5 things to know about EU industry chief Stéphane Séjourné’s hearing

BRUSSELS — It ended up being more about China than Donald Trump.
Stéphane Séjourné, the would-be new EU industry chief, took a firm line on unfair Chinese competition in his confirmation hearing before EU lawmakers.
With multiple issues falling under the large umbrella of his vice president for prosperity and industrial policy title, the French candidate had to jump from one topic to another, with his political positions emerging gradually through his diverse answers.
One of his clearest political lines was the need to protect EU industry — and especially the bloc’s manufacturing sector — from excess Chinese production, and from unfair competition with products that don’t comply with EU standards.
“The excess capacity of China is killing our industry,” he said.
The 39-year-old former French foreign affairs minister deftly navigated questions from lawmakers across the political spectrum on competitiveness, investment, subsidies and strategic sectors, using soundbites already familiar within the Brussels bubble, while making no major missteps.
Séjourné, a confidant of French President Emmanuel Macron, seemed calm but was also able to summon verve to discuss matters — especially when questioned by French lawmakers from rival parties such as The Left’s Manon Aubry or Virginie Joron from the far-right National Rally, interactions he handled with ease.
Here are our five takeaways from his almost four-hour grilling.
Séjourné flaunted his deep knowledge of the economic tools EU industry has at its disposal.
He committed to doing whatever is necessary to de-risk investments in innovation and in funding start-ups; he mentioned the role that the European Investment Bank, the EU executive’s lending arm, can play in sustaining clean-tech firms; and he promised to streamline the distribution of funds linked to common European projects (IPCEIs in Brussels jargon) and to reduce it to “a single decision.”
However, like other commissioner-nominees before him, he was unable to answer some basic questions about the size and the working of the EU’s future competitiveness fund. The promised new cash pot, which was pitched in the Commission’s political guidelines, is supposed to fund the EU’s common industrial priorities.
However, at a time when the Commission — backed by many governments — is considering diverting cohesion funds, which fuel regional development and support Europe’s poorest areas, and cohesion policy itself seems under threat, Séjourné argued he would like to use the bloc’s cohesion principles to carve out a new fund for EU industrial policy. 
“I hope we can look at the cohesion criteria when it comes to the competitiveness fund,” he said.
Séjourné said he does not want to delay the long-awaited reform of public procurement rules, promising he will soon launch consultations on the matter, and borrowing a formula from progressive lawmakers that the goal should be to ensure “quality jobs.” He also said he is not against setting mandatory social conditions in public tenders. 
Trillions of euros are at stake, with EU public administrations mobilizing around 14 percent of the bloc’s GDP. The reform is seen as a tool to boost the bloc’s industrial capacity, especially its manufacturing sector, which has suffered from global competition over the last decade. Left-wing political groups also see it as a way to achieve better social conditions for workers.
Séjourné also listed some sectors he considers strategic, such as steel, aluminum and chemicals, that he believes can be protected under the new rules.
The vice president-designate dodged many questions on whether the deadline for phasing out combustion engines might be pushed back, sticking to the commitment that the matter be reviewed in 2026.
While taking a benign approach to car producers — “we are not dealing with people blocking investments” — Séjourné took no position on the French government’s proposal to do away with the fines that, according to EU rules, should be imposed on carmakers who don’t respect EU targets to cut carbon emissions.
He stressed that incentives are better than fines, and that the EU should focus more on the demand side than the supply side to boost sales of electric vehicles. “We’ve got 11 years before 2035, which is when the internal combustion engine will be phased out,” he told lawmakers.
The liberal politician made some bold statements on trade, frequently mentioning China’s unfair policies and defending his (very French) opposition to the upcoming EU-Mercosur trade agreement, arguing the deal is “against the interests of Europeans and in particular [of] farmers.”
He said the EU should try in the coming weeks to convince U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to avoid a trade war.
On the other hand, he said almost nothing about how he plans to push for the completion of the capital markets union, shorthand for a planned harmonization of rules on national financial markets to create a single market to attract huge investment. Two-thirds of the new investment the EU needs to compete globally depend on the creation of this single financial market.
Séjourné also said he agreed with lawmakers that his title should be tweaked to reflect that the single market is one of his priorities.
A pressing question remained unanswered for most of the nearly four-hour hearing: What was in the plastic bag on Séjourné’s desk next to his thick binder of notes?
Was it a ham and cheese sandwich? His unwashed gym shorts? A few bricks of cocaine?
POLITICO’s own Carlo “Bernstein” Martuscelli and Giorgio “Woodward” Leali dove into some real-time investigative reporting, speaking on deep background with high-ranking sources, and finally found the answer: In what seemed like a 21st century pagan ritual, Séjourné pulled out a lithium-containing stone as a symbol of Europe’s industrial future.