EU must respond rapidly to U.S. Inflation Reduction Act - Italian minister

A rapid and powerful response to the United States' Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) must come from the European Union as a whole, Italy's Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said on Friday. "What we need to do is act, not only react, in order to send a powerful, quick and strong European response" Urso said, after a meeting in Rome with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

According to critics, the U.S. subsidies for green technologies under the IRA are a slap in the face to Europe from its biggest ally at a time when the region is already struggling with sharply higher energy prices due to the war in Ukraine.