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The second attempt could work: Viktor Orbán is expected in the European Parliament on Wednesday. In September, he had canceled at short notice due to the floods in his country. Just under three hours have been scheduled for his speech, the parliamentarians’ contributions and his response. Entertainment value is guaranteed: MEPs are planning TV-worthy activities. The right-wing conservative Prime Minister, for his part, will certainly not shine with his high regard for Europe.
Orbán had better stay after his appearance. He could learn something: in the afternoon, the Commission will issue its statement on its rule of law report. Both the report, which the Commission published in July, and the recommendations deal a lot with the Orbán system in Hungary, with nepotism, corruption and attacks on journalists and NGOs.
On Tuesday, the European car manufacturers’ crisis will be on the agenda in Strasbourg. The Commission will also make a statement here. It remains to be seen which Commissioner will speak, as Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton has already hit the sack. It will also be interesting to see whether the Commission will provide information on the direction of the next mandate in terms of phasing out combustion engines, fines in the tens of billions and fleet limits.
Have a good start to the week!
Brussels will be able to impose additional tariffs, despite Germany’s opposition. The EU member states did not reach a sufficient majority against the plan – but there was also no clear vote in favor of the tariffs. This means the Brussels authority can decide whether the duties will be introduced.
The EU Council’s vote is a crushing defeat for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He and his close advisors had campaigned extensively in recent weeks for other EU heads of state and government to oppose the tariffs. They only managed to convince Slovenia. Apart from Germany, three other countries already rejected the tariffs in July voted against. Cyprus voted “no” in July. The country has now abstained.
The countries that voted in favor: Italy, France, Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Ireland, Denmark
Abstentions: Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Finland
Voting against: Germany, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia
Up to now, Chinese EVs have already been subject to an import duty of ten percent. The extra tariffs have various dimensions depending on the manufacturer and will now be applied on top. The EU rewards manufacturers’ willingness to cooperate in the investigation procedure by imposing lower surcharges. In the version agreed on Friday, the following tariffs now apply:
The additional tariffs apply for five years from the day after publication in the EU Official Journal. It is not yet clear when this will happen. A deadline for possible negotiations is October 30. The official deadline for the introduction of the duties is November 4, 13 months after the start of the EU investigation. The provisional countervailing duties in force since July continue to exist as bank guarantees. If a manufacturer does not honor agreements, the extra tariffs can still be applied at a later date.
VW CEO Oliver Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that there is still time until the end of October before the planned additional tariffs on Chinese cars come into force. However, the negotiations could also lead to Chinese companies producing EVs in Germany. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse called the vote a fatal signal for the European automotive industry. “Now a quick solution is needed between the European Commission and China to prevent a trade conflict that will ultimately only have losers.” According to a spokesperson, Mercedes-Benz also believes that punitive tariffs would harm the industry’s competitiveness in the long term.
The European Chamber of Commerce in China has called for dialogue. This is “the preferred way to resolve trade disputes,” the Chamber said. “The relationship between Europe and China has created immense value in the past and has significant potential for future value creation. Therefore, the Chamber of Commerce supports the EU and China to consider a negotiated solution with a view to ensuring a level-playing field in the relationship and addressing imbalances.” The Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU called the EU investigation “a politically motivated and unjustified protectionist measure.” It will closely monitor the ongoing negotiations, the Chamber announced.
China wants to continue negotiations. Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce accuses the EU of shaking and hindering the confidence and determination of Chinese companies to invest in and cooperate with the EU rather than solve problems. It said both sides had expressed their willingness to find a solution in the negotiations over the past few weeks, and technical teams from both sides will continue the talks on October 7. Should an agreement be reached in the coming weeks, the EU Council would have to vote again on a revised agreement.
The EU Commission remained tight-lipped on Friday. Minimum prices from Chinese manufacturers and volume caps are on the table. However, a large agreement cannot simply be concluded here. Minimum prices must be negotiated individually with the manufacturers. State interference is problematic within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) guidelines.
EU sources expect China to implement possible steps in early November, when the EV tariffs will likely come into force. Tariffs on French cognac are an obvious option. Investigations into European pork imports are underway on the Chinese side, as are investigations into dairy products. Further restrictions on critical minerals are also conceivable.
It remains to be seen how it will be handled if Chinese EVs are imported into the EU from neighboring non-EU countries where the additional tariffs do not apply. For example, from Switzerland, which has a free trade agreement with China. However, Serbia and the United Kingdom could also be of interest. The Brussels authority did not comment on this on Friday.
