CAP budget + Green Deal + Elections in Kosovo

Dear reader,

Anyone interested in the race for artificial intelligence and the optimal rules for AI will be looking to Paris these days. This is where French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the AI Action Summit. The focus is on the question of how solutions and standards can be developed to ensure that artificial intelligence serves the public interest.

The AI Action Summit in Paris is the third in a series of international AI summits that began with the Bletchley Park Summit in the UK in November 2023 and continued with the Seoul AI Summit in South Korea in May 2024. While Bletchley laid the foundation for global cooperation and Seoul focused on technical solutions and safety measures, Paris is now intended to identify ways to implement AI in practice and use it commercially.

Around the actual summit, where the business community will discuss the topic on Monday and heads of state and government on Tuesday, other events will take place as part of AI Action Week. This Friday, for example, 1,000 international executives will meet at the AI France Summit 2025 at the invitation of Numeum, the leading French association for the digital economy, to discuss the latest developments and applications of AI.

The representatives of the most important digital associations of the G7 countries – including Bitkom from Germany – want to publish a joint paper with recommendations for action to politicians. ITI from the USA will also be there. “It makes sense to discuss the topic of artificial intelligence right now,” says Susanne Dehmel, member of the Bitkom Executive Board. “If something has changed on the American side, it is all the more important for the other nations involved to look each other in the eye and say, what is our European path?”

Recently, the EU has been very busy with regulation. “Now it is high time that we tackle the projects that we can tackle together in research, funding, and infrastructure,” says Dehmel. The aim must be to continue to play along with the good minds that exist in Europe and to do so even better than before.

Lights, camera, action!

Your
Corinna Visser

EU budget framework: Strategies to fight for the CAP budget

By

Julia Dahm

Ahead of the upcoming EU budget negotiations, agricultural politicians are positioning themselves to defend the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The European Commission’s proposals for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028 to 2034 are expected before the end of this year. Agricultural politicians will once again have to justify why they believe that a significant proportion of EU funds – currently around a third – should go towards subsidies for agriculture.

The arguments that come into play here also have to do with the content of the CAP. In past rounds of negotiations, advocates of a strong agricultural budget pointed out, for example, that the CAP promotes public welfare services such as animal welfare, species conservation, and environmental protection. It therefore benefits society as a whole. The CAP reforms prepared in parallel introduced instruments such as greening or eco-schemes.

Incentives instead of requirements

Despite the relaxation of CAP environmental rules, such arguments are also likely to play a role this time, says agricultural economist Alan Matthews. Since taking office, the Commission has continued to emphasize environmental and climate protection goals, but wants to achieve these through incentives rather than targets – and that comes at a cost. “So the argument can be: More incentives for farmers also require a higher budget,” says the researcher, who has been observing the development of the CAP for a long time, to Table.Briefings.

The timetable for the negotiations is also the subject of political strategies. The Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG Agri) wants to reveal as few details as possible about the future CAP before the budget proposals are known. Only Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen’s vision paper on the future of agriculture is expected to sketch out broad outlines of the CAP after 2027 in advance. It is expected in the coming weeks, but is likely to remain brief and vague.

Resistance to budget reform

One reason for DG Agri’s reticence is likely to be the lack of clarity regarding the structure of the future budget. In the autumn of 2024, leaked plans for a budget reform from the Commission’s budget department envisaged dissolving agricultural subsidies as a separate budget item and instead transferring the funds to the national budgets in return for reforms.

However, there is much to suggest that the CAP will not ultimately lead to such far-reaching upheavals. The resistance to the ideas since then seems too great. In addition to farmers’ associations and many MEPs, Agriculture Commissioner Hansen has also spoken out clearly in favor of agricultural funds as a separate budget item.

Agriculture Commissioner dampens expectations

DG Agri could be under pressure to act if the budget talks drag on. The Commission’s financial framework is expected in the summer. The heads of state and government of the member states must then agree on the financial plan – this could take some time as the end of the current CAP funding period approaches in 2027.

Meanwhile, it is already clear: The CAP budget is unlikely to grow. Even Hansen himself has dampened expectations, saying that he considers maintaining the current level to be a success. The other expectations of the EU budget are too great: It is supposed to finance priorities such as competitiveness, defense, and migration management. At the same time, the EU has to repay debts that it took on during the coronavirus pandemic.

Expert: Food security argument not convincing

Agricultural politicians are nevertheless likely to try to use such trends to their advantage – for example, the focus on security policy. “We are already seeing MEPs in the Committee on Agriculture saying that Europe’s security also includes food security,” explains Matthews. Günther Felßner, candidate for the post of Federal Minister of Agriculture, also uses this argument: Food security must also be promoted as a public service, he said in an interview with Table.Briefings. And the Union Agriculture Ministers of the federal states also refer to the strategic importance of food supply in view of wars “in the European neighborhood”.

However, the argument of food security is not valid for Matthews: the EU’s food self-sufficiency rate is increasing anyway. Risks to supply were more likely to come from dependence on imports of inputs such as fertilizer or possible attacks on critical infrastructure. “None of this can be solved by giving farmers more money,” says the agricultural economist.

The financial framework also sets the course for the future CAP beyond the overall level of the agricultural budget. In the budget negotiations, the issue of how much each member state receives from the CAP must be resolved. It is also necessary to regulate how the funds are divided between the first and second pillars – i.e. direct payments on the one hand and programs for sustainability and rural development on the other.

Green Deal: EU well on track with many targets

The EU Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) has issued a rather positive interim report on the Green Deal. The report “Delivering the EU Green Deal” published this week examines how far the EU has come so far in achieving the goals formulated in the Green Deal. To do this, the JRC researchers first identified 154 targets that the Commission wants to achieve within a specific timeframe. They then developed indicators to measure the targets and used meaningful data for the analysis.

The quantitative inventory is primarily illustrative in nature, as no weighting is given to the importance of individual objectives. However, more detailed assessments are made in the individual chapters. The overall result is rather encouraging:

The EU has already made progress towards 62 percent of the goals identified by the researchers, although many laws and action plans are only a few years old.
The JRC also includes the fifth of the goals in this positively rated group, for which the Union is even on the right track.

“The study shows that considerable success has been achieved so far,” it says, “but progress needs to be accelerated in many areas.”

This applies in particular to the 15 targets for which there was no progress or even regression by July 2024 – the end date of the data collection.
For 43 targets, the researchers were even in the dark because no data was found that would have allowed an assessment.

