STATEMENT BY FRENCH PDT MACRON AT RENAULT PLANT IN DOUAI OVER CHOOSE FRANCE

USPA NEWS - President Macon went to Douai (North of France) on June 28, to visit the factory of the French automotive industry, Renault, which has just concluded an agreement with the Chinese Envision to equip its electric vehicles with the group's batteries. Chinese. The French motor vehicle will build a huge battery factory directly on the Douai site. It is 2 billion euros of investment and 2,500 jobs that will be created by 2030. The French head of state was welcomed by Xavier Bertrand (winner of the regional elections) and Dominique Senard CEO of Renault. It was an opportunity for the prized Macron to congratulate Xavier Bertrand, frankly elected, president of the Hauts de France region (La Droite Républicaine), and challenger, because he is running as a candidate in the presidential elections of 2022. President Macron took the opportunity to recall his approach to retirement reform: “What did I hear! I was given all the qualifiers when I did this! But we have results, we are recreating industrial jobs ”, learned the lesson of the poll of the previous weekend of the regional elections, having known a record rate of abstention of 68% and a defeat of LREM (Presidential Majority) & RN.

President Macon went to Douai (North of France) on June 28, to visit the factory of the French automotive industry, Renault, which has just concluded an agreement with the Chinese Envision to equip its electric vehicles with the group's batteries. Chinese. The French motor vehicle will build a huge battery factory directly on the Douai site. It is 2 billion euros of investment and 2,500 jobs that will be created by 2030. The French head of state was welcomed by Xavier Bertrand (winner of the regional elections) and Dominique Senard CEO of Renault. It was an opportunity for the prized Macron to congratulate Xavier Bertrand, frankly elected, president of the Hauts de France region (La Droite Républicaine), and challenger, because he is running as a candidate in the presidential elections of 2022.------------------------------------------------------------------------- President Macron took the opportunity to recall his approach to retirement reform: “What did I hear! I was given all the qualifiers when I did this! But we have results, we are recreating industrial jobs ”, learned the lesson of the poll of the previous weekend of the regional elections, having known a record rate of abstention of 68% and a defeat of the LREM (Presidential Majority) parties and RN (Extreme Right by Marine LePen): "I assume: when we invest, when we work together, we reduce misery, anger and all demagoguery." We publish the fill statement delivered by the French President Macron :

STATEMENT BY FRENCH PRESIDENT MACRON AT THE RENAULT PLANT IN DOUAI OVER CHOOSE FRANCE « Thank you so much. I salute the ministers, all elected officials and all group leaders, and the three sites in the region that are with me today, especially all the employees. I just wanted to say a few words to you on this day when, you know, for the fourth time, we are going to bring together investors from all over the world around what is called "Choose France" to try to bring in investors. A year and a half ago the CEO of Envision was there and so we're going to celebrate what's called attractiveness. But that doesn't exist if there aren't sites to invest and women and men to carry those investments. And so that's you, and so that's what I wanted to be there for.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So first, first thing because I know there was a lot of anguish, there were a lot of battles, we remember that with the elected officials. I see the site owners who are there, I was in November 2018 with the president of the regional council, with the mayor of Maubeuge, with the site owner as well. And we had concerns, we all fought. So no triumphalism! But we know we're coming back from a period that was difficult, where there were a lot of doubts. And the moment we are living is not a moment of consecration, we must always continue to fight, but it is an important step which is the fruit of collective work, and it is that I came to thank you for.

2€ Bn INVESTMENT TO CREATE 1,000 JOBS BY 2024 & 2,500 BY 2030---------------------------------------------------------- « First we have good news, it is investment and jobs, and that is good for the industrial reconquest which is what we want for the country. The investment is what Envision decided to make. In our country and on the Douai site, 2 billion euros of investments, a site that will start to be created from 2022, and then a ramp-up, 1,000 jobs by 2024 and 2,500 jobs by 2030. And so it is a strong, massive, unprecedented commitment. And for me it is extremely important because, I will come back to it, but for our country it is absolutely key in terms of competitiveness and for the automotive industry it is absolutely essential. So I really want to thank the Envision executives who are here with us today because it shows confidence so thank you. They've known the group for a long time, Nissan has a 20% stake in Envision and so it's a bit of family… I say this for you who have been in the alliance for a long time.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The second thing is that it also means a lot for Renault. This will make it possible to requalify around a thousand employees and will then allow the creation of 700 jobs, in particular at the Maubeuge and Douai sites. Here again, it is, as we know, extremely important because it is in addition to the 800 jobs that we have created at the two sites over the past 5 years. And so we continue to ramp up, innovate, create jobs at both sites. And how ? Because by developing on new models, on electricity, we are meeting demand and we will be able to increase the capacity to run structures. You know it very well here, we are running well below capacity. I am speaking under your control, but it will eventually lead to about 60-70% use of the Douai site. »

