It seems like the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev are picking up the pace: Yesterday, Russian negotiator Leonid Sluzki said that both sides could agree on a common position “as early as in the next few days”. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mychajlo Podoljak also expects “concrete results in a few days”. However, whether such an agreement could mean more than a respite in the war is unclear.
At the same time, Russia is fueling fears of an escalation: Russian missiles struck a Ukrainian military base near Lviv, less than 25 kilometers from the Polish border. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack was aimed at “foreign mercenaries” and weapons supplied from abroad. Moscow had already threatened to consider Western arms supplies to Ukraine as a legitimate target for attack, stoking fears of a direct confrontation with NATO. A Pentagon spokesman yesterday reiterated, “An armed attack against one is assessed as an armed attack against all.”
Given the threat posed by Russia, Chancellor Scholz announced a special budget of €100 billion for the Bundeswehr. But this does not seem to have emptied the coffers: As we have learned from government circles, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has announced a double-digit billion euro requirement in the current budget negotiations to promote the domestic chip industry. And he will probably get the funds – at any rate, Scholz is said to support Habeck’s request.
You can read more about it below in the News. There you can also find out what specific conditions the EU Commission is imposing on state aid for companies battered by the Russia sanctions and high energy prices.
At their recent summit in Versailles, the EU heads of state and government declared the importance of a secure supply of raw materials. A functioning circular economy thus becomes a guarantee of independence. However, the retail sector is not happy with the EU Commission’s plans for the new Ecodesign Directive, as Manuel Berkel reports.
I wish you a good start to the week.
The importance of a secure supply of raw materials is becoming increasingly clear these days. In the statement of the informal Council of Versailles, the circular economy is mentioned as an instrument for greater independence from Russian energy imports. The new Ecodesign Directive now takes on all the more significance.
A recently published draft provides for 14 new requirements for manufacturers, such as resource efficiency, proportions of recycled materials, and upcycling capability. The Commission also wants to significantly broaden the directive’s focus, from energy-related products to almost all goods traded in the EU. This broad approach has met with criticism from retailers.
“The Ecodesign Directive is a good instrument for addressing so-called sustainability criteria such as reparability, durability, or the energy consumption of products on a product-specific basis,” says a spokeswoman for the German Retail Federation (HDE). The addition of “product-specific” is important here. So far, the EU has regulated which rules apply to which product groups in dozens of implementing regulations. The best-known example is the rules for household lighting, which led to the ban on incandescent light bulbs. The eco-design amendment could clear up the confusion and, in the future, lay down more horizontal sustainability rules that apply to all product groups.
“However, a horizontal regulation in EU consumer law does not make sense due to the very different characteristics of different products,” says HDE, justifying this with the increasing number of requirements and products included. “Sustainability criteria must be elaborated in specific delegated acts and with the participation of affected stakeholders.”
The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) sees calculation in this: “Regulations for individual product groups are adequate for commercial enterprises because they know that they take forever,” VZBV expert Elke Salzmann told Europe.Table. Since 2005, legal acts have been issued for only 30 product groups. “Given the diversity of goods, that’s nothing and, after all, new products are being added all the time – think of dust robots or smartwatches. It takes three to five years to work on each regulation. We can’t continue at this pace.”
For Salzmann, a sensible horizontal regulation would be, for example, the obligation to install only replaceable batteries in all small electrical appliances. Manufacturers could also be required to provide repair instructions for all electrical devices.
The Commission wants to resolve the conflict through dialogue, but this will take time. According to the draft directive, it first wants to develop a work plan that will apply for at least three years. In addition to the sequence of legal acts, it will also regulate for which product groups there will continue to be specific regulations and which product groups can be combined.
Another point of contention is disclosure requirements, which the Commission sees as a means of combating the mass discarding of unsold or exchanged goods. In the future, companies are to report annually on how many consumer products they dispose of, recover energy from, recycle or reuse, and for what reasons.