More efforts needed for energy efficiency

In the energy sector, the member states must become faster in all relevant indicators. So far, the JRC has not seen any significant progress in the use of green hydrogen in industry. The member states already have to achieve a share of 42% in this area by 2030.

More speed is also needed in the ramp-up of renewable energies (42.5% by 2030). This also applies to individual sectors – such as heating and cooling. Sweden is currently leading the way, with heat pumps and biomass heating already accounting for a share of almost 70 percent.

Things also look bad when it comes to energy efficiency. At the current rate, the EU states will only achieve half of the agreed final energy savings by 2030. The member states did avert savings targets for individual residential buildings in the negotiations on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. For the EU as a whole, however, there is a binding efficiency target for the average primary energy consumption of the residential building stock (minus 16% compared to 2020). This will require a “strong acceleration” by 2030.

The original principle of renovating the most inefficient buildings first could even become completely irrelevant. According to the experts, the different definitions in the member states alone do not allow any comparisons to be made. With the “worst first” approach, the EU Commission actually wanted to combat energy poverty.

The circular economy is more than just recycling

Preserving the value of materials such as metals, minerals, and plastics for as long as possible is a key objective of the Commission. Their reasoning: If the economy uses fewer new resources, the environment and climate will be protected. It would also reduce dependence on raw material imports from third countries. The focus here is on recycling materials, for example from batteries or vehicles.

However, the JRC report shows that the consumption of raw materials and the associated environmental impact increased in the 2010s. The same applies to the amount of waste. Economic growth has so far only been slightly decoupled from raw material consumption.

This means that three of the four overarching goals of the EU Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan are going in the wrong direction. In the last legislative period, it therefore proposed measures that have since been adopted – for example, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Battery Ordinance, the Ecodesign Ordinance, and the Packaging Ordinance. Some projects, such as the regulation on end-of-life vehicles, are still pending.

According to the report, around a third of the quantifiable targets can be achieved, while the pace of implementation must be increased for around another third. Two targets run the risk of not being achieved at all: halving municipal waste by 2030 and doubling the circularity rate, which represents the ratio of recycled material to raw material consumption.

As part of the Circular Economy Action Plan, the two targets are not legally binding. However, the report criticizes the same as with the mandatory targets: Most of them are focused on recycling. Future regulation could address waste prevention and measures for reuse more strongly, it says.

There is a lack of data and investment in biodiversity

An intact natural environment is essential for all people and also for the economy – it is estimated that half of global GDP is based on nature’s services. To protect Europe’s biodiversity, the EU therefore adopted an overarching strategy in 2020 and derived 33 quantifiable targets from it, 85% of which are binding for the EU member states according to the report.

However, they are not effective. One example: 61 percent of soils are considered “unhealthy” – and while two and a half tons of soil per hectare of land are currently degraded every year, only a maximum of 1.4 tons per hectare recover over the same period. Biodiversity is therefore in a poor state and the most important cause of the decline in biodiversity is primarily “economic activities”, write the authors of the report.

A particularly big problem in the area of biodiversity is the lack of data. Of all the areas examined in the report, this is by far the area with the largest information gaps. In 45 percent of cases, politics and research are in the dark. This includes very fundamental questions. For example, EU member states should first take measures to identify at least 20 percent of the areas and ecosystems that need to be restored by 2030.

However, the report states that data is not currently being collected systematically. According to the report, not all EU states have adopted the instruments provided. Furthermore, there is no willingness to provide sufficient funding for implementation. Manuel Berkel, Nicolas Heronymus, Alex Veit, Marc Winkelmann

Kosovo: Kurti can hope for a second term in office

By

Stephan Israel

Albin Kurti is likely to be the man to beat in the future. If the forecasts are correct, the leading candidate of the left-wing nationalist movement “Vetëvendosje!” (“Self-determination!”) will receive by far the most votes in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Kosovo.

Kurti can hope for a second term as head of government. It would be wrong to say that the 49-year-old has made many friends in Brussels with his unbending and dogmatic approach, on the contrary. The previous EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and his special envoy Miroslav Lajčák have regularly accused Albin Kurti of being primarily responsible for the fact that the dialog between Belgrade and Pristina has made little progress to date.

Chances of a fresh start?

Kaja Kallas has now taken over as EU foreign affairs representative and appointed a new special envoy, Peter Sørensen from Denmark. What are the chances of a fresh start, also against the backdrop of the ongoing student protests in Serbia, which have called President Aleksandar Vučić‘s position into question for the first time?

In recent years, the EU has lost sight of the actual goal of dialogue, says Toby Vogel from the Democratization Policy Council in Brussels. Instead of facilitating normalization between Belgrade and Pristina as intended, it has become all about crisis management. With its one-sided approach, the EU has contributed to the situation becoming even more muddled than necessary.

Criticism of the EU’s approach

One-sided, because the EU has only ever exerted pressure on Kosovo as the weaker partner and at the same time spared Belgrade, says Toby Vogel. Kallas and her team must try to overcome this negative dynamic and return to the actual goal of the dialog. The steps towards normalization were laid down in the Brussels and Ohrid agreements. However, Serbia’s President Vučić has refused to sign the agreements and has repeatedly distanced himself from their content.

Brussels is maintaining the fiction that the agreements exist, explains Toby Vogel. The EU expects Serbia to recognize Kosovo in the end. At the same time, there is a lack of willingness to exert pressure on Belgrade to take steps towards this goal.

Criticism of the EU’s unequal standards towards Belgrade and Pristina regularly comes from the EU Parliament. The parliamentarians point out that both Borrell and Lajčák came from countries that have not recognized Kosovo. This has damaged the credibility of the tandem in the Balkans.

Stability as a leitmotif

There are now expectations that the Estonian Kaja Kallas will take a more critical view of Serbia and Russian influence in Belgrade. However, the first steps taken by the new Foreign Affairs Commissioner so far do not indicate a change of course. “Stability is our priority in the Western Balkans,” said Kaja Kallas after the Foreign Affairs Council at which her new Special Representative Sørensen was formally appointed.

Stability has always been the leitmotif in the EU capitals, and Vučić was seen as a guarantor of this. The student protests in Serbian cities that have been going on for weeks do not seem to have changed this. In an open letter to universities and representatives of civil society in Serbia this week, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos was conspicuously reticent to criticize the leadership in Belgrade.

