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Industry ministers are meeting in Brussels today for the Competitiveness Council. The Hungarian Presidency has only scheduled a half-day meeting, but the program is packed. First, the ministers will discuss the Draghi report in a non-public meeting and express their preferences as to which of the proposals should be worked on further. Mario Draghi had been invited but, according to a diplomat, canceled due to scheduling reasons.
In a further non-public discussion, the ministers will turn their attention to state aid. On the one hand, they will again discuss whether ideas from the Draghi and Letta reports should be pursued further. Both criticized the relaxation of state aid rules at the national level and proposed a solution at the European level. The other issue is whether or not the current relaxation of state aid rules under the “Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework” should be extended until after 2025.
Following these politically controversial issues, there is a public debate about the cheap goods sold in the EU via the Chinese online providers Shein and Temu, which in many cases contravene EU standards. Germany has put the issue on the agenda and presented a non-paper to the member states calling for swift action.
The EU Commission is currently investigating whether it can better control the two platforms via the Digital Services Act. However, in order to close the regulatory customs loophole from which Shein and Temo benefit, a new regulatory proposal from the Commission would probably be necessary. The German initiative is also supported by France, Austria, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
And as if that wasn’t enough for half a day, the Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso has announced that he wants to discuss the early revision of the ban on combustion engines at the Council meeting. It won’t be boring!
We wish you a less crowded but at least as fulfilling day,
Pressure is mounting on the EU Commission to bring forward the statutory review of the CO2 fleet limits from 2026 to 2025. Jens Gieseke (CDU), Coordinator in the Transport Committee, is calling for a “clear commitment” from the responsible Commissioners, Wopke Hoekstra and Teresa Ribera, in the hearings “for flexibility and not to stick rigidly to the 2026 revision.” He attached conditions to this: “Without this clear commitment, I will refuse to give my consent to these commissioners.” The hearings are expected to take place from Nov. 4.
Minister Robert Habeck, the European manufacturers’ association ACEA and VDA President Hildegard Müller had previously called for this to be brought forward. The leader of the CDU in Lower Saxony, Sebastian Lechner, and voices from the FDP are even calling for the abolition of the fleet limits and thus the reversal of the 2035 ban on combustion engines. MEP Gieseke, who comes from Lower Saxony, submitted a written question to the Commission last week and wants to know: “Is the European Commission considering an early evaluation of the legislation relevant to the automotive sector?” He goes on to ask: “If yes, in what timeframe? If not, on what grounds?” The Commission must respond to a written question from an MEP within six weeks.
So far, Ursula von der Leyen has avoided the question. This is despite the fact that she was the lead candidate for the CDU, which contested its European election campaign with the demand for a reversal of the ban on combustion engines. Even internally, she is said to have given no promise to the CDU and CSU MEPs in the European Parliament to bring forward the review. In recent weeks, representatives of the manufacturers have reportedly made repeated demands to senior Commission officials to bring forward the review. The officials are said to have listened to the arguments but made no comments. The signal would have to come from the political level anyway, i.e. from the Commission.
While the election campaign focused on reversing the 2035 ban on combustion engines, the main issue now is the threat of fines if manufacturers fail to meet the 2025 targets. Fines of up to €15 billion could be imposed because several companies will not reach the specific CO2 fleet limits. The industry argues that fines in the billions would set manufacturers back even further in terms of their competitiveness.
The background to this is that VW and Renault in particular are missing their sales targets for new battery electric vehicles (BEV). Mercedes will also have a hard time. BMW and Stellantis could achieve the targets. BMW boss Oliver Zipse is probably not interested in giving up the hard-won competitive advantage over Mercedes and the VW Group in terms of fleet limits. However, this would be the case if the fines were reduced or even suspended.
The legislative path to this would not be easy anyway. The prerequisite would be to bring forward the revision from 2026 to 2025, which would be feasible, according to experienced MEPs. However, the Commission’s experts would have to hurry up and complete their analysis of the status of the decarbonization of new fleets a year earlier. On this basis, the manufacturers calculate, the Commission could then propose retroactively increasing the limit values for 2025 before the summer break in 2025.