“In the HDE’s view, the disclosure of unsaleable inventories contained in the draft is not an effective strategy for dealing with returns and surplus goods,” explains the trade association. In contrast, the abolition of rules that led to unsaleable inventories in the first place would be more effective.
Consumer advocates also see obstructive rules. For retailers, disposal is more favorable than donating unsaleable goods because VAT is then due, Salzmann confirms. “That’s where the Federal Ministry of Finance comes in, to make it easier to donate.”
However, the VZBV also sees retailers as having a duty. Out of consideration for their customers, they are foregoing options that are already available to them under the Distance Selling Regulations. For example, retailers already have the option of charging customers for damage or soiling. In addition, returns are only a small part of the problem, and there is also overproduction of fast-moving products such as textiles.
The draft directive does not contain a direct ban on destroying unsold goods. The Commission is merely to be authorized to adopt corresponding delegated acts. “This prohibition could have been written into the directive,” Salzmann criticizes.
The consumer advocate is very positive about the planned strengthening of market surveillance. Various rotten meat scandals have shown how important intensive controls are. In Germany, too, market surveillance is not keeping pace. “According to the draft, member states can be more strongly obliged to carry out a certain number of market checks, and they must account for how many checks have taken place,” Salzmann explains.
Enforcement is likely to become even more important with the many additional requirements imposed on products by the Ecodesign Directive. “Criteria such as repairability and spare parts availability are difficult to control and place completely different demands on the authorities. Cooperation between the member states and the federal states must therefore be improved,” Salzmann sums up.
As a lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU Commission set out to build a health union to better respond to future crises and make health systems more resilient. Now, another puzzle piece has been added. The Commission even calls the European Health Data Space (EHDS) a key component of a strong Health Union.
In early April, the EU Commission plans to present its proposed regulation for the EHDS. A draft containing rules, common standards and practices, infrastructures, and a governance framework for the primary and secondary use of electronic health data has become public in advance.
The regulation aims to improve healthcare, strengthen patients’ rights to their electronic health data, and promote scientific research. For example, the Commission hopes that improved data sharing can positively strengthen efforts under the European Beating Cancer Plan. Pooling and sharing knowledge, experience, and data will promote the development of concrete solutions that benefit cancer patients, the statement on the draft regulation says.
The Commission bases its regulation on two legal bases, Article 114 TFEU (harmonization of the internal market) and Article 16 TFEU (data protection). Initially, only Article 114 TFEU was intended as a legal basis. But the Commission has apparently recognized that health data, which are considered sensitive under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), hold as much potential as risks.
In the regulation, the Commission grants everyone the right to “immediate access, free of charge, to their personal electronic health data in an easily readable and accessible form“. This includes data on vaccinations, e-prescriptions, images, lab results, and discharge reports. Patients can share their data, restrict or revoke access. The EU Commission hopes to strengthen patients’ right to control their health data with this requirement.
According to the draft regulation, each member state must establish a national body to provide, among other things, the necessary eHealth services. They must provide it with the human, technical, and financial resources necessary to perform its tasks effectively. Each authority must publish an annual activity report with a comprehensive overview of its activities.
Germany has such an institution in the form of Gematik as the national agency for digital medicine. According to Gematik, it bears overall responsibility for the telematics infrastructure (TI), the central platform for digital applications in the German healthcare system.
The leaked draft regulation introduces a mandatory certification system for the data storage and exchange system, called the “electronic health record system” (EHR). The certification attests to the systems interoperability, security, and portability. It says this is necessary to ensure that electronic health records are compatible with each other and allow for easy data transfer.
For patients to be able to exchange their health data across borders with healthcare providers in other member states and in their own language, the participation of member states in the digital infrastructure MyHealth@EU should be mandatory.
In doing so, the Commission is apparently hoping to breathe new life into the infrastructure, which was launched over ten years ago. Currently, only nine EU countries use the platform to an extremely limited extent. In the future, it will be used to exchange medical images, laboratory results, hospital discharge reports, and ultimately the entire patient file. According to the Commission, most countries had previously planned to join this platform by 2025. Now, this is to become binding.