The opposition and civil society see their assessment confirmed that the EU, with Germany and France at the helm, is in fact relying on a “stabilocracy” in which democratic or constitutional standards are sacrificed for false stability.

Trump and the territorial exchange

Yet Vučić has long been a factor of instability in the region, according to the EU Parliament. Not only in view of the regular confrontations in northern Kosovo, but also the negative influence of Belgrade in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the recent tensions with EU member Croatia.

However, Albin Kurti also regularly plays with fire from his position of weakness. In his election campaign, the left-wing nationalist claims to have consolidated the sovereignty of the young state over the entire territory and pushed back the Serbian parallel structures in the north during his term as head of government. Unilaterally and not in coordination with Belgrade.

This will win him votes at home, but in Brussels, Albin Kurti has annoyed his European partners. He could soon need them more than ever if Washington pulls the deal for a territory swap between Serbia and Kosovo out of the drawer again. US President Donald Trump wanted to use this deal to “pacify” the region during his first term of office. Germany, in particular, prevented the plan from becoming a dangerous precedent for the region.

AI Act: Commission clarifies the definition of AI systems

The Commission has published guidelines on the definition of AI systems. They are intended to facilitate the application of the rules of the AI Act by helping providers and other relevant stakeholders determine whether a software system is an AI system.

The guidelines on the question of what constitutes AI systems are twelve pages long. In fact, the definition was a controversial topic during the negotiations on the AI Act. Some parliamentarians were concerned that the definition could be so broad that practically any software system could fall under it. Others argued that the EU should be guided by existing international definitions, such as those of the OECD, in order to be internationally compatible.

Seven elements for an AI system

The guidelines explain the seven main elements that make up an AI system under the AI Act:

Machine-based
Autonomy
Adaptivity
Target function
Inference capability
Output
Interaction with the environment

The Commission emphasizes that the definition must be flexible in order to take account of rapid technological developments. Furthermore, not every component has to be active at every point in the life cycle. The guidelines also provide examples of systems that are not considered AI systems, such as those based on simple data processing or classic heuristics.

The aim is to promote the uniform application of the AI Act. However, the guidelines are not binding. They supplement the guidelines on prohibited artificial intelligence practices. Some rules of the AI Act, including the definition of AI systems, have already been in force since Feb. 2. The guidelines have been approved by the Commission but have not yet been formally adopted. vis

Omnibus law: Why trade unions criticize the procedure

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and other environmental and social associations have criticized the Commission’s “chaotic”, non-transparent, and, in their view, undemocratic omnibus procedure. The “Simplification Roundtable” with Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Thursday, which was set up as a participation round, was a lobbying event in which the aim was to have the agenda confirmed by the companies. This was stated by the organizations WWF, ETUC, Friends of the Earth, Share Action, and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ).

“Only a fifth of the participants were NGOs or trade unions – the rest were almost exclusively huge companies and business associations at all levels,” said ETUC Deputy General President Isabelle Schömann. Only those who had an invitation could partake.

According to the NGO Somo, small and medium-sized enterprises made up only a fraction of the participants at 13% – even though, according to the Commission, it is precisely these companies that are to be particularly relieved. Sustainable companies demanding EU laws for fair and sustainable competition were not even invited. By contrast, Exxon Mobile Europe and Total Energies were present, criticized the ETUC.

‘Manipulative, undemocratic procedure’

In addition, social and environmental organizations are still waiting for drafts and timetables for the project. Paul de Clerck, coordinator for economic justice at the NGO Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “Laws that we have been working on for the last ten years are now to be fast-tracked.” The associations emphasized: The roundtable with its select group of participants was no substitute for proper consultation. Schömann spoke of a “manipulative” and undemocratic procedure. The Commission was violating its own guidelines for better regulation.

At the request of Table.Briefings, the Commission did not want to provide any concrete details about the roundtable. Instead, new speculation and rumors about the content of the debates are circulating almost daily. For example, the Responsible Investor portal recently reported that the Commission would not publish its omnibus proposals at the end of February, but at the beginning of March – and that it would take the axe to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). This would mean that 85% of the companies in Europe that are actually obliged to do so would not have to publish CSRD sustainability reports after all.

The double materiality test is also being called into question. This key instrument actually stipulates that companies must firstly explain the impact of their business model on people and the environment – and secondly, the financial impact of external climate disasters on the company. Others reported that the EU supply chain law (CSDDD) could possibly only be introduced in 2030 – and will set far fewer requirements than currently envisaged. lei, maw

Mercosur: S&D, Greens, PfE and ESN push through debate

In the Conference of Presidents (COP), the S&D and Greens, together with the two radical right-wing groups Patriots for Europe and ESN (Europe of Sovereign Nations), have pushed through a plenary debate in the coming week’s session in Strasbourg. The EPP had voted against it. On Thursday at 10:30 a.m., the European Parliament will debate the free trade agreement with the Mercosur states. mgr

BSW MEP leaves the party

Friedrich Pürner, who entered parliament for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) in June, is leaving the party. The reason for this is “the discrepancy between what we aspired to as goals and visions at the founding party conference (Jan. 27, 2024) and what is now the reality of everyday life in the party”.

Pürner was one of six BSW MEPs in the European Parliament. The BSW MEPs are not members of a political group.

The politician criticizes the climate in the party: There is a “culture of mistrust” and “surveillance”. “Authoritarian behavior” has become widespread, and many decisions or party strategies are not comprehensible. He is keeping his seat. mgr

Russian shadow fleet: Captains face sanctions

Captains and owners of ships in Russia’s so-called shadow fleet are threatened with punitive measures by the EU. According to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, changes to sanctions rules are currently being discussed in Brussels, which should enable appropriate action to be taken against individuals. The aim is to adopt them with the 16th Russia sanctions package. This is being prepared for the third anniversary of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The so-called Russian shadow fleet consists of ships with unclear ownership, some of which are not even insured. They are used, for example, to circumvent the Western price cap for Russian oil exports to third countries or to transport grain stolen from Ukraine. There are also fears that they will be used to sabotage data cables in the Baltic and North Sea in the future. According to Sikorski, anchors are often used for this purpose.

Import ban on Russian aluminum

Captains and owners sanctioned by the EU would no longer be allowed to enter the EU. In addition, their assets in the EU would have to be frozen. Sikorski said that the main aim was deterrence. He also made it clear that captains have so far not had to expect penalties because dropping anchors in international waters is not prohibited.