The co-legislators, the Parliament and the Council, would have to give their approval as in any regular legislative procedure. This is not a foregone conclusion: it was only in June 2022 that Parliament approved the fleet limits and the ban on combustion engines. At that time, 339 MEPs were in favor of the limits, 249 rejected them. In order to repeal fines and increase limits, the majorities would have to change within a few years. The same applies to the Council.
This would make the fines for 2025 obsolete. Without this intervention, experience shows that the Commission would identify any breaches of the fleet limits before the summer break in 2026 and set the fines: 95 euros would be due for each new car and each gram by which the manufacturer misses its specific fleet limit value.
His political career began 20 years ago with a defeat. In 2004, the then 19-year-old Stéphane Séjourné took part in a campaign for the European Constitution – and lost. The next political engagements of the young Frenchman, who had been a member of the Parti Socialiste (S&D) since 2001, were not crowned with success either. In 2007, he helped in the election campaign of Ségolène Royale, who lost to Sarkozy in the presidential election, and in 2011 he supported Dominique Strauss-Kahn until his so-called Sofitel scandal came to light.
And yet the 39-year-old is currently sitting on the ninth floor of the Charlemagne building in Brussels, preparing to take on perhaps the most influential post in European economic policy. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has nominated him as Vice-President of the Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy. He has achieved this thanks to his political flair and thanks to Emmanuel Macron.
In 2014, he joined Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet as an advisor to the then Minister of the Economy. Among other things, he worked on the “Loi Macron” – a law that was intended to remove bureaucratic obstacles in a number of sectors and thus ensure economic growth. Cutting red tape is once again high on the EU agenda.
In 2016, he played a leading role in his boss’s presidential campaign. Instead of entering the National Assembly like many of Macron’s companions, he remained close to the president and became a political advisor at the Elysée Palace. In 2019, he entered the European Parliament as the list leader of Macron’s party, where he also took over the leadership of the liberal Renew group in 2021.
At the same time, he remained in the game in Paris. In September 2022, he took over the presidency of Renaissance and in January 2024, he was nominated by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs – a post he held until last Monday.
In recent years, Séjourné has managed to exert influence and expand his power in Paris and Brussels at the same time. Despite this, the public knows him poorly. When the French media write about him, it is often as the “man in the shadows“. How has he managed to have such a stellar career despite this relative obscurity?
“He has a keen understanding of the balance of power,” says a source who has worked closely with Séjourné. This makes him a respected mediator. “When he was president of the Renew Group, Séjourné often said that if he could find a solution between Pascal Canfin and Nicola Beer, he could find a solution for Europe.” The positions of the French and German Liberals are often very different, especially in terms of economic policy, but Séjourné managed to keep both sides on board.
FDP MEP Moritz Körner praises the Frenchman as a “political professional” who “would be an important asset to the new Commission”. “He is more liberal than his predecessor Breton, so we can expect good cooperation with him”, says Körner. The contrasts with Thierry Breton could hardly be greater. While Breton sought publicity and confrontation and made powerful enemies in the process, Séjourné mostly operated in the background. He was careful not to burn any bridges.
“He is a politician who listens and absorbs a lot of the expertise of others”, says Séjourné’s close acquaintance Table.Briefings. People close to him say that, both as Foreign Minister and as Renew President, he drew heavily on the expertise of the administration and the party secretariat, rather than making decisions in a small circle of close advisors.
In politically sensitive industrial policy dossiers, he will have to rely on both his administrative skills and his political intuition. He will benefit from the fact that he already knows many of his new Commission colleagues. On the one hand through his work as group leader in Parliament, but also as French Foreign Minister. He has already had dealings with his colleagues Ribera, Hoekstra and Jørgensen in international climate negotiations. Séjourné will have to propose the Clean Industry Deal with the same people in the first hundred days of the new Commission.
