EU seeks to leverage might to confront China, US challenge
EU leaders gave fresh impetus on Thursday to a controversial project to integrate the bloc's financial markets in a bid to keep pace with China and the United States -- including in the global race to produce clean technology. The single market has supported the rise of European giants in different industries, from aviation to chemicals to cars. During a summit in Brussels, EU leaders were told that the time has come to scale up the single market to include the defence, energy, finance and telecoms sectors. The argument goes that fragmentation in those sectors with divergent national rules hurts the EU's competitivity, at a time when global powers like China and the United States are pouring billions into state aid to prop up their key industries.