In the fight against the activities of the Russian shadow fleet, the EU had already banned almost 80 ships from entering ports over the course of last year and prohibited companies from offering them services. Ukraine recently led the way with sanctions against captains. On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree with punitive measures against more than 50 Russian ship captains and one captain from Iran.

In addition to the rule changes for new personal sanctions, the next package of Russia sanctions will also include an extensive import ban on Russian aluminum and aluminum alloys as well as an export ban on video game consoles and controllers, according to the German Press Agency (dpa). According to the EU, the latter are used to control combat drones. There are also plans to add dozens more ships to the EU sanctions list. dpa

French parliament adopts austerity budget

After months of dispute, France’s parliament has passed the overdue budget for the current year. A majority of 219 to 107 senators voted in favor of the bill in the upper house.

The center-right government wants to reduce the national deficit with its budget plan – among other things by reducing spending. It had set itself the target of reducing the deficit from around 6.1 percent last year to 5.4 percent of economic output this year. By 2029, it should be back below the European limit of three percent. The EU Commission has initiated deficit proceedings against France for excessive new borrowing.

Socialists supported Bayrou’s government

France’s previous minority government under Michel Barnier was toppled in December by the left-wing and right-wing nationalist opposition in a dispute over the social budget. The budget negotiations were also a crucial test for Prime Minister François Bayrou. He ultimately pushed the budget through the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, without a final vote.

After numerous talks with the government, the Socialists supported Bayrou in two votes of no confidence on Wednesday. The right-wing nationalist MPs around Marine Le Pen also did not oppose the government despite criticizing the budget. dpa

Stefan Solle – Chief lobbyist for metal employers in Brussels

For Gesamtmetall in Belgium: Stefan Solle, Office Manager in Brussels and Head of International Relations.

As the saying goes: In court and on the high seas, you are in God’s hands. According to Stefan Solle, Head of International Affairs at the Gesamtmetall Employers’ Association, you can add one more place to this list: Brussels. Because with the complex inter-institutional procedures, you never know exactly what the final outcome of legal proceedings will be.

Accompanying and influencing this complex process in the interests of German M+E companies – that is the goal of the top European lobbyist for German metal and electrical employers in the Belgian capital. “I want to show our members which Brussels issues could be relevant for them – so that we can then develop joint positions. And my aim is to then introduce these to Brussels at the right time and in the right place,” says the 44-year-old. This is what Solle and his team have been doing in Brussels since 2013 as head of the Gesamtmetall liaison office there.

Extend omnibus

The current hot topic for companies in his sector is the upcoming Omnibus Regulation. “The due diligence and reporting requirements have become extreme. We hope that they will be consolidated and streamlined, and not just a little,” says Solle. The current proposals on the table are not enough for him. For him, the regulations on forced labor, conflict minerals, anti-deforestation, and batteries should also be included in the omnibus.

Solle gives an example: “In the case of a car, the due diligence obligations under the Deforestation Regulation apply to the tires, those of the Battery Regulation to the battery, the Conflict Minerals Regulation to the tungsten used and the Supply Chain Directive to the rest of the car.” On top of this, the Forced Products Regulation applies to everything – “even if all of the aforementioned legal acts already provide for identical due diligence obligations regarding forced labor“. If these requirements were standardized, the company could be relieved – “without affecting social or environmental standards,” says Solle.

More optimistic than five years ago

Stefan Solle echoes what we hear time and again from business representatives in Brussels: The first five years under von der Leyen were not easy. He is pleased that the reduction of bureaucracy is now so early and prominent on the agenda. He says: “We are definitely more optimistic about this legislative period than we were five years ago.” One thing that gives him hope is the Budapest Declaration, in which the European heads of state and government committed to a new deal for competitiveness in November.

“But in the end, you have to see what action actually follows,” says Solle. What counts for him is tangible relief that reaches companies. Targets such as 25 percent less bureaucracy, on the other hand, are difficult to verify. As an example, he cites the “one in, one out” principle, which is intended to protect against increasing bureaucracy. “The Commission has declared that it has successfully practiced ‘one in, one out’ over the past two years. But our companies have noticed absolutely nothing of this.”

Previously a consultant at the VCI

Stefan Solle himself has been interested in Europe for more than half his life: He studied Modern History, Political Science and European Business Studies in Jena and Antwerp and spent a semester abroad in Belgium in 2002. After that, it was clear to him that he wanted to deal with Europe professionally. This worked out well: First as a constituency assistant to the then CSU MEP Anja Weisgerber (now a member of the German Bundestag), then as a consultant in the Brussels office of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI). And now for more than ten years as head of the Gesamtmetall office in Brussels. He has also been Head of the International Affairs Department there since 2022.

Solle is also European in his private life. He has lived in the Belgian capital since 2009 and is married to a Polish woman who lives in the Netherlands. When he had the Polish naming law and paternity law applied in accordance with German rules for their daughter there, he realized: “Europe is absurdly complicated, but a solution will be found in the end.” Alina Leimbach

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Till
Hoppe

Sarah
Schaefer

Lukas
Knigge

Corinna
Visser

Markus
Grabitz

Alina
Leimbach

Eric
Bonse

Manuel
Berkel

Stephan
Israel

Claire
Stam

János
Allenbach-Ammann

Dear reader,

Anyone interested in the race for artificial intelligence and the optimal rules for AI will be looking to Paris these days. This is where French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the AI Action Summit. The focus is on the question of how solutions and standards can be developed to ensure that artificial intelligence serves the public interest.

The AI Action Summit in Paris is the third in a series of international AI summits that began with the Bletchley Park Summit in the UK in November 2023 and continued with the Seoul AI Summit in South Korea in May 2024. While Bletchley laid the foundation for global cooperation and Seoul focused on technical solutions and safety measures, Paris is now intended to identify ways to implement AI in practice and use it commercially.

Around the actual summit, where the business community will discuss the topic on Monday and heads of state and government on Tuesday, other events will take place as part of AI Action Week. This Friday, for example, 1,000 international executives will meet at the AI France Summit 2025 at the invitation of Numeum, the leading French association for the digital economy, to discuss the latest developments and applications of AI.

