confronted by competition from washingtons vast green tech investment plan european leaders are scrambling to loosen their own subsidy rules and redeploy an array of investment funds thursdays summit of the 27 eu heads of state or government is expected to be overshadowed by the first wartime visit of ukraines president volodymyr zelensky but after their special guest has asked for more weapons the leaders will turn to their own differences over how to respond to the vast financial firepower of the us inflation reduction act european capitals fear the us subsidies for clean tech will lure investment across the atlantic and torpedo the blocs recovery plans the eu executive ursula von der leyens european commission has prepared a suggested response  but member states are divided over how far to go and how to fund the plan von der leyens plan would see europes tight controls on state subsidies loosened allow member states to give grants or tax breaks to their own firms building renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions but some members fear this could trigger a subsidy war with washington or undermine their own single market with big players like france and germany already stepping up their own state aid the antisubsidy straightjacket was already loosened as part of the response to the covid pandemic and countries such as italy austria denmark and finland oppose making it meaningless on this topic therell always be two for and 25 against one european diplomat joked  referring to germany and frances ability to exploit looser eu rules with bigger national subsidies france and germany are not in agreement however about new joint financing schemes here paris sides with rome and others in promoting new shared investment funds to pool european investment to boost industry and fight off us and chinese competitors von der leyen has promised to draw up a blueprint within the next five months for a socalled sovereignty fund to fund joint investment in strategic businesses but the member states are already fighting over whether to even mention this upcoming idea in thursdays postsummit joint statement  and some are trying to kill the plan germany will oppose any joint borrowing to finance the fund and with other net contributors to eu funds such as sweden or austria oppose increased eu membership contributions to pay for it this leaves the commissions rough menu of existing funds such as the 800billioneuro nextgenerationeu which one diplomat from a net contributing country said should be used up before creating something new some 250 billion euros from the fund could be moved to finance european industrys green transition bringing together other eu investment funds already assigned to investment innovation and energy would leave europe not far short of the 370 billion dollars that washington is looking to spend europe need not blush german chancellor olaf scholz said wednesday paris is undeterred an official in president emmanuel macrons office insisted the sovereignty fund plan would indeed be in the final summit statement a diplomat from a country opposed to increased spending conceded it would be noted but that many countries did not see why it should be talked about before von der leyens formal proposal