Ms. Vasselier, what do you think of the current customs decision on electric cars from China?
First of all, it’s a good day for Europe! We managed to pass the tariffs, which means that we’ve managed to be more consequential vis-à-vis China. We’ve shown that Europe can respond to the distortions created by China. These measures are not US-style tariffs; they’re a European-style response. And then there is a second layer to this decision, of how to do European China policy with 27 diverging national interests. It’s a pretty unique situation, as we got to see the way the vote was unfolding and how pressure was working. Usually, you don’t get that level of granularity.
What does the voting behavior of the member states show us?
In the case of Spain – and this concerns half of the countries that abstained – we can see how China manages to create a fear of retaliation, with which it can change the position of governments. A very important takeaway from this is: We need to prepare our member states for the fact that there might be more tariffs in the future, as Europe is going to be more consequential. There might be more tit-for-tat and more retaliation coming from China, be it real or just threats for retaliation. Europeans need to better understand how China is playing retaliation and how we can prepare for retaliation measures - whether at the government or company level. There also needs to be an honest reflection on what kind of economic model we want for Europe.
What could a future economic model for Europe look like?
It’s for sure a future where tariffs are normalized, where all actors will increasingly weaponize trade, and economic coercion is going to become a feature of our economic and trade relationships.
What do you think of the German debate about the tariffs and how the country voted?
Just one year after the China strategy was published, with just one vote the Chancellor showed how fragmented the government is.
Are you saying Germany‘s China strategy isn’t working?
Germany’s China strategy was a very positive exercise in terms of creating coherence in a country, where there are such divergent interests regarding China. The strategy managed to bring Germany behind one voice. With the vote against the EV tariffs, how much debate and how many divergent voices we’ve now seen, and also the fact that Olaf Scholz went against the coalition, it shows one thing: We have moved from a very good process of bringing coherence, to a vote, that completely put these efforts down. The second element is the fact that the government moved from abstention to voting against. This happened in a constellation, where they knew they would not have the majority when voting No, and that the tariffs would pass.
How do you interpret this voting behavior?
The signaling of this is extremely important. Voting No in such a constellation signals that Germany is breaking European unity. For the past six years, we have enjoyed a very good degree of unity. But my sense is by Germany taking a stand and saying: I’m against, and I’m going to make clear that everyone knows, it’s undermining our unity over the long term – not just in this case but also in the future. Berlin is opening a Pandora’s box: How much unity are we going to have in European China policy in the future?
Has Scholz also sent a signal to China?
I think it’s clearly a signal to China: Germany will ensure our trade relationship is not so politicized, which is what China is asking. The consequence is that the Chinese now see that they can leverage Germany and some German companies to break European unity. By voting against it, Germany is also undermining European credibility vis-a-vis China because it shows that there is a big divergence in terms of the stance taken by the EU Commission and what Germany wants.
There has been a lot of friction between China and the EU. How can we create a functioning relationship?
I think what China wants is for Europe to keep its market open and to take a slightly divergent approach from the one of the US in terms of openness. However, this is clearly not happening, as we see now with the tariffs. There will be some sort of closure or at least a rise in the cost for China to access the European markets. As for the European side, I think Europe expects that the trade relation it’s enjoying with China – which Europe also needs to have with China – can take place under conditions that are fair, reciprocal and non-distortive. But with the current trajectory of the Chinese economic model, that’s not going to happen. That’s why there’s a mismatch of expectations that China cannot address and cannot do what Europe wants it to do, and vice versa. Neither of us will be able to respond to what the other wants in this situation. This is why I think it’s clear that the trade frictions and political frictions will continue escalating.
What conclusions do you draw from this situation?
We need to build resilience on the European level, not just economically, but also by becoming a geopolitical player. There have been existential issues in our relationship with China before. But the EV issue is different: It touches European prosperity. Europe has imposed sanctions against Chinese actors related to security concerns in the case of cyber-attacks or serious human rights violations. While negotiations were difficult, we managed to create unity. However, regarding the question of electric vehicles, we are most divided. The case of tariffs on electric vehicles is so special because it touches Germany’s unique economic position vis-a-vis China and future trade relations with China.
Understandably so: The German automotive industry’s sales and market share in China have declined lately, and the German economy is dependent on the automotive industry.