However, with the draft regulation, the Commission also regulates the so-called secondary use of health data. Each member state is to create a national contact point responsible, among other things, for making electronic health data available for secondary use – including cross-border use. Accordingly, the data processing must take place in a secure environment. To this end, the Commission defines a number of security requirements: For example, unauthorized persons should not have access to the secure processing environment. Unauthorized reading, copying, modification, or removal of electronic health data must also be prevented. All access must be logged.
In Germany, the Research Data Center (FDZ Gesundheit) is to act as such a national contact point, although it is still being set up. It is located at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). The FDZ Gesundheit was initiated by the legislature in 2019 through the Digital Care Act. Currently, the legal, technical, and organizational measures are being defined and implemented, according to the BfArM. Applications for data use can probably be submitted in the fall of 2022.
In the present draft regulation, the Commission defines a number of data categories for secondary use. Accordingly, it includes data from electronic health records, public registries and clinical trials, genetic and genomic data, and also social data that have an impact on health. In addition, there is administrative data, including claims and reimbursement data.
The list of permissible uses includes, but is not limited to, public health research, assisting government agencies in the performance of their duties, education, scientific research, and training algorithms for medical applications.
On the other hand, some uses are expressly prohibited: For example, if the data is used to make decisions against a person, in the calculation of insurance premiums, or even for commercial advertising. The sale of health data to third parties is also prohibited.
In a recital, the Commission proposes that, in the event of a crisis, authorities and the legislator may continue to use data protected by intellectual property rights by way of exception. However, this provision, which is likely to leave the industry with a bitter aftertaste, no longer appears in the main body of the text.
The Commission also outlines how cross-border data exchange for research purposes could work in the draft regulation. For example, applicants would only have to submit a request to one of the competent authorities. These authorities must then forward the requests to other data centers, which in turn provide the requested data. The competent authorities must mutually recognize the application authorizations granted, according to the regulation. Member states and the Commission are encouraged to facilitate cross-border access to electronic health data stored in other member states.
According to the draft legislation, the Commission wants to establish a European Digital and Health Data Board and two subgroups on primary and secondary data, respectively. The committee is to consist of representatives of the competent authorities of all member states and the Commission.
It is tasked with assisting and advising the Commission in the development of the guidelines and requirements for labeling, certification, and data quality necessary for the operation of the European Health Data Space. European institutions, bodies, and agencies involved in research, health policy, or analysis, including the EMA and ECDC, are given observer status.
Although the draft is a proud 100 articles long, not everything is conclusively regulated. In some places, it refers to other legal acts, some of which are still being negotiated, such as the Data Act and the AI Regulation. In any case, there is plenty of room for interpretation, adaptation, and amendment, as a whole series of articles are to be fleshed out by secondary legislation (delegated acts or implementing acts).
The regulation is to be applied 12 months after its entry into force. The Commission is expected to present the draft law on April 5.
Joachim Lang’s interest in Europe is no secret. Last year, he published an entire book on the subject. As Director General of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Lang also influenced the association’s orientation, giving it a significantly higher profile in terms of European policy. Whether the industry association will maintain this course after Lang’s departure at the end of May remains to be seen.
The topic has accompanied him throughout his career. Born in 1967 in Wuelfrath near Wuppertal, Lang studied law and political science in Tuebingen and Bonn, where he also worked in the Bundestag. He earned his doctorate, passed the second state examination, and finally earned a master’s degree in European Studies.
He then worked for a long time in political institutions: in the Ministry of Defense, in the secretariat of the Bundesrat, in the parliamentary group of the CDU/CSU, in the Federal Chancellery. There he coordinated the German government’s European policy during the German EU Council Presidency in 2007. He accompanied Chancellor Angela Merkel to her appointments in Brussels and thus “got to know the EU institutions from a very pragmatic side,” he says. “That’s where you experience firsthand how Europe and all its machinery really works.”