The representatives of the most important digital associations of the G7 countries – including Bitkom from Germany – want to publish a joint paper with recommendations for action to politicians. ITI from the USA will also be there. “It makes sense to discuss the topic of artificial intelligence right now,” says Susanne Dehmel, member of the Bitkom Executive Board. “If something has changed on the American side, it is all the more important for the other nations involved to look each other in the eye and say, what is our European path?”

Recently, the EU has been very busy with regulation. “Now it is high time that we tackle the projects that we can tackle together in research, funding, and infrastructure,” says Dehmel. The aim must be to continue to play along with the good minds that exist in Europe and to do so even better than before.

Lights, camera, action!

Your
Corinna Visser

EU budget framework: Strategies to fight for the CAP budget

By

Julia Dahm

Ahead of the upcoming EU budget negotiations, agricultural politicians are positioning themselves to defend the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The European Commission’s proposals for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028 to 2034 are expected before the end of this year. Agricultural politicians will once again have to justify why they believe that a significant proportion of EU funds – currently around a third – should go towards subsidies for agriculture.

The arguments that come into play here also have to do with the content of the CAP. In past rounds of negotiations, advocates of a strong agricultural budget pointed out, for example, that the CAP promotes public welfare services such as animal welfare, species conservation, and environmental protection. It therefore benefits society as a whole. The CAP reforms prepared in parallel introduced instruments such as greening or eco-schemes.

Incentives instead of requirements

Despite the relaxation of CAP environmental rules, such arguments are also likely to play a role this time, says agricultural economist Alan Matthews. Since taking office, the Commission has continued to emphasize environmental and climate protection goals, but wants to achieve these through incentives rather than targets – and that comes at a cost. “So the argument can be: More incentives for farmers also require a higher budget,” says the researcher, who has been observing the development of the CAP for a long time, to Table.Briefings.

The timetable for the negotiations is also the subject of political strategies. The Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG Agri) wants to reveal as few details as possible about the future CAP before the budget proposals are known. Only Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen’s vision paper on the future of agriculture is expected to sketch out broad outlines of the CAP after 2027 in advance. It is expected in the coming weeks, but is likely to remain brief and vague.

Resistance to budget reform

One reason for DG Agri’s reticence is likely to be the lack of clarity regarding the structure of the future budget. In the autumn of 2024, leaked plans for a budget reform from the Commission’s budget department envisaged dissolving agricultural subsidies as a separate budget item and instead transferring the funds to the national budgets in return for reforms.

However, there is much to suggest that the CAP will not ultimately lead to such far-reaching upheavals. The resistance to the ideas since then seems too great. In addition to farmers’ associations and many MEPs, Agriculture Commissioner Hansen has also spoken out clearly in favor of agricultural funds as a separate budget item.

Agriculture Commissioner dampens expectations

DG Agri could be under pressure to act if the budget talks drag on. The Commission’s financial framework is expected in the summer. The heads of state and government of the member states must then agree on the financial plan – this could take some time as the end of the current CAP funding period approaches in 2027.

Meanwhile, it is already clear: The CAP budget is unlikely to grow. Even Hansen himself has dampened expectations, saying that he considers maintaining the current level to be a success. The other expectations of the EU budget are too great: It is supposed to finance priorities such as competitiveness, defense, and migration management. At the same time, the EU has to repay debts that it took on during the coronavirus pandemic.

Expert: Food security argument not convincing

Agricultural politicians are nevertheless likely to try to use such trends to their advantage – for example, the focus on security policy. “We are already seeing MEPs in the Committee on Agriculture saying that Europe’s security also includes food security,” explains Matthews. Günther Felßner, candidate for the post of Federal Minister of Agriculture, also uses this argument: Food security must also be promoted as a public service, he said in an interview with Table.Briefings. And the Union Agriculture Ministers of the federal states also refer to the strategic importance of food supply in view of wars “in the European neighborhood”.

However, the argument of food security is not valid for Matthews: the EU’s food self-sufficiency rate is increasing anyway. Risks to supply were more likely to come from dependence on imports of inputs such as fertilizer or possible attacks on critical infrastructure. “None of this can be solved by giving farmers more money,” says the agricultural economist.

The financial framework also sets the course for the future CAP beyond the overall level of the agricultural budget. In the budget negotiations, the issue of how much each member state receives from the CAP must be resolved. It is also necessary to regulate how the funds are divided between the first and second pillars – i.e. direct payments on the one hand and programs for sustainability and rural development on the other.

Green Deal: EU well on track with many targets

The EU Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) has issued a rather positive interim report on the Green Deal. The report “Delivering the EU Green Deal” published this week examines how far the EU has come so far in achieving the goals formulated in the Green Deal. To do this, the JRC researchers first identified 154 targets that the Commission wants to achieve within a specific timeframe. They then developed indicators to measure the targets and used meaningful data for the analysis.

The quantitative inventory is primarily illustrative in nature, as no weighting is given to the importance of individual objectives. However, more detailed assessments are made in the individual chapters. The overall result is rather encouraging:

The EU has already made progress towards 62 percent of the goals identified by the researchers, although many laws and action plans are only a few years old.
The JRC also includes the fifth of the goals in this positively rated group, for which the Union is even on the right track.

“The study shows that considerable success has been achieved so far,” it says, “but progress needs to be accelerated in many areas.”

This applies in particular to the 15 targets for which there was no progress or even regression by July 2024 – the end date of the data collection.
For 43 targets, the researchers were even in the dark because no data was found that would have allowed an assessment.

More efforts needed for energy efficiency

In the energy sector, the member states must become faster in all relevant indicators. So far, the JRC has not seen any significant progress in the use of green hydrogen in industry. The member states already have to achieve a share of 42% in this area by 2030.

More speed is also needed in the ramp-up of renewable energies (42.5% by 2030). This also applies to individual sectors – such as heating and cooling. Sweden is currently leading the way, with heat pumps and biomass heating already accounting for a share of almost 70 percent.

Things also look bad when it comes to energy efficiency. At the current rate, the EU states will only achieve half of the agreed final energy savings by 2030. The member states did avert savings targets for individual residential buildings in the negotiations on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. For the EU as a whole, however, there is a binding efficiency target for the average primary energy consumption of the residential building stock (minus 16% compared to 2020). This will require a “strong acceleration” by 2030.

The original principle of renovating the most inefficient buildings first could even become completely irrelevant. According to the experts, the different definitions in the member states alone do not allow any comparisons to be made. With the “worst first” approach, the EU Commission actually wanted to combat energy poverty.