I think we need to accept that we are now in a systemic competition at the economic level. But if you put yourself in the shoes of the car industry and you look at your short-term profit, probably there is still some to make and that’s a business decision.
But one that is not sustainable?
I thought we had come to a common understanding of China’s economic trajectory and the challenges our companies were facing in China but also in third markets. It seems that we lack a common assessment of China’s economic trajectory, how it impacts Europe, and most importantly, the realization that we are in a systemic competition with China. The next fight on European-China policy will not take place in Brussels. It will take place in European capitals, and it will take place with all the stakeholders. Not only the government, but with companies and with citizens.
Do you mean that this is the beginning of fragmentation?
Yes. The German case shows how deep fragmentation can become. So far, we have observed strong divisions between the coalition members and with the most prominent German companies. The moment the trade unions realize that we will lose jobs because of China, that’s the moment we are going to have a different set of conversations. When people will feel the costs of the decisions taken on China, pay more for their products or when they lose their job because of the competition with China, that’s when we will see a bigger level of fragmentation. And I think it’s going to come.
Abigaël Vasselier heads the Foreign Relations team at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin. Previously, she worked as Deputy Head of Division for China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Mongolia at the European External Action Service (EEAS) and Policy Fellow and Program Coordinator at the Asia Programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She studied Chinese at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing.
Ekaterina Zakharieva can still remember the exact moment she heard about the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was on a trolley bus on the way to school in Pazardzhik, a town in the southwest of Bulgaria with a population of just under 60,000. The news had a very special meaning for Zakharieva, who was 14 years old at the time. She attended the Berthold-Brecht-Gymnasium, a foreign language high school, which was already available in every regional town in Bulgaria at the time. “Coming into contact with the world of German language and culture as a teenager was an opportunity for me to discover the world.”
It is not just her early contact with another country that awards the Commissioner-designate for Research a certain cosmopolitanism. From 2017 to 2021, the lawyer represented her country internationally as Foreign Minister, meeting her then US colleague Mike Pompeo in Washington and Heiko Maas in Berlin. During Zakharieva’s term of office, she also held the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2018. Prior to this, she had already gained experience as a minister, first responsible for regional development and then for justice.
With her CV, the now 49-year-old Ekaterina Zakharieva stands out from other Commissioner candidates who, like Glenn Micallef from Malta, have never held a ministerial office. And yet the Bulgarian is likely to come under pressure at her hearing in the European Parliament, partly because she belongs to the GERB party. The party, part of the European People’s Party (EPP), has been involved in numerous cases of corruption. Bulgaria is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU and was governed by GERB for years, says Green MEP Daniel Freund: “Of course the European Parliament must take a close look at this candidate.”
Specifically, a whistleblower accused Zakharieva in 2018 of involvement in a scandal surrounding the sale of passports. The case was never legally investigated. It also does not help that Zakharieva has had no points of contact with the areas she will be responsible for: start-ups, research and innovation.
A Commissioner specifically for start-ups – something that has never been seen before in the EU organization chart. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is thus signaling that she is drawing lessons from the Draghi report, which clearly stated that Europe is lagging behind in cutting-edge technologies. Europe needs small, innovative companies in order to catch up with the USA. But Zakharieva’s influence in this area will be limited. Factors that shape the environment for start-ups are decided elsewhere in the EU Commission, for example by the future Commissioner for Financial Services when it comes to access to capital for young companies.
In her mission letter, von der Leyen has tasked Commissioner-designate Zakharieva with strengthening Europe’s basic research by expanding the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Research Council (ERC). A fifth freedom of movement is to be added to the internal market: scientists, knowledge and technology should be able to move freely within the EU. Zakharieva is also to develop a long-term strategy to strengthen the European research infrastructure.
There is broad consensus on these proposals. However, Zakharieva will only be able to demonstrate success in her field if the EU provides sufficient funding for research and innovation. An association of 22 research-intensive universities, including the universities of Tübingen and Göttingen, has called in an open letter for the number of excellent ERC proposals that are not funded to be “reduced dramatically.”