600 LOCAL JOBS TO BE CREATED TO MANUFACTURE HALF A MILLOIN ELECTIC VEHICLES----------------------- « We will also continue to increase the use of the Maubeuge site as well. And so on the three sites in the region, we will continue to increase in terms of capacity to use the structures installed, the investments. And so 700 jobs there in the coming months. We will work collectively, of course, to find them in the region's basin and therefore I say this for the elected officials who are there, the president of the regional council, the departmental council, the mayors. I was talking about it with the prefect, it is very important because we are going to fight so that obviously these 700 jobs are local jobs, which will allow us to eventually turn to 500,000 electric vehicles produced on two sites, in electric, and 600,000 in total, and therefore to regain production capacity because we will correspond to the market. This is what is truly launched with this investment project and the entire transformation of Renault. So great news for attractiveness and employment. « WITH THE LEADER OF ENVISION WE ARE RESPONDING TO THE CLIMATE IMPERATIVE » PDT MACRON SAID------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ « The second good news is that by doing this too we are meeting the challenges of the future. We were discussing it with your leaders who are there, the leader of Envision, we are also responding to the climate imperative. We know very well the difficulties we all have to experience collectively, and that is that the climate imposes changes. And I think that the solution is neither in, in a way, the fact of imposing ready-made solutions on people by saying to them “We're going to explain to you overnight, you're going to change lives, we won't. will not produce a car and everything is prohibited ”, that does not exist; nor in a promise to say, “You can't change a thing and we will defend the model before.” Both are lies. The only way to respond to the challenge of modernity that is ours - we all face it, all of us because we have to change our production methods anyway, consumers want something else, our citizens want something else - c t is to prepare for the future and organize ourselves precisely to meet these challenges. So it is precisely to move towards more and more electric vehicles but, by doing this, to create industry in France and create industrial employment in France. And there is no fatality. With this investment, what will we be able to do? To produce electric batteries in our country. When, four years ago, I said to the manufacturers “We are going to go much harder on the electric, let's go", they said to me "Be careful, we do not produce our batteries. quickly, we are completely dependent on producers in Asia, we will end up with astronomical costs, we will not succeed ”and it was true. There, for the first time, whereas until now these electric batteries, we produced them with a Korean partner in Poland - and it remains a very good partner, we must continue to work with - but finally, we are going to put ourselves in the capacity to produce on French soil with a partner who comes to invest next to you in Douai, because he has confidence in the territory and in the company, so we are going to produce electric batteries here, for the climate, in our country and in the region.

« WE LAUNCHED AN INITIATIVE CALLED PRECISELY FOR ELCETRIC BATTERIES » PDT MACRON SAID ------ « This project complements several initiatives we have taken for the electric vehicle. You may have seen that about two years ago, we launched an initiative called ACC precisely for electric batteries. I believe the group will join her soon. It unites a major French competitor, Sellantis, and Total, and we do it in partnership with the Germans. We are making an investment. We even made an investment of 700 million euros in Douvrin, again on the French electric battery with ACC.------------------- And then we are making, again with the help of Europe, the region and local communities, an investment for a training academy here. This means that what we are building, with the investment of Envision, with the mobilization and strategy of Renault, with ACC in Douvrin, with the academy, is a European valley of electric battery. And this European valley of electric batteries is here. These are massive investments, obviously from France, they are also European aid, it is a commitment from all the manufacturers who are present.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We will have other points of support on French territory. We launched a line that prefigured Douvrin in New Aquitaine two years ago. And I also salute the Renault group and the alliance which also continue to invest in start-ups and in particular with the Vercors project and a line of demonstrators which will be made in Grenoble and which will allow us to go even further, this that is to say in addition to what is done there, to produce fully French drums. And so you see, the strategy is to sort of embrace this climate challenge and say to yourself: there is no inevitability, we must be able to respond to it. In other words, we must produce more French electric cars with all French components, because this is a demand, an opportunity for us. And I say it here with a lot of emotion, because earlier we saw the chronicle of the Douai site. Maubeuge was created almost on the same date. These are sites that are 50 years old. And your sites were launched by President POMPIDOU when it was the "reign of the car", as they said at the time, the myth of the car, this myth will continue. Quite simply, it will only continue if today, all of us, we know how to embrace the challenges of the future. Today's car will not be that of the 1970s, but it will continue to build on this mythology of the car, on our capabilities, the know-how of the group, of the collaborators that you are, as we move forward. And so the electric Mégane which is in the process of being produced and which will take off, the Renault 5 which is in all our electric mythologies, which will be made here thanks to this project, it is a formidable response to this challenge. Yes, the car has a future in France because we will do it precisely by responding to the challenges of the 21st century, by investing, by training and by being compatible with our climatic challenges, but by looking to the future. And I believe in this ecology of progress, this ecology of industry, the one that allows us to create jobs, meet the needs of our fellow citizens and meet our obligations, precisely, in terms of the climate challenge. It is not by opposing us, it is by working together. »

