What does it mean to be sovereign in this world shift? What is sovereign when Europe can die? We must respond to these challenges of the time, to this acceleration of history, to its dramatization.
The main threat to European security today is obviously the war in Ukraine. A sine qua non of our security is that Russia will not win the aggressive war it is waging against Ukraine. It is very important. That's why we were right from the very beginning to impose sanctions on Russia, help the Ukrainians and continue to do so, having the opportunity to attract the Americans to our side and constantly mobilize our help and accompaniment. Taking responsibility means making our own decisions and guiding our European defense actions.
Europe will experience an economic recession. We are already starting to see this, despite our best efforts. Gross domestic product per capita in the US increased by almost 60% between 1993 and 2022. In Europe it increased by less than 30%. And this is even before the United States of America passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which means it began a large-scale policy of subsidizing all industries and green technologies. So the challenge we face today is to move much faster and rethink our growth model. Because there, too, the rules of the game have changed, and they have changed in a very simple way: two leading international powers, the United States and China, have decided to no longer comply with trade rules. And therefore we can no longer achieve our goals. The risk, obviously, is our impoverishment. The impoverishment is dramatic for a continent like ours, which also has the most demanding social model and which benefits the most from the wealth it produces.
We clearly see that in sectors such as critical medicines or chemicals, we are losing capacity today because our tools are not fast, efficient or visible enough. But we will also have to adopt different industrial and competition policy rules. We must incorporate European preferences in strategic sectors, defense and space, into our treaties. Because in fact, our competitors have it all. They got it. If Europeans do not give priority to space, there will be no more space. The same applies to nuclear energy. Who has seen the American Department of Defense or an American energy company finance a new European player? I have seen many American startups that are said to be purely the product of spontaneous entrepreneurial genius and are massively subsidized by American institutional policies. Let's do the same. We are in competition. European preferences in strategic sectors, defense and space, as well as exemptions from free competition to support key transition sectors, artificial intelligence and green technologies. It is very important. This is the only thing that will allow me to respond to the excessive subsidies of China and the US.
We must promote this approach in the coming years, as well as the promotion of security and defense. We must continue to maintain partnerships with third countries, that is, to build a Europe that can demonstrate that it is not a vassal of the United States of America and that it can also speak with all regions of the world, with developing countries, Africa, Latin America. Not just through commercial agreements, but through real balanced and mutual partnership strategies.
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