If you ask around him, you will hear that he is concerned about Europe being left behind (“decrochage”). He wants to find a way to get away from the chronic underinvestment in the European economy. According to his mission letter, the establishment of a competitiveness fund will be one of his tasks.
He will therefore have to devote himself to the most political of all EU issues – financing. “As a close confidant of Macron, […] it can be assumed that he – in contrast to the FDP – will advocate increased European debt“, says Körner. A good relationship with the German government will be all the more important for Séjourné if he wants to get involved in the discussion about new EU debt.
Séjourné is rumored to be planning a Franco-German leadership for his cabinet. It is already known that Bertrand L’Huillier will head Séjourné’s two-member mini-preparatory cabinet. L’Huillier already led Séjourné’s team in Parliament and also accompanied him to the Foreign Ministry. So if L’Huillier is to become head of cabinet, it can be assumed that a German citizen will take on the post of deputy head of cabinet.
But before Séjourné can put together his cabinet, he has to convince Parliament of his merits. This week, he met the various parliamentary group leaders in Brussels and probably tried to do what he does best: Forging alliances in the background.
Does Europe still have a place at the top of the world in the future? Our freedom and prosperity depend on the path Europe takes now and whether science and research lead the way. The new EU Commission faces major tasks. Ever since Mario Draghi’s report on the EU’s competitiveness, it has been clear that Europe must become significantly more innovative in order to keep up with global competition.
The new Commission is in a fundamentally changed geopolitical situation. We are witnessing the rise of authoritarian and nationalist governments. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences have made us painfully aware of the dangers of one-sided economic dependency. China is increasingly emerging as Europe’s systemic rival. And regardless of who wins the race to the White House, the USA is in retreat as Europe’s guarantor of stability.
It is high time for Europe to invest in its own sovereignty. It should be clear to us that Europe cannot remain as it is now. And not because it is bad now, but because it is too unambitious. Too little self-confidence. Too little focus on its own strengths. What we need is the courage and willingness to initiate change ourselves.
Three points that, in my view, make it clear what we urgently need:
So where is Europe heading? I am convinced that if we as Europeans stand up for each other, if we tackle obstacles as common European challenges and pool our strengths even more intensively than before, then we will get back on the road to success. As a senator in Hamburg, I see every day what Europe can do: Scientists from all parts of the world work together here in an interdisciplinary and networked way across institutional boundaries.
Our Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld is a European project in which start-ups collaborate with cutting-edge research and only have to cross the road to do so. Where European technological sovereignty, basic research and application in the private sector are to come together with the world’s most powerful X-ray laser microscope PETRA IV. I experience a special spirit in Hamburg. People who are enthusiastic about joint projects. Who cooperatively and boldly overcome boundaries. Who discover new things and create innovation. That is what the idea of Europe stands for. And that is what Europe needs now.
Industry ministers are meeting in Brussels today for the Competitiveness Council. The Hungarian Presidency has only scheduled a half-day meeting, but the program is packed. First, the ministers will discuss the Draghi report in a non-public meeting and express their preferences as to which of the proposals should be worked on further. Mario Draghi had been invited but, according to a diplomat, canceled due to scheduling reasons.
In a further non-public discussion, the ministers will turn their attention to state aid. On the one hand, they will again discuss whether ideas from the Draghi and Letta reports should be pursued further. Both criticized the relaxation of state aid rules at the national level and proposed a solution at the European level. The other issue is whether or not the current relaxation of state aid rules under the “Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework” should be extended until after 2025.
Following these politically controversial issues, there is a public debate about the cheap goods sold in the EU via the Chinese online providers Shein and Temu, which in many cases contravene EU standards. Germany has put the issue on the agenda and presented a non-paper to the member states calling for swift action.
The EU Commission is currently investigating whether it can better control the two platforms via the Digital Services Act. However, in order to close the regulatory customs loophole from which Shein and Temo benefit, a new regulatory proposal from the Commission would probably be necessary. The German initiative is also supported by France, Austria, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
And as if that wasn’t enough for half a day, the Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso has announced that he wants to discuss the early revision of the ban on combustion engines at the Council meeting. It won’t be boring!