« THIS SATE COOPERATION WITH LOCAL COMMUNITES IS KEY TO SUCCESS » PDT MACRON SAID------------- « And so, this state cooperation with local communities is key to success. We are doing it on this project as we did on the Seine-Nord canal, the president remembers, we were together there too when we relaunched this project and finally, we are moving it forward. We are together when we develop 88 industrial projects in the region, when we invest in the large port of Dunkirk. And it is this united France in which we collectively believe, the one where the State, the region, the department, the agglomeration work together. And here I want to have a little word of friendship also for the outgoing president of the departmental council, dear Jean-René who has done a wonderful job alongside us, who will hand over. I say this because in this beautiful department, we have put in place a strategy to fight poverty. And the department with the State has done an exceptional job which means that you have fallen despite the crisis, Covid the number of beneficiaries to the RSA and I know it because the work will continue, what you have sown with the communities, with the State, with the region, will not stop, it is to be able to continue to ward off all fatality. When we invest, when there are industrial projects, we reduce misery, we reduce anger and we reduce all the demagoguery that accompanies these terrible situations. Well, this work is the one you led, President, and I wanted to pay tribute to you today, because it is also that of this united France, as we have been able to do with President BERTRAND or all the mayors and towns in which we have invested a lot in recent years. And then, this united France is you. I know all the doubts there were within the company. The fears, sometimes the anger, I know the anxieties that there were in Douai, in Maubeuge too, a lot in Ruitz, but there is no inevitability. You have know-how and you can be proud of it. We have an industrial tradition and an industrial history here and you can be proud of it. And so, what you have been able to do, and here too I want to pay tribute to you by signing a unanimous agreement of all the social partners! It is taking your share of responsibility and saying: "we are ready to support a project, to go for it, to help recruit young people, to make the effort, to train ourselves to adapt". Here, we are not talking about figures, we are talking about your lives and therefore I thank you because I know the share of responsibility that you have taken under the leadership of your managers. And so, thank you for that and I tell you, there would not be an investor who would come from the end of the world if you had not done this, because it is a proof of responsibility and courage. And that's thanks to you. And therefore, I really want to thank all the employees of the group and in particular the site, all the unions, since they have all signed. And then thanked your managers, the site managers, the boss of the ElectriCity project, dear Luciano, happy to be together a few kilometers from where we were a few years ago together, and I also want to thank the managers, Mr. DI MEO and Mr. SENARD for their ability to straighten out the group with all of you and to continue to move forward. that's what I wanted to tell you. It's a step, it's not the end of the fight. He will undoubtedly have other firedamps because the world we live in is hard. But we will not let go because you have shown your determination and we have shown it. And because I also know that this is the French spirit and we have it particularly in the region. We said to each other earlier that we were together in Dunkirk for AstraZeneca last year, there also for “Choose France”. I remember what we did for Toyota, Mars investing in Cambrai.------------------------ So the world is growing in the Hauts de France region. He believes in French industry and we will continue to move forward. In 10 days, I will see all the manufacturers to take stock of the entire industry. As I said, this is where we will draw some free zones precisely around the green policy and this is also where we will do our best for the rest of the sector because we must continue to invest in semiconductors. And I don't forget what we need in the foundry too. We have a lot of your colleagues who are suffering at the moment in the foundries because there has been a drop in volume. I want to tell them here that as we celebrate this good news, I will not forget all the bad news that is elsewhere in the industry. And that means that we are going to have to take decisions to reorganize the deep sector for tier 1 and tier 2 subcontractors. But we must keep a French foundry sector and therefore, here too, we will reinvest, we will reform, and then on the sites that have been the hardest hit, we will support transitions. But in having good news today, I don’t forget all those in many other parts of the world who have bad news in the industry and with whom we stand. There you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't want to be any longer, but this good news of the day owes you a lot and it owes all those who are here. It is this united France which knows how to work together, which knows how to carry its history and look to the future that will allow us to move forward, to reconquer industry, to regain our strength and to be both productive and fair. This is the one we all believe in. Thank you. » Source: Elysee