It will be the first face-to-face meeting at the White House between the heads of the European and American executives. And the outcome, at least in part, is not obvious.

The President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen meets US President Joe Biden in the coming hours. The two leaders had already held in-person talks in Brussels and on the sidelines of G20 meetings. Von der Leyen's stop in Washington comes only after a three-day official visit to Canada.

Among the topics at the center of the meeting there will certainly be military, economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine. The United States wants to test the unity of the Western coalition in support of Kiev. Especially after more than a year of a war, of which there is no end in sight. Not only that: the US administration is also probing the readiness of G7 allies to impose sanctions on Chinese companies that supply military technology to Russia.

But the hottest topics will be those of economic dossiers. In particular, the ecological transition, to be achieved with transparent and fair rules for companies.

Brussels wants to prevent the US plan to aid the green economy, worth about 370 billion dollars, from harming European companies. Washington's plan, called "IRA", Inflation Reduction Act, is in fact considered "protectionist" by European governments: worried that companies in the Old Continent could move to the United States to receive very generous subsidies and tax breaks - for example for the purchase of electric cars.

For about a year there has been a task force, which sees representatives of the European Commission and the American federal government at the same table to find a compromise. Demanded loudly especially by industrial countries such as Germany, Italy and France.