The universities are also demanding that the next research framework program should be financed with at least €200 billion and that the funds should not shrink in comparison to the previous program. However, it is already clear that the battle for funding in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework from 2028 will be tougher than ever before. The EPP will ensure that Ekaterina Zakharieva survives the hearing, according to the European Parliament. She will then have to overcome the really difficult hurdles. Silke Wettach
The second attempt could work: Viktor Orbán is expected in the European Parliament on Wednesday. In September, he had canceled at short notice due to the floods in his country. Just under three hours have been scheduled for his speech, the parliamentarians’ contributions and his response. Entertainment value is guaranteed: MEPs are planning TV-worthy activities. The right-wing conservative Prime Minister, for his part, will certainly not shine with his high regard for Europe.
Orbán had better stay after his appearance. He could learn something: in the afternoon, the Commission will issue its statement on its rule of law report. Both the report, which the Commission published in July, and the recommendations deal a lot with the Orbán system in Hungary, with nepotism, corruption and attacks on journalists and NGOs.
On Tuesday, the European car manufacturers’ crisis will be on the agenda in Strasbourg. The Commission will also make a statement here. It remains to be seen which Commissioner will speak, as Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton has already hit the sack. It will also be interesting to see whether the Commission will provide information on the direction of the next mandate in terms of phasing out combustion engines, fines in the tens of billions and fleet limits.
Have a good start to the week!
Brussels will be able to impose additional tariffs, despite Germany’s opposition. The EU member states did not reach a sufficient majority against the plan – but there was also no clear vote in favor of the tariffs. This means the Brussels authority can decide whether the duties will be introduced.
The EU Council’s vote is a crushing defeat for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He and his close advisors had campaigned extensively in recent weeks for other EU heads of state and government to oppose the tariffs. They only managed to convince Slovenia. Apart from Germany, three other countries already rejected the tariffs in July voted against. Cyprus voted “no” in July. The country has now abstained.
The countries that voted in favor: Italy, France, Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Ireland, Denmark
Abstentions: Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Finland
Voting against: Germany, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia
Up to now, Chinese EVs have already been subject to an import duty of ten percent. The extra tariffs have various dimensions depending on the manufacturer and will now be applied on top. The EU rewards manufacturers’ willingness to cooperate in the investigation procedure by imposing lower surcharges. In the version agreed on Friday, the following tariffs now apply:
The additional tariffs apply for five years from the day after publication in the EU Official Journal. It is not yet clear when this will happen. A deadline for possible negotiations is October 30. The official deadline for the introduction of the duties is November 4, 13 months after the start of the EU investigation. The provisional countervailing duties in force since July continue to exist as bank guarantees. If a manufacturer does not honor agreements, the extra tariffs can still be applied at a later date.
VW CEO Oliver Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that there is still time until the end of October before the planned additional tariffs on Chinese cars come into force. However, the negotiations could also lead to Chinese companies producing EVs in Germany. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse called the vote a fatal signal for the European automotive industry. “Now a quick solution is needed between the European Commission and China to prevent a trade conflict that will ultimately only have losers.” According to a spokesperson, Mercedes-Benz also believes that punitive tariffs would harm the industry’s competitiveness in the long term.
The European Chamber of Commerce in China has called for dialogue. This is “the preferred way to resolve trade disputes,” the Chamber said. “The relationship between Europe and China has created immense value in the past and has significant potential for future value creation. Therefore, the Chamber of Commerce supports the EU and China to consider a negotiated solution with a view to ensuring a level-playing field in the relationship and addressing imbalances.” The Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU called the EU investigation “a politically motivated and unjustified protectionist measure.” It will closely monitor the ongoing negotiations, the Chamber announced.
China wants to continue negotiations. Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce accuses the EU of shaking and hindering the confidence and determination of Chinese companies to invest in and cooperate with the EU rather than solve problems. It said both sides had expressed their willingness to find a solution in the negotiations over the past few weeks, and technical teams from both sides will continue the talks on October 7. Should an agreement be reached in the coming weeks, the EU Council would have to vote again on a revised agreement.
The EU Commission remained tight-lipped on Friday. Minimum prices from Chinese manufacturers and volume caps are on the table. However, a large agreement cannot simply be concluded here. Minimum prices must be negotiated individually with the manufacturers. State interference is problematic within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) guidelines.
EU sources expect China to implement possible steps in early November, when the EV tariffs will likely come into force. Tariffs on French cognac are an obvious option. Investigations into European pork imports are underway on the Chinese side, as are investigations into dairy products. Further restrictions on critical minerals are also conceivable.
It remains to be seen how it will be handled if Chinese EVs are imported into the EU from neighboring non-EU countries where the additional tariffs do not apply. For example, from Switzerland, which has a free trade agreement with China. However, Serbia and the United Kingdom could also be of interest. The Brussels authority did not comment on this on Friday.
