Brussels Rain for the Europafeind Musk – Diepresse.com

Without putting false words in his mouth, one can say: Elon Musk is not one of the largest fans of the European Union. Since the currently richest man in the world has politically radicalized during the pandemic, he has not missed many opportunities to convert his sometimes rather flimsy knowledge of European politics into impact on his news platform x. The quintessence of his EU understanding is roughly as: a regime of totalitarian thought police officers and bureaucratic workers, who are also unable to put their freedom-exploiting projects into practice.

Missiles and charging stations

However, Musk did not prevent this aversion to the European unification project from looking for subsidies in Brussels and also accepting them. On Tuesday, the German MEP Daniel Frei of the Greens published the European Commission’s written answer on his request how much money Musk company Tesla, SpaceX and X have so far received from the Union budget.

Short version of the answer: a lot. A Dutch subsidiary of the electric car manufacturer Tesla received around 159 million euros in 2023 for the construction of charging stations for long -distance vehicles from the Connecting Europe program. In 2024, almost 197 million euros went to SpaceX to have brought the Falcon 9 satellites of the European Navigation system Galileo to the Earth Railway with the Falcon 9 Satellites. And by October 2023, the Commission paid about 630,000 euros for advertising on X, since Musk had taken over this short message service mentioned at the time in April 2022.

The commission stated in its inquiry to friend that SpaceX was only able to get into operation because Ariane 6, the usual carrier rocket for Galileo satellites, could only be put into operation late. « In exceptional once », the European Space Organization (ESA) commissioned on behalf of the SpaceX Commission for two starts. The complete figures for 2024 are not yet available. It is conceivable that the Dutch Tesla subsidiary has received further subsidies for the construction of e-charging stations. In any case, SpaceX no longer came to the train, and the Commission has not advertised on X since October 2023.

Golden Co₂–

Friends, who used to work internationally for the anti-corruption organization, criticized these payments to Musks: « Anyone who specifically spreads anti-European agitation, supports extremist parties and mocked democratic institutions should not be rewarded with hundreds of millions of euros from the EU budget, » said friend in a sentence. « Our Europe must not make its own disassembly. »

Formally, however, these payments are inconceivable. When Musk’s companies meet the funding conditions, you are entitled to be treated as much as any other company.

The real European gold mine has opened up elsewhere anyway, namely the emission regulations for the car manufacturers, more specific: their inability to meet the legal requirements for reducing the carbon dioxide emissions of their fleets. To do this, you must either pay fines or buy emission rights from other manufacturers. Tesla’s electric cars have been predestined for this, and this European emission exposure trade has earned billions through this European emission exposure trade. In 2024 alone, according to the group balance sheet, it was $ 2.76 billion (2.5 billion euros) – 54 percent more than in 2023.

European worries revenge

In January, several car manufacturers merged with Tesla to form an emissions association within which this lawsuit should run. Here Musk’s hostility to Europe becomes a boomerang. The rapidly melting paragraphs of Teslas in Europe mean that Musk may not be able to fulfill the agreed promises to sell emission rights to other manufacturers.