Altmaier on Tuesday laid out a new plan for Europe to switch course and prioritize the formation of European champions | Felipe Trueba/EPA Germany promotes champions as EU moves to kill Railbus Economy Minister Peter Altmaier launches plan to make Europe great again.

BERLIN — As in comedy, timing is everything in European politics.

Only a day before the European Commission is expected to shoot down a landmark rail merger between France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on Tuesday laid out a new plan for Europe to switch course and prioritize the formation of European champions.

Altmaier's "National Industrial Strategy 2030" comes as part of broader Franco-German moves to build up their manufacturing muscle in everything from electric cars to space launchers in an effort to counter the rise of China.

Most critically, France and Germany worry that antitrust regulators in Brussels will stop Europe's industries from bulking up, and want competition rules to be relaxed to allow deals like Alstom-Siemens. EU antitrust czar Margrethe Vestager is expected to brief her fellow commissioners on Wednesday that she has decided to block the rail mega-merger, according to people following the case.

That's prompting pressure for a rethink.

"European and German competition law must be reviewed and, if necessary, amended so that German and European companies can continue to compete internationally on an equal footing,” Altmaier said on launching his plan.

The German minister said he had drafted his blueprint with "much love and a lot of thinking" and wants to ensure that Europe doesn't slip from being a "development laboratory of the world" to the "workbench of our competitors."

He argued that national champions such as Siemens, Thyssenkrupp and Deutsche Bank should be supported, and insisted that "the survival of such companies is in the national political and economic interest."

Altmaier's strategy calls for efforts to boost 10 strategic sectors including metals, chemicals, 3D printing, machine engineering, medical devices, aerospace, defense and the automotive sector. State participation in struggling companies is one option, while Altmaier also sought to loosen up private finance to stop startups from turning to America for extra cash.

The impending block on Alstom-Siemens from Brussels doesn't mean Altmaier wants ministers to hold a veto over EU competition policy. Instead, Brussels needs to think bigger and look at ways Europe's industrial leaders can fight in a global market context, he said.

Despite talking up a regular exchange with his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire — another vocal supporter of the Alstom-Siemens deal — Altmaier said he first wants to win round a German audience for his industrial strategy, before taking it on tour.

“It was important to me that I tell you how I see things before compromises are made and wordings get changed or softened,” said Altmaier. “I’m also very much aware that the main combat must at first of course be fought here at home, because I cannot present a paper together with a French colleague not knowing whether I will have the support of my own public [and] the support of my own government."

In the next few weeks, he will focus on getting his agenda approved in Berlin, before lobbying colleagues in the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and the Baltic states. "Then we will try to make a European proposal,” he said.

Germany's industrial heavy-hitters quickly weighed in, with the auto industry's chief lobbyist Bernhard Mattes from the Association of the Automotive Industry welcoming a plan that could help the sector in a race with China on battery cell technology.

Altmaier has already said he's ready to commit hundreds of millions of euros to a battery cell production push, to try and win market share from dominant players in Japan, China and South Korea.

Mattes said after the strategy was presented on Tuesday that work is needed on a "competitive tax system, affordable and secure energy and more speed in the development of digital infrastructure" to boost the German auto industry.

Thibault Larger contributed reporting.

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