Joachim Lang also noticed the deficits of the European Union even more strongly there. Today, he calls for a more realistic approach to the weaknesses: “It didn’t help that the friends of Europe didn’t want to talk about the EU’s deficits in the past,” he says. “They thought that by doing so, they were hurting Europe. But by negating the problems – which are normal and understandable in an extended family of 27 members – they didn’t do the EU any favors, such as with the architecture of the eurozone or EU migration policy.” Lang’s strategy: name and overcome the negative aspects – while emphasizing what is going well in Europe.
Joachim Lang describes himself as a “convinced and ardent European”, repeatedly emphasizing the added value that the EU has, especially for Germany. Together with BDI President Siegfried Russwurm, he has published an anthology entitled “The European Alternative. The message: Europe should not be “looking on from the sidelines” in the power struggle between the USA, China, and Russia, as it has been up to now. Europe could be an alternative, a sociopolitical role model – if only it were successful. Europe must wake up, establish the social market economy as a successful model and itself as a geopolitical force.
But for that, Europe needs internal strength and unity. “The EU must exert more political pressure and demand that the member states return to a common path,” says Lang. To convince individual actors of the European idea, the EU institutions need to bring them along more: To make projects such as the taxonomy or the Green Deal as realistic as possible, the EU should involve those directly affected, especially companies, more.
Lang advocates jointly defining goals and instruments earlier and drawing up a plan for the steps that can be taken to achieve the goal. “Investors from abroad are holding back in Europe. Many are not clear about the order in which necessary steps must be planned and implemented.”
Joachim Lang considers the General Data Protection Regulation to be a success: “Even if opinions still differ about the success of the GDPR, the Europeans have at least managed to think forward together on a regulation and provide a blueprint for similar regulations worldwide – we should do that more often.” He suggests sharing ideas with other countries such as China or the US in the process of creating regulations. That way, technical standards could be agreed upon, and companies could be spared high adaptation costs. Leonie Düngefeld
It seems like the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev are picking up the pace: Yesterday, Russian negotiator Leonid Sluzki said that both sides could agree on a common position “as early as in the next few days”. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mychajlo Podoljak also expects “concrete results in a few days”. However, whether such an agreement could mean more than a respite in the war is unclear.
At the same time, Russia is fueling fears of an escalation: Russian missiles struck a Ukrainian military base near Lviv, less than 25 kilometers from the Polish border. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack was aimed at “foreign mercenaries” and weapons supplied from abroad. Moscow had already threatened to consider Western arms supplies to Ukraine as a legitimate target for attack, stoking fears of a direct confrontation with NATO. A Pentagon spokesman yesterday reiterated, “An armed attack against one is assessed as an armed attack against all.”
Given the threat posed by Russia, Chancellor Scholz announced a special budget of €100 billion for the Bundeswehr. But this does not seem to have emptied the coffers: As we have learned from government circles, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has announced a double-digit billion euro requirement in the current budget negotiations to promote the domestic chip industry. And he will probably get the funds – at any rate, Scholz is said to support Habeck’s request.
You can read more about it below in the News. There you can also find out what specific conditions the EU Commission is imposing on state aid for companies battered by the Russia sanctions and high energy prices.
At their recent summit in Versailles, the EU heads of state and government declared the importance of a secure supply of raw materials. A functioning circular economy thus becomes a guarantee of independence. However, the retail sector is not happy with the EU Commission’s plans for the new Ecodesign Directive, as Manuel Berkel reports.
I wish you a good start to the week.
The importance of a secure supply of raw materials is becoming increasingly clear these days. In the statement of the informal Council of Versailles, the circular economy is mentioned as an instrument for greater independence from Russian energy imports. The new Ecodesign Directive now takes on all the more significance.
A recently published draft provides for 14 new requirements for manufacturers, such as resource efficiency, proportions of recycled materials, and upcycling capability. The Commission also wants to significantly broaden the directive’s focus, from energy-related products to almost all goods traded in the EU. This broad approach has met with criticism from retailers.