The circular economy is more than just recycling

Preserving the value of materials such as metals, minerals, and plastics for as long as possible is a key objective of the Commission. Their reasoning: If the economy uses fewer new resources, the environment and climate will be protected. It would also reduce dependence on raw material imports from third countries. The focus here is on recycling materials, for example from batteries or vehicles.

However, the JRC report shows that the consumption of raw materials and the associated environmental impact increased in the 2010s. The same applies to the amount of waste. Economic growth has so far only been slightly decoupled from raw material consumption.

This means that three of the four overarching goals of the EU Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan are going in the wrong direction. In the last legislative period, it therefore proposed measures that have since been adopted – for example, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Battery Ordinance, the Ecodesign Ordinance, and the Packaging Ordinance. Some projects, such as the regulation on end-of-life vehicles, are still pending.

According to the report, around a third of the quantifiable targets can be achieved, while the pace of implementation must be increased for around another third. Two targets run the risk of not being achieved at all: halving municipal waste by 2030 and doubling the circularity rate, which represents the ratio of recycled material to raw material consumption.

As part of the Circular Economy Action Plan, the two targets are not legally binding. However, the report criticizes the same as with the mandatory targets: Most of them are focused on recycling. Future regulation could address waste prevention and measures for reuse more strongly, it says.

There is a lack of data and investment in biodiversity

An intact natural environment is essential for all people and also for the economy – it is estimated that half of global GDP is based on nature’s services. To protect Europe’s biodiversity, the EU therefore adopted an overarching strategy in 2020 and derived 33 quantifiable targets from it, 85% of which are binding for the EU member states according to the report.

However, they are not effective. One example: 61 percent of soils are considered “unhealthy” – and while two and a half tons of soil per hectare of land are currently degraded every year, only a maximum of 1.4 tons per hectare recover over the same period. Biodiversity is therefore in a poor state and the most important cause of the decline in biodiversity is primarily “economic activities”, write the authors of the report.

A particularly big problem in the area of biodiversity is the lack of data. Of all the areas examined in the report, this is by far the area with the largest information gaps. In 45 percent of cases, politics and research are in the dark. This includes very fundamental questions. For example, EU member states should first take measures to identify at least 20 percent of the areas and ecosystems that need to be restored by 2030.

However, the report states that data is not currently being collected systematically. According to the report, not all EU states have adopted the instruments provided. Furthermore, there is no willingness to provide sufficient funding for implementation. Manuel Berkel, Nicolas Heronymus, Alex Veit, Marc Winkelmann

Kosovo: Kurti can hope for a second term in office

By

Stephan Israel

Albin Kurti is likely to be the man to beat in the future. If the forecasts are correct, the leading candidate of the left-wing nationalist movement “Vetëvendosje!” (“Self-determination!”) will receive by far the most votes in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Kosovo.

Kurti can hope for a second term as head of government. It would be wrong to say that the 49-year-old has made many friends in Brussels with his unbending and dogmatic approach, on the contrary. The previous EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and his special envoy Miroslav Lajčák have regularly accused Albin Kurti of being primarily responsible for the fact that the dialog between Belgrade and Pristina has made little progress to date.

Chances of a fresh start?

Kaja Kallas has now taken over as EU foreign affairs representative and appointed a new special envoy, Peter Sørensen from Denmark. What are the chances of a fresh start, also against the backdrop of the ongoing student protests in Serbia, which have called President Aleksandar Vučić‘s position into question for the first time?

In recent years, the EU has lost sight of the actual goal of dialogue, says Toby Vogel from the Democratization Policy Council in Brussels. Instead of facilitating normalization between Belgrade and Pristina as intended, it has become all about crisis management. With its one-sided approach, the EU has contributed to the situation becoming even more muddled than necessary.

Criticism of the EU’s approach

One-sided, because the EU has only ever exerted pressure on Kosovo as the weaker partner and at the same time spared Belgrade, says Toby Vogel. Kallas and her team must try to overcome this negative dynamic and return to the actual goal of the dialog. The steps towards normalization were laid down in the Brussels and Ohrid agreements. However, Serbia’s President Vučić has refused to sign the agreements and has repeatedly distanced himself from their content.

Brussels is maintaining the fiction that the agreements exist, explains Toby Vogel. The EU expects Serbia to recognize Kosovo in the end. At the same time, there is a lack of willingness to exert pressure on Belgrade to take steps towards this goal.

Criticism of the EU’s unequal standards towards Belgrade and Pristina regularly comes from the EU Parliament. The parliamentarians point out that both Borrell and Lajčák came from countries that have not recognized Kosovo. This has damaged the credibility of the tandem in the Balkans.

Stability as a leitmotif

There are now expectations that the Estonian Kaja Kallas will take a more critical view of Serbia and Russian influence in Belgrade. However, the first steps taken by the new Foreign Affairs Commissioner so far do not indicate a change of course. “Stability is our priority in the Western Balkans,” said Kaja Kallas after the Foreign Affairs Council at which her new Special Representative Sørensen was formally appointed.

Stability has always been the leitmotif in the EU capitals, and Vučić was seen as a guarantor of this. The student protests in Serbian cities that have been going on for weeks do not seem to have changed this. In an open letter to universities and representatives of civil society in Serbia this week, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos was conspicuously reticent to criticize the leadership in Belgrade.

The opposition and civil society see their assessment confirmed that the EU, with Germany and France at the helm, is in fact relying on a “stabilocracy” in which democratic or constitutional standards are sacrificed for false stability.

Trump and the territorial exchange

Yet Vučić has long been a factor of instability in the region, according to the EU Parliament. Not only in view of the regular confrontations in northern Kosovo, but also the negative influence of Belgrade in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the recent tensions with EU member Croatia.

However, Albin Kurti also regularly plays with fire from his position of weakness. In his election campaign, the left-wing nationalist claims to have consolidated the sovereignty of the young state over the entire territory and pushed back the Serbian parallel structures in the north during his term as head of government. Unilaterally and not in coordination with Belgrade.

This will win him votes at home, but in Brussels, Albin Kurti has annoyed his European partners. He could soon need them more than ever if Washington pulls the deal for a territory swap between Serbia and Kosovo out of the drawer again. US President Donald Trump wanted to use this deal to “pacify” the region during his first term of office. Germany, in particular, prevented the plan from becoming a dangerous precedent for the region.

