The European Union's Industrial Strategy, a German-Romanian Business

The European Union's industrial strategy, or rather the allocation of 409 billion euros in European funds for industrial sectors, will become a German-Romanian business with French assistance, following the initiative of a German MEP, member of the ITRE (Industry, Research & Energy) committee in the Parliament of the community bloc, according to an article published by the Euractiv website.

The cited source states that Christian Ehler, a politician almost unknown to the general public, managed to seize control of one of the largest industrial and research budgets in the history of the European Union, a fund of over 400 billion euros, through a political maneuver so discreet that almost no one noticed the moment it happened.

According to Euractiv, it all started with a simple email, sent on October 23 to members of the European Parliament's Industry Committee. Dry subject, "URGENT". Cold, technical message. Devastating content: Christian Ehler practically assigned to himself the right to design the architecture of European research and industry grants worth 409 billion euros. A routine phrase in bureaucratic language, but which, translated into political reality, amounted to one of the most spectacular power grabs in recent years in Brussels.

The source cited claims that, behind the scenes, the coup was carried out with the complicity of coordinators Dan Nica (a Romanian MEP from the PSD) and Christophe Grudler (a French MEP from the Renew Europe group), in an alliance that rivals called a "dangerous precedent” and even an "undemocratic agreement”. But the maneuver had the expected effect: Ehler became the political protagonist of the next multiannual EU budget and the architect of the future European industrial super-fund, already valued at hundreds of billions of euros. Thus, Brussels enters a new era in which industrial policy is no longer a theoretical exercise, and Christian Ehler is now in the position of deciding how this huge financial resource will be divided. In the new scheme, the German MEP will coordinate the European Competitiveness Fund, worth 234 billion euros, together with Dan Nica, and control research grants worth 175 billion euros alone. A rare concentration of power in an institution where, as a rule, competences are diluted between political groups and nations. The cited source claims that for Ehler, who is 62 years old, the rise is not the result of random luck, but the crowning of two decades of exhausting work in the labyrinthine corridors of the European Parliament, built on borderline alliances, tough negotiations and an unshakable loyalty to the leader of the EPP, Manfred Weber. A former executive in the private sector, Christian Ehler presents himself as the representative of the "real economy”, but his political career betrays him as the pure product of the backstage games in Brussels. Since 2004, when he entered the European Parliament, he has never left the Industry Committee, transforming himself into an expert in procedures, a character who understands all the administrative intricacies, the man who knows how the European Commission works, how the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation thinks, how the Director-General for Growth (economic and industrial - ed.) reacts and how to form coalitions or neutralize political groups. This expertise, which few possess, has now turned into raw influence, claim the journalists from Euractiv.

Basically, Christian Ehler understands that power in the EU does not come from political spectacle, but from the ability to produce common positions before the member states or the Commission set MEPs against each other. He knew how to wait, to get past the EPP's disadvantage during the 2019 green wave and the dominance of the green discourse, to endure temporary marginalization, to manage seemingly secondary files such as hydrogen classification, while doing what Manfred Weber called "strengthening control over ITRE”. He knew that the wave would recede. And when the political balance began to tip back towards industry and competitiveness, Ehler was already there, ready.

After 2024, the EPP found itself in the unique position of being able to form two different majorities: one with the moderate left and liberals, and another with the conservative and far right parties. Using this rare window, the EPP blocked the extension of corporate sustainability rules, and, more importantly, consolidated ITRE's absolute control over industry funds. With the green parties and the socialist-democrats massively expelled from European governments, the EPP has once again come to dominate the EU Council. In this context, the rise of Christian Ehler no longer seems like a coincidence, but a culmination of a strategic reconstruction orchestrated with patience and precision.

The political coup by which he captured control of 409 billion euros is spectacular, but the real challenge is only beginning now. With Europe caught in a tough global competition, with industry suffocated by costs and incoherent policies, with the US and China playing aggressively, Christian Ehler must prove whether he is just the author of a brilliant political coup or the architect capable of rebuilding the continent's industrial base. A monumental road lies ahead of him: transforming a vaguely outlined super-fund into a coherent strategy that restores Europe's competitiveness. And if he fails, the failure will not be his own, but that of the entire Union.