“The Ecodesign Directive is a good instrument for addressing so-called sustainability criteria such as reparability, durability, or the energy consumption of products on a product-specific basis,” says a spokeswoman for the German Retail Federation (HDE). The addition of “product-specific” is important here. So far, the EU has regulated which rules apply to which product groups in dozens of implementing regulations. The best-known example is the rules for household lighting, which led to the ban on incandescent light bulbs. The eco-design amendment could clear up the confusion and, in the future, lay down more horizontal sustainability rules that apply to all product groups.
“However, a horizontal regulation in EU consumer law does not make sense due to the very different characteristics of different products,” says HDE, justifying this with the increasing number of requirements and products included. “Sustainability criteria must be elaborated in specific delegated acts and with the participation of affected stakeholders.”
The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) sees calculation in this: “Regulations for individual product groups are adequate for commercial enterprises because they know that they take forever,” VZBV expert Elke Salzmann told Europe.Table. Since 2005, legal acts have been issued for only 30 product groups. “Given the diversity of goods, that’s nothing and, after all, new products are being added all the time – think of dust robots or smartwatches. It takes three to five years to work on each regulation. We can’t continue at this pace.”
For Salzmann, a sensible horizontal regulation would be, for example, the obligation to install only replaceable batteries in all small electrical appliances. Manufacturers could also be required to provide repair instructions for all electrical devices.
The Commission wants to resolve the conflict through dialogue, but this will take time. According to the draft directive, it first wants to develop a work plan that will apply for at least three years. In addition to the sequence of legal acts, it will also regulate for which product groups there will continue to be specific regulations and which product groups can be combined.
Another point of contention is disclosure requirements, which the Commission sees as a means of combating the mass discarding of unsold or exchanged goods. In the future, companies are to report annually on how many consumer products they dispose of, recover energy from, recycle or reuse, and for what reasons.
“In the HDE’s view, the disclosure of unsaleable inventories contained in the draft is not an effective strategy for dealing with returns and surplus goods,” explains the trade association. In contrast, the abolition of rules that led to unsaleable inventories in the first place would be more effective.
Consumer advocates also see obstructive rules. For retailers, disposal is more favorable than donating unsaleable goods because VAT is then due, Salzmann confirms. “That’s where the Federal Ministry of Finance comes in, to make it easier to donate.”
However, the VZBV also sees retailers as having a duty. Out of consideration for their customers, they are foregoing options that are already available to them under the Distance Selling Regulations. For example, retailers already have the option of charging customers for damage or soiling. In addition, returns are only a small part of the problem, and there is also overproduction of fast-moving products such as textiles.
The draft directive does not contain a direct ban on destroying unsold goods. The Commission is merely to be authorized to adopt corresponding delegated acts. “This prohibition could have been written into the directive,” Salzmann criticizes.
The consumer advocate is very positive about the planned strengthening of market surveillance. Various rotten meat scandals have shown how important intensive controls are. In Germany, too, market surveillance is not keeping pace. “According to the draft, member states can be more strongly obliged to carry out a certain number of market checks, and they must account for how many checks have taken place,” Salzmann explains.
Enforcement is likely to become even more important with the many additional requirements imposed on products by the Ecodesign Directive. “Criteria such as repairability and spare parts availability are difficult to control and place completely different demands on the authorities. Cooperation between the member states and the federal states must therefore be improved,” Salzmann sums up.
As a lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU Commission set out to build a health union to better respond to future crises and make health systems more resilient. Now, another puzzle piece has been added. The Commission even calls the European Health Data Space (EHDS) a key component of a strong Health Union.
In early April, the EU Commission plans to present its proposed regulation for the EHDS. A draft containing rules, common standards and practices, infrastructures, and a governance framework for the primary and secondary use of electronic health data has become public in advance.