Ms. Vasselier, what do you think of the current customs decision on electric cars from China?
First of all, it’s a good day for Europe! We managed to pass the tariffs, which means that we’ve managed to be more consequential vis-à-vis China. We’ve shown that Europe can respond to the distortions created by China. These measures are not US-style tariffs; they’re a European-style response. And then there is a second layer to this decision, of how to do European China policy with 27 diverging national interests. It’s a pretty unique situation, as we got to see the way the vote was unfolding and how pressure was working. Usually, you don’t get that level of granularity.
What does the voting behavior of the member states show us?
In the case of Spain – and this concerns half of the countries that abstained – we can see how China manages to create a fear of retaliation, with which it can change the position of governments. A very important takeaway from this is: We need to prepare our member states for the fact that there might be more tariffs in the future, as Europe is going to be more consequential. There might be more tit-for-tat and more retaliation coming from China, be it real or just threats for retaliation. Europeans need to better understand how China is playing retaliation and how we can prepare for retaliation measures - whether at the government or company level. There also needs to be an honest reflection on what kind of economic model we want for Europe.
What could a future economic model for Europe look like?
It’s for sure a future where tariffs are normalized, where all actors will increasingly weaponize trade, and economic coercion is going to become a feature of our economic and trade relationships.
What do you think of the German debate about the tariffs and how the country voted?
Just one year after the China strategy was published, with just one vote the Chancellor showed how fragmented the government is.
Are you saying Germany‘s China strategy isn’t working?
Germany’s China strategy was a very positive exercise in terms of creating coherence in a country, where there are such divergent interests regarding China. The strategy managed to bring Germany behind one voice. With the vote against the EV tariffs, how much debate and how many divergent voices we’ve now seen, and also the fact that Olaf Scholz went against the coalition, it shows one thing: We have moved from a very good process of bringing coherence, to a vote, that completely put these efforts down. The second element is the fact that the government moved from abstention to voting against. This happened in a constellation, where they knew they would not have the majority when voting No, and that the tariffs would pass.
How do you interpret this voting behavior?
The signaling of this is extremely important. Voting No in such a constellation signals that Germany is breaking European unity. For the past six years, we have enjoyed a very good degree of unity. But my sense is by Germany taking a stand and saying: I’m against, and I’m going to make clear that everyone knows, it’s undermining our unity over the long term – not just in this case but also in the future. Berlin is opening a Pandora’s box: How much unity are we going to have in European China policy in the future?
Has Scholz also sent a signal to China?
I think it’s clearly a signal to China: Germany will ensure our trade relationship is not so politicized, which is what China is asking. The consequence is that the Chinese now see that they can leverage Germany and some German companies to break European unity. By voting against it, Germany is also undermining European credibility vis-a-vis China because it shows that there is a big divergence in terms of the stance taken by the EU Commission and what Germany wants.
There has been a lot of friction between China and the EU. How can we create a functioning relationship?
I think what China wants is for Europe to keep its market open and to take a slightly divergent approach from the one of the US in terms of openness. However, this is clearly not happening, as we see now with the tariffs. There will be some sort of closure or at least a rise in the cost for China to access the European markets. As for the European side, I think Europe expects that the trade relation it’s enjoying with China – which Europe also needs to have with China – can take place under conditions that are fair, reciprocal and non-distortive. But with the current trajectory of the Chinese economic model, that’s not going to happen. That’s why there’s a mismatch of expectations that China cannot address and cannot do what Europe wants it to do, and vice versa. Neither of us will be able to respond to what the other wants in this situation. This is why I think it’s clear that the trade frictions and political frictions will continue escalating.
What conclusions do you draw from this situation?
We need to build resilience on the European level, not just economically, but also by becoming a geopolitical player. There have been existential issues in our relationship with China before. But the EV issue is different: It touches European prosperity. Europe has imposed sanctions against Chinese actors related to security concerns in the case of cyber-attacks or serious human rights violations. While negotiations were difficult, we managed to create unity. However, regarding the question of electric vehicles, we are most divided. The case of tariffs on electric vehicles is so special because it touches Germany’s unique economic position vis-a-vis China and future trade relations with China.
Understandably so: The German automotive industry’s sales and market share in China have declined lately, and the German economy is dependent on the automotive industry.
