Chapter 1570: The “Unbreakable” European Union

After some slightly teasing remarks, the three of them quickly returned to the topic.

Lan Xinzhi sorted out the massive amount of information he had obtained tonight and analyzed: "On the whole, the EU can now be roughly divided into three forces:

"The first group, the core countries, are mainly Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom"

He drew a circle on the European map he had found temporarily, including the above four countries and Benelux:

"They obviously communicated with each other in advance and formed a loose core alliance with highly consistent goals, which is to dominate the investment list and capital flow, ensure that their core industries with global competitiveness are given priority, and at the same time try their best to get rid of the burden of debt, or at least marginalize it. The 'core engine driving theory' they put forward is essentially an endorsement for their own maximum interests."

Yuan Jiansheng nodded and added: "That's right. From a purely economic perspective, although regions such as Germany, France, northern Italy, and the UK are also affected by the overall environment, their fiscal and financial systems are indeed much more resilient and are far from needing emergency transfusions."

He took out a box lunch from the microwave, placed it in front of Lan Xinzhi along with the chopsticks, and continued: "But as the EU's pillar of support and political and economic core, we cannot completely ignore their opinions and demands. Meeting some of their demands may be a necessary price to pay in exchange for the overall advancement of the agreement."

You Xu, who was sitting in the corner, agreed: "Besides, what Oztas and Emily said is actually correct. Investing in these industries is at least reliable in terms of economic returns, and it is not a burden in the long run."

“The second group, the marginal burden countries, are mainly Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and actually also southern Italy, but they are represented as a whole.”

Although Lan Xinzhi chose to have the next meeting in a restaurant, it was impossible for him to eat and chat at the same time, so he quickly opened the lid and wolfed down his food, then clicked a few times on the map of Europe:

"They are currently in a state of panic. It is difficult for them to protect themselves. They have no ability or intention to form a real alliance to fight for their rights. The Spanish and Irish representatives almost bumped into me tonight. The scene was a bit awkward."

Lan Xinzhi recalled the scene at that time and laughed: "They fought on their own and used all their tricks. The core strategy was to play the victim and sell themselves out: on the one hand, they tried their best to exaggerate the urgency of their own crisis and the chain disasters that might be caused, and on the other hand, they tried their best to show the value of their remaining investments - mainly relatively cheap infrastructure, specific resources and... comprehensively lowering or even eliminating the review threshold for our investment."

"This is a positive signal!" You Xu's eyes lit up. "Especially for investment in important assets such as infrastructure and livelihood projects. This is one of the areas we have set out to make long-term strategic investments. It is not within the pure 'emergency' limit."

If we can take this opportunity to acquire infrastructure rights and interests in some key nodes at a lower threshold and cost, it will be beneficial for long-term planning.

However, Lan Xinzhi, who has been dealing with industrial projects and infrastructure all his life, seems much calmer.

"The problem is that this opening is easy to open, but the water inside may be very deep."

His tone even sounded a little worried:

"Except for points with significant geostrategic value like the Greek port of Piraeus, or some tourism infrastructure in Spain and Portugal, which may have some potential, most of the infrastructure projects in these countries are essentially negative assets... They are inefficient in operation, have high maintenance costs, and have a lot of potential social, labor, and environmental problems."

"If we rashly take it over, it will likely become a 'white elephant project', bringing huge financial and political burdens, and may even become a target of criticism and attack for us in the future."

Lan Xinzhi's words were like a bucket of cold water, calming You Xu's mind.

There was a brief silence in the suite.

Yuan Jiansheng broke the silence:

"So, Director Lan, what about the third category?"

"The third strand is the New Europe. It mainly includes the Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU after the 21st century: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary... It also includes the countries in the Balkan Peninsula that have joined or are seeking to join the EU."

Lan Xinzhi's tone was full of exploration:

"Their demands are significantly different from the previous two categories. They are mainly seeking direct investment in manufacturing and infrastructure, hoping to take this opportunity to obtain development funds and balance the influence of traditional Western European powers such as Germany, France and Italy. For example, the Czech representative clearly stated that he hopes Chinese automakers or supporting companies can invest in building factories to upgrade their industrial base."

Yuan Jiansheng's hands trembled: "Our car companies are going to build factories in Europe?"

Lan Xinzhi nodded: "You are not involved in industry, so you may not know much about this aspect... Anyway, this is not unfeasible. We acquired a lot of European car brands in the past few years, and we can completely get them all produced in the Czech Republic."

After taking a few more bites of rice, he put down his chopsticks and continued his analysis:

"The problem with these countries is that their political stability is relatively poor and policy continuity is questionable. However, their advantages are that their asking prices are very low, their expectations for return on investment are relatively pragmatic, their labor force quality is good and their costs are competitive. They have the potential to become an important breakthrough for us to penetrate into the heart of Europe and establish a diversified cooperation fulcrum in the future."

After introducing this complicated picture, the three fell into silence again, but this time the silence was filled with deeper worries.

"After this analysis, I have a strong feeling." You Xu said slowly: "We are here this time to negotiate with the European Union as a whole, but in practice, we are more like a loose alliance of more than 20 sovereign states, each of which has its own agenda."

Yuan Jiansheng nodded solemnly: "As an entity that can effectively coordinate internal interests and negotiate on behalf of the overall will, the significance of the European Union in the face of this crisis...I am afraid it has almost returned to zero."

"This means that our negotiating strategy has to change significantly."

You Xu concluded:

"Trying to reach a comprehensive rescue plan covering all member states will be beyond imagination and almost impossible. We are likely to be forced to turn to a more complex and energy-consuming model, that is, to conduct multi-line and multi-level negotiations with different groups or even individual countries, setting different conditions and goals for different objects."

The others did not answer.

This will undoubtedly greatly prolong the negotiation cycle and increase uncertainty.

But it is indeed a more feasible route.

"Moreover, this also means that the country must fully understand and prepare for this new reality of 'the overall collapse of the European Union'."

Lan Xinzhi took a deep breath:

"Our resources are precious and must be used where they matter most. The demands of core countries must be partially met in exchange for cooperation, but we must also prevent them from being held hostage. We must be extremely cautious in identifying the 'sale' of peripheral countries to avoid taking on hot potatoes. As for the new Europe, we must take a long-term view, select partners with relatively stable political situations and strong willingness to cooperate, make strategically significant pilot investments, and cultivate them into future fulcrums."

"This game of chess is ten times more complicated and difficult than we expected before we set out."