AI Act: Commission clarifies the definition of AI systems

The Commission has published guidelines on the definition of AI systems. They are intended to facilitate the application of the rules of the AI Act by helping providers and other relevant stakeholders determine whether a software system is an AI system.

The guidelines on the question of what constitutes AI systems are twelve pages long. In fact, the definition was a controversial topic during the negotiations on the AI Act. Some parliamentarians were concerned that the definition could be so broad that practically any software system could fall under it. Others argued that the EU should be guided by existing international definitions, such as those of the OECD, in order to be internationally compatible.

Seven elements for an AI system

The guidelines explain the seven main elements that make up an AI system under the AI Act:

Machine-based
Autonomy
Adaptivity
Target function
Inference capability
Output
Interaction with the environment

The Commission emphasizes that the definition must be flexible in order to take account of rapid technological developments. Furthermore, not every component has to be active at every point in the life cycle. The guidelines also provide examples of systems that are not considered AI systems, such as those based on simple data processing or classic heuristics.

The aim is to promote the uniform application of the AI Act. However, the guidelines are not binding. They supplement the guidelines on prohibited artificial intelligence practices. Some rules of the AI Act, including the definition of AI systems, have already been in force since Feb. 2. The guidelines have been approved by the Commission but have not yet been formally adopted. vis

Omnibus law: Why trade unions criticize the procedure

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and other environmental and social associations have criticized the Commission’s “chaotic”, non-transparent, and, in their view, undemocratic omnibus procedure. The “Simplification Roundtable” with Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Thursday, which was set up as a participation round, was a lobbying event in which the aim was to have the agenda confirmed by the companies. This was stated by the organizations WWF, ETUC, Friends of the Earth, Share Action, and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ).

“Only a fifth of the participants were NGOs or trade unions – the rest were almost exclusively huge companies and business associations at all levels,” said ETUC Deputy General President Isabelle Schömann. Only those who had an invitation could partake.

According to the NGO Somo, small and medium-sized enterprises made up only a fraction of the participants at 13% – even though, according to the Commission, it is precisely these companies that are to be particularly relieved. Sustainable companies demanding EU laws for fair and sustainable competition were not even invited. By contrast, Exxon Mobile Europe and Total Energies were present, criticized the ETUC.

‘Manipulative, undemocratic procedure’

In addition, social and environmental organizations are still waiting for drafts and timetables for the project. Paul de Clerck, coordinator for economic justice at the NGO Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “Laws that we have been working on for the last ten years are now to be fast-tracked.” The associations emphasized: The roundtable with its select group of participants was no substitute for proper consultation. Schömann spoke of a “manipulative” and undemocratic procedure. The Commission was violating its own guidelines for better regulation.

At the request of Table.Briefings, the Commission did not want to provide any concrete details about the roundtable. Instead, new speculation and rumors about the content of the debates are circulating almost daily. For example, the Responsible Investor portal recently reported that the Commission would not publish its omnibus proposals at the end of February, but at the beginning of March – and that it would take the axe to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). This would mean that 85% of the companies in Europe that are actually obliged to do so would not have to publish CSRD sustainability reports after all.

The double materiality test is also being called into question. This key instrument actually stipulates that companies must firstly explain the impact of their business model on people and the environment – and secondly, the financial impact of external climate disasters on the company. Others reported that the EU supply chain law (CSDDD) could possibly only be introduced in 2030 – and will set far fewer requirements than currently envisaged. lei, maw

Mercosur: S&D, Greens, PfE and ESN push through debate

In the Conference of Presidents (COP), the S&D and Greens, together with the two radical right-wing groups Patriots for Europe and ESN (Europe of Sovereign Nations), have pushed through a plenary debate in the coming week’s session in Strasbourg. The EPP had voted against it. On Thursday at 10:30 a.m., the European Parliament will debate the free trade agreement with the Mercosur states. mgr

BSW MEP leaves the party

Friedrich Pürner, who entered parliament for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) in June, is leaving the party. The reason for this is “the discrepancy between what we aspired to as goals and visions at the founding party conference (Jan. 27, 2024) and what is now the reality of everyday life in the party”.

Pürner was one of six BSW MEPs in the European Parliament. The BSW MEPs are not members of a political group.

The politician criticizes the climate in the party: There is a “culture of mistrust” and “surveillance”. “Authoritarian behavior” has become widespread, and many decisions or party strategies are not comprehensible. He is keeping his seat. mgr

Russian shadow fleet: Captains face sanctions

Captains and owners of ships in Russia’s so-called shadow fleet are threatened with punitive measures by the EU. According to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, changes to sanctions rules are currently being discussed in Brussels, which should enable appropriate action to be taken against individuals. The aim is to adopt them with the 16th Russia sanctions package. This is being prepared for the third anniversary of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The so-called Russian shadow fleet consists of ships with unclear ownership, some of which are not even insured. They are used, for example, to circumvent the Western price cap for Russian oil exports to third countries or to transport grain stolen from Ukraine. There are also fears that they will be used to sabotage data cables in the Baltic and North Sea in the future. According to Sikorski, anchors are often used for this purpose.

Import ban on Russian aluminum

Captains and owners sanctioned by the EU would no longer be allowed to enter the EU. In addition, their assets in the EU would have to be frozen. Sikorski said that the main aim was deterrence. He also made it clear that captains have so far not had to expect penalties because dropping anchors in international waters is not prohibited.

In the fight against the activities of the Russian shadow fleet, the EU had already banned almost 80 ships from entering ports over the course of last year and prohibited companies from offering them services. Ukraine recently led the way with sanctions against captains. On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree with punitive measures against more than 50 Russian ship captains and one captain from Iran.

In addition to the rule changes for new personal sanctions, the next package of Russia sanctions will also include an extensive import ban on Russian aluminum and aluminum alloys as well as an export ban on video game consoles and controllers, according to the German Press Agency (dpa). According to the EU, the latter are used to control combat drones. There are also plans to add dozens more ships to the EU sanctions list. dpa

French parliament adopts austerity budget

After months of dispute, France’s parliament has passed the overdue budget for the current year. A majority of 219 to 107 senators voted in favor of the bill in the upper house.

The center-right government wants to reduce the national deficit with its budget plan – among other things by reducing spending. It had set itself the target of reducing the deficit from around 6.1 percent last year to 5.4 percent of economic output this year. By 2029, it should be back below the European limit of three percent. The EU Commission has initiated deficit proceedings against France for excessive new borrowing.

