simply organize the interconnection between the countries," illustrated Patrick Pouyanné. According to him, the need to deepen the single market applies to energy as well as to financial markets or telecoms. He criticized European competition policy, too focused on consumers and insufficiently on businesses, which, according to him, has prevented the emergence of "European champions."

Calling on Europeans to change their "algorithm," he cited the telecoms sector, where a multitude of operators operate, "none of which have the critical mass," or Brussels' veto of the Alstom-Siemens merger. "I think consumers in Europe are very happy," with lower telephone rates than in the United States, but "by always trying to make things cheaper, we don't create innovation," he criticized. For Patrick Pouyanné, the best way to strengthen the single market is based on "coalitions of goodwill" among certain countries, as was the case when the euro was created. "Today, being 27 is too complicated, (...) we cannot move forward at the same pace," he declared, "our model of unanimity among 27 and wanting to bring everyone on board cannot be a basis for improving European competitiveness." The big boss also called on political leaders to have "a vision" to "prevent our Europe from turning into a leisure park" .