The regulation aims to improve healthcare, strengthen patients’ rights to their electronic health data, and promote scientific research. For example, the Commission hopes that improved data sharing can positively strengthen efforts under the European Beating Cancer Plan. Pooling and sharing knowledge, experience, and data will promote the development of concrete solutions that benefit cancer patients, the statement on the draft regulation says.
The Commission bases its regulation on two legal bases, Article 114 TFEU (harmonization of the internal market) and Article 16 TFEU (data protection). Initially, only Article 114 TFEU was intended as a legal basis. But the Commission has apparently recognized that health data, which are considered sensitive under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), hold as much potential as risks.
In the regulation, the Commission grants everyone the right to “immediate access, free of charge, to their personal electronic health data in an easily readable and accessible form“. This includes data on vaccinations, e-prescriptions, images, lab results, and discharge reports. Patients can share their data, restrict or revoke access. The EU Commission hopes to strengthen patients’ right to control their health data with this requirement.
According to the draft regulation, each member state must establish a national body to provide, among other things, the necessary eHealth services. They must provide it with the human, technical, and financial resources necessary to perform its tasks effectively. Each authority must publish an annual activity report with a comprehensive overview of its activities.
Germany has such an institution in the form of Gematik as the national agency for digital medicine. According to Gematik, it bears overall responsibility for the telematics infrastructure (TI), the central platform for digital applications in the German healthcare system.
The leaked draft regulation introduces a mandatory certification system for the data storage and exchange system, called the “electronic health record system” (EHR). The certification attests to the systems interoperability, security, and portability. It says this is necessary to ensure that electronic health records are compatible with each other and allow for easy data transfer.
For patients to be able to exchange their health data across borders with healthcare providers in other member states and in their own language, the participation of member states in the digital infrastructure MyHealth@EU should be mandatory.
In doing so, the Commission is apparently hoping to breathe new life into the infrastructure, which was launched over ten years ago. Currently, only nine EU countries use the platform to an extremely limited extent. In the future, it will be used to exchange medical images, laboratory results, hospital discharge reports, and ultimately the entire patient file. According to the Commission, most countries had previously planned to join this platform by 2025. Now, this is to become binding.
However, with the draft regulation, the Commission also regulates the so-called secondary use of health data. Each member state is to create a national contact point responsible, among other things, for making electronic health data available for secondary use – including cross-border use. Accordingly, the data processing must take place in a secure environment. To this end, the Commission defines a number of security requirements: For example, unauthorized persons should not have access to the secure processing environment. Unauthorized reading, copying, modification, or removal of electronic health data must also be prevented. All access must be logged.
In Germany, the Research Data Center (FDZ Gesundheit) is to act as such a national contact point, although it is still being set up. It is located at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). The FDZ Gesundheit was initiated by the legislature in 2019 through the Digital Care Act. Currently, the legal, technical, and organizational measures are being defined and implemented, according to the BfArM. Applications for data use can probably be submitted in the fall of 2022.
In the present draft regulation, the Commission defines a number of data categories for secondary use. Accordingly, it includes data from electronic health records, public registries and clinical trials, genetic and genomic data, and also social data that have an impact on health. In addition, there is administrative data, including claims and reimbursement data.
The list of permissible uses includes, but is not limited to, public health research, assisting government agencies in the performance of their duties, education, scientific research, and training algorithms for medical applications.
On the other hand, some uses are expressly prohibited: For example, if the data is used to make decisions against a person, in the calculation of insurance premiums, or even for commercial advertising. The sale of health data to third parties is also prohibited.
In a recital, the Commission proposes that, in the event of a crisis, authorities and the legislator may continue to use data protected by intellectual property rights by way of exception. However, this provision, which is likely to leave the industry with a bitter aftertaste, no longer appears in the main body of the text.
The Commission also outlines how cross-border data exchange for research purposes could work in the draft regulation. For example, applicants would only have to submit a request to one of the competent authorities. These authorities must then forward the requests to other data centers, which in turn provide the requested data. The competent authorities must mutually recognize the application authorizations granted, according to the regulation. Member states and the Commission are encouraged to facilitate cross-border access to electronic health data stored in other member states.