Socialists supported Bayrou’s government

France’s previous minority government under Michel Barnier was toppled in December by the left-wing and right-wing nationalist opposition in a dispute over the social budget. The budget negotiations were also a crucial test for Prime Minister François Bayrou. He ultimately pushed the budget through the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, without a final vote.

After numerous talks with the government, the Socialists supported Bayrou in two votes of no confidence on Wednesday. The right-wing nationalist MPs around Marine Le Pen also did not oppose the government despite criticizing the budget. dpa

Stefan Solle – Chief lobbyist for metal employers in Brussels

As the saying goes: In court and on the high seas, you are in God’s hands. According to Stefan Solle, Head of International Affairs at the Gesamtmetall Employers’ Association, you can add one more place to this list: Brussels. Because with the complex inter-institutional procedures, you never know exactly what the final outcome of legal proceedings will be.

Accompanying and influencing this complex process in the interests of German M+E companies – that is the goal of the top European lobbyist for German metal and electrical employers in the Belgian capital. “I want to show our members which Brussels issues could be relevant for them – so that we can then develop joint positions. And my aim is to then introduce these to Brussels at the right time and in the right place,” says the 44-year-old. This is what Solle and his team have been doing in Brussels since 2013 as head of the Gesamtmetall liaison office there.

Extend omnibus

The current hot topic for companies in his sector is the upcoming Omnibus Regulation. “The due diligence and reporting requirements have become extreme. We hope that they will be consolidated and streamlined, and not just a little,” says Solle. The current proposals on the table are not enough for him. For him, the regulations on forced labor, conflict minerals, anti-deforestation, and batteries should also be included in the omnibus.

Solle gives an example: “In the case of a car, the due diligence obligations under the Deforestation Regulation apply to the tires, those of the Battery Regulation to the battery, the Conflict Minerals Regulation to the tungsten used and the Supply Chain Directive to the rest of the car.” On top of this, the Forced Products Regulation applies to everything – “even if all of the aforementioned legal acts already provide for identical due diligence obligations regarding forced labor“. If these requirements were standardized, the company could be relieved – “without affecting social or environmental standards,” says Solle.

More optimistic than five years ago

Stefan Solle echoes what we hear time and again from business representatives in Brussels: The first five years under von der Leyen were not easy. He is pleased that the reduction of bureaucracy is now so early and prominent on the agenda. He says: “We are definitely more optimistic about this legislative period than we were five years ago.” One thing that gives him hope is the Budapest Declaration, in which the European heads of state and government committed to a new deal for competitiveness in November.

“But in the end, you have to see what action actually follows,” says Solle. What counts for him is tangible relief that reaches companies. Targets such as 25 percent less bureaucracy, on the other hand, are difficult to verify. As an example, he cites the “one in, one out” principle, which is intended to protect against increasing bureaucracy. “The Commission has declared that it has successfully practiced ‘one in, one out’ over the past two years. But our companies have noticed absolutely nothing of this.”

Previously a consultant at the VCI

Stefan Solle himself has been interested in Europe for more than half his life: He studied Modern History, Political Science and European Business Studies in Jena and Antwerp and spent a semester abroad in Belgium in 2002. After that, it was clear to him that he wanted to deal with Europe professionally. This worked out well: First as a constituency assistant to the then CSU MEP Anja Weisgerber (now a member of the German Bundestag), then as a consultant in the Brussels office of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI). And now for more than ten years as head of the Gesamtmetall office in Brussels. He has also been Head of the International Affairs Department there since 2022.

Solle is also European in his private life. He has lived in the Belgian capital since 2009 and is married to a Polish woman who lives in the Netherlands. When he had the Polish naming law and paternity law applied in accordance with German rules for their daughter there, he realized: “Europe is absurdly complicated, but a solution will be found in the end.” Alina Leimbach

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Till
Hoppe

Sarah
Schaefer

Lukas
Knigge

Corinna
Visser

Markus
Grabitz

Alina
Leimbach

Eric
Bonse

Manuel
Berkel

Stephan
Israel

Claire
Stam

János
Allenbach-Ammann

Feature

EU budget framework: Strategies to fight for the CAP budget

Incentives instead of requirements

Resistance to budget reform

Agriculture Commissioner dampens expectations

Expert: Food security argument not convincing

Green Deal: EU well on track with many targets

More efforts needed for energy efficiency

The circular economy is more than just recycling

There is a lack of data and investment in biodiversity

Kosovo: Kurti can hope for a second term in office

Chances of a fresh start?

Criticism of the EU’s approach

Stability as a leitmotif

Trump and the territorial exchange

EU-Monitoring

News

AI Act: Commission clarifies the definition of AI systems

Seven elements for an AI system

Omnibus law: Why trade unions criticize the procedure

‘Manipulative, undemocratic procedure’

Mercosur: S&D, Greens, PfE and ESN push through debate

BSW MEP leaves the party

Russian shadow fleet: Captains face sanctions

Import ban on Russian aluminum

French parliament adopts austerity budget

Socialists supported Bayrou’s government

Heads

Stefan Solle – Chief lobbyist for metal employers in Brussels

Extend omnibus

More optimistic than five years ago

Previously a consultant at the VCI

Europe.Table Editorial Team

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Feature

EU budget framework: Strategies to fight for the CAP budget

Incentives instead of requirements

Resistance to budget reform

Agriculture Commissioner dampens expectations

Expert: Food security argument not convincing

Green Deal: EU well on track with many targets

More efforts needed for energy efficiency

The circular economy is more than just recycling

There is a lack of data and investment in biodiversity

Kosovo: Kurti can hope for a second term in office

Chances of a fresh start?

Criticism of the EU’s approach

Stability as a leitmotif

Trump and the territorial exchange

EU-Monitoring

News

AI Act: Commission clarifies the definition of AI systems

Seven elements for an AI system

Omnibus law: Why trade unions criticize the procedure

‘Manipulative, undemocratic procedure’

Mercosur: S&D, Greens, PfE and ESN push through debate

BSW MEP leaves the party

Russian shadow fleet: Captains face sanctions

Import ban on Russian aluminum

French parliament adopts austerity budget

Socialists supported Bayrou’s government

Heads

Stefan Solle – Chief lobbyist for metal employers in Brussels

Extend omnibus

More optimistic than five years ago

Previously a consultant at the VCI

Europe.Table Editorial Team

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

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