I think we need to accept that we are now in a systemic competition at the economic level. But if you put yourself in the shoes of the car industry and you look at your short-term profit, probably there is still some to make and that’s a business decision.
But one that is not sustainable?
I thought we had come to a common understanding of China’s economic trajectory and the challenges our companies were facing in China but also in third markets. It seems that we lack a common assessment of China’s economic trajectory, how it impacts Europe, and most importantly, the realization that we are in a systemic competition with China. The next fight on European-China policy will not take place in Brussels. It will take place in European capitals, and it will take place with all the stakeholders. Not only the government, but with companies and with citizens.
Do you mean that this is the beginning of fragmentation?
Yes. The German case shows how deep fragmentation can become. So far, we have observed strong divisions between the coalition members and with the most prominent German companies. The moment the trade unions realize that we will lose jobs because of China, that’s the moment we are going to have a different set of conversations. When people will feel the costs of the decisions taken on China, pay more for their products or when they lose their job because of the competition with China, that’s when we will see a bigger level of fragmentation. And I think it’s going to come.
Abigaël Vasselier heads the Foreign Relations team at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin. Previously, she worked as Deputy Head of Division for China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Mongolia at the European External Action Service (EEAS) and Policy Fellow and Program Coordinator at the Asia Programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She studied Chinese at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing.
Ekaterina Zakharieva can still remember the exact moment she heard about the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was on a trolley bus on the way to school in Pazardzhik, a town in the southwest of Bulgaria with a population of just under 60,000. The news had a very special meaning for Zakharieva, who was 14 years old at the time. She attended the Berthold-Brecht-Gymnasium, a foreign language high school, which was already available in every regional town in Bulgaria at the time. “Coming into contact with the world of German language and culture as a teenager was an opportunity for me to discover the world.”
It is not just her early contact with another country that awards the Commissioner-designate for Research a certain cosmopolitanism. From 2017 to 2021, the lawyer represented her country internationally as Foreign Minister, meeting her then US colleague Mike Pompeo in Washington and Heiko Maas in Berlin. During Zakharieva’s term of office, she also held the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2018. Prior to this, she had already gained experience as a minister, first responsible for regional development and then for justice.
With her CV, the now 49-year-old Ekaterina Zakharieva stands out from other Commissioner candidates who, like Glenn Micallef from Malta, have never held a ministerial office. And yet the Bulgarian is likely to come under pressure at her hearing in the European Parliament, partly because she belongs to the GERB party. The party, part of the European People’s Party (EPP), has been involved in numerous cases of corruption. Bulgaria is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU and was governed by GERB for years, says Green MEP Daniel Freund: “Of course the European Parliament must take a close look at this candidate.”
Specifically, a whistleblower accused Zakharieva in 2018 of involvement in a scandal surrounding the sale of passports. The case was never legally investigated. It also does not help that Zakharieva has had no points of contact with the areas she will be responsible for: start-ups, research and innovation.
A Commissioner specifically for start-ups – something that has never been seen before in the EU organization chart. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is thus signaling that she is drawing lessons from the Draghi report, which clearly stated that Europe is lagging behind in cutting-edge technologies. Europe needs small, innovative companies in order to catch up with the USA. But Zakharieva’s influence in this area will be limited. Factors that shape the environment for start-ups are decided elsewhere in the EU Commission, for example by the future Commissioner for Financial Services when it comes to access to capital for young companies.
In her mission letter, von der Leyen has tasked Commissioner-designate Zakharieva with strengthening Europe’s basic research by expanding the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Research Council (ERC). A fifth freedom of movement is to be added to the internal market: scientists, knowledge and technology should be able to move freely within the EU. Zakharieva is also to develop a long-term strategy to strengthen the European research infrastructure.
There is broad consensus on these proposals. However, Zakharieva will only be able to demonstrate success in her field if the EU provides sufficient funding for research and innovation. An association of 22 research-intensive universities, including the universities of Tübingen and Göttingen, has called in an open letter for the number of excellent ERC proposals that are not funded to be “reduced dramatically.”
The universities are also demanding that the next research framework program should be financed with at least €200 billion and that the funds should not shrink in comparison to the previous program. However, it is already clear that the battle for funding in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework from 2028 will be tougher than ever before. The EPP will ensure that Ekaterina Zakharieva survives the hearing, according to the European Parliament. She will then have to overcome the really difficult hurdles. Silke Wettach