According to the draft legislation, the Commission wants to establish a European Digital and Health Data Board and two subgroups on primary and secondary data, respectively. The committee is to consist of representatives of the competent authorities of all member states and the Commission.
It is tasked with assisting and advising the Commission in the development of the guidelines and requirements for labeling, certification, and data quality necessary for the operation of the European Health Data Space. European institutions, bodies, and agencies involved in research, health policy, or analysis, including the EMA and ECDC, are given observer status.
Although the draft is a proud 100 articles long, not everything is conclusively regulated. In some places, it refers to other legal acts, some of which are still being negotiated, such as the Data Act and the AI Regulation. In any case, there is plenty of room for interpretation, adaptation, and amendment, as a whole series of articles are to be fleshed out by secondary legislation (delegated acts or implementing acts).
The regulation is to be applied 12 months after its entry into force. The Commission is expected to present the draft law on April 5.
Joachim Lang’s interest in Europe is no secret. Last year, he published an entire book on the subject. As Director General of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Lang also influenced the association’s orientation, giving it a significantly higher profile in terms of European policy. Whether the industry association will maintain this course after Lang’s departure at the end of May remains to be seen.
The topic has accompanied him throughout his career. Born in 1967 in Wuelfrath near Wuppertal, Lang studied law and political science in Tuebingen and Bonn, where he also worked in the Bundestag. He earned his doctorate, passed the second state examination, and finally earned a master’s degree in European Studies.
He then worked for a long time in political institutions: in the Ministry of Defense, in the secretariat of the Bundesrat, in the parliamentary group of the CDU/CSU, in the Federal Chancellery. There he coordinated the German government’s European policy during the German EU Council Presidency in 2007. He accompanied Chancellor Angela Merkel to her appointments in Brussels and thus “got to know the EU institutions from a very pragmatic side,” he says. “That’s where you experience firsthand how Europe and all its machinery really works.”
Joachim Lang also noticed the deficits of the European Union even more strongly there. Today, he calls for a more realistic approach to the weaknesses: “It didn’t help that the friends of Europe didn’t want to talk about the EU’s deficits in the past,” he says. “They thought that by doing so, they were hurting Europe. But by negating the problems – which are normal and understandable in an extended family of 27 members – they didn’t do the EU any favors, such as with the architecture of the eurozone or EU migration policy.” Lang’s strategy: name and overcome the negative aspects – while emphasizing what is going well in Europe.
Joachim Lang describes himself as a “convinced and ardent European”, repeatedly emphasizing the added value that the EU has, especially for Germany. Together with BDI President Siegfried Russwurm, he has published an anthology entitled “The European Alternative. The message: Europe should not be “looking on from the sidelines” in the power struggle between the USA, China, and Russia, as it has been up to now. Europe could be an alternative, a sociopolitical role model – if only it were successful. Europe must wake up, establish the social market economy as a successful model and itself as a geopolitical force.
But for that, Europe needs internal strength and unity. “The EU must exert more political pressure and demand that the member states return to a common path,” says Lang. To convince individual actors of the European idea, the EU institutions need to bring them along more: To make projects such as the taxonomy or the Green Deal as realistic as possible, the EU should involve those directly affected, especially companies, more.
Lang advocates jointly defining goals and instruments earlier and drawing up a plan for the steps that can be taken to achieve the goal. “Investors from abroad are holding back in Europe. Many are not clear about the order in which necessary steps must be planned and implemented.”
Joachim Lang considers the General Data Protection Regulation to be a success: “Even if opinions still differ about the success of the GDPR, the Europeans have at least managed to think forward together on a regulation and provide a blueprint for similar regulations worldwide – we should do that more often.” He suggests sharing ideas with other countries such as China or the US in the process of creating regulations. That way, technical standards could be agreed upon, and companies could be spared high adaptation costs. Leonie Düngefeld