We wish you a less crowded but at least as fulfilling day,
Pressure is mounting on the EU Commission to bring forward the statutory review of the CO2 fleet limits from 2026 to 2025. Jens Gieseke (CDU), Coordinator in the Transport Committee, is calling for a “clear commitment” from the responsible Commissioners, Wopke Hoekstra and Teresa Ribera, in the hearings “for flexibility and not to stick rigidly to the 2026 revision.” He attached conditions to this: “Without this clear commitment, I will refuse to give my consent to these commissioners.” The hearings are expected to take place from Nov. 4.
Minister Robert Habeck, the European manufacturers’ association ACEA and VDA President Hildegard Müller had previously called for this to be brought forward. The leader of the CDU in Lower Saxony, Sebastian Lechner, and voices from the FDP are even calling for the abolition of the fleet limits and thus the reversal of the 2035 ban on combustion engines. MEP Gieseke, who comes from Lower Saxony, submitted a written question to the Commission last week and wants to know: “Is the European Commission considering an early evaluation of the legislation relevant to the automotive sector?” He goes on to ask: “If yes, in what timeframe? If not, on what grounds?” The Commission must respond to a written question from an MEP within six weeks.
So far, Ursula von der Leyen has avoided the question. This is despite the fact that she was the lead candidate for the CDU, which contested its European election campaign with the demand for a reversal of the ban on combustion engines. Even internally, she is said to have given no promise to the CDU and CSU MEPs in the European Parliament to bring forward the review. In recent weeks, representatives of the manufacturers have reportedly made repeated demands to senior Commission officials to bring forward the review. The officials are said to have listened to the arguments but made no comments. The signal would have to come from the political level anyway, i.e. from the Commission.
While the election campaign focused on reversing the 2035 ban on combustion engines, the main issue now is the threat of fines if manufacturers fail to meet the 2025 targets. Fines of up to €15 billion could be imposed because several companies will not reach the specific CO2 fleet limits. The industry argues that fines in the billions would set manufacturers back even further in terms of their competitiveness.
The background to this is that VW and Renault in particular are missing their sales targets for new battery electric vehicles (BEV). Mercedes will also have a hard time. BMW and Stellantis could achieve the targets. BMW boss Oliver Zipse is probably not interested in giving up the hard-won competitive advantage over Mercedes and the VW Group in terms of fleet limits. However, this would be the case if the fines were reduced or even suspended.
The legislative path to this would not be easy anyway. The prerequisite would be to bring forward the revision from 2026 to 2025, which would be feasible, according to experienced MEPs. However, the Commission’s experts would have to hurry up and complete their analysis of the status of the decarbonization of new fleets a year earlier. On this basis, the manufacturers calculate, the Commission could then propose retroactively increasing the limit values for 2025 before the summer break in 2025.
The co-legislators, the Parliament and the Council, would have to give their approval as in any regular legislative procedure. This is not a foregone conclusion: it was only in June 2022 that Parliament approved the fleet limits and the ban on combustion engines. At that time, 339 MEPs were in favor of the limits, 249 rejected them. In order to repeal fines and increase limits, the majorities would have to change within a few years. The same applies to the Council.
This would make the fines for 2025 obsolete. Without this intervention, experience shows that the Commission would identify any breaches of the fleet limits before the summer break in 2026 and set the fines: 95 euros would be due for each new car and each gram by which the manufacturer misses its specific fleet limit value.
His political career began 20 years ago with a defeat. In 2004, the then 19-year-old Stéphane Séjourné took part in a campaign for the European Constitution – and lost. The next political engagements of the young Frenchman, who had been a member of the Parti Socialiste (S&D) since 2001, were not crowned with success either. In 2007, he helped in the election campaign of Ségolène Royale, who lost to Sarkozy in the presidential election, and in 2011 he supported Dominique Strauss-Kahn until his so-called Sofitel scandal came to light.
And yet the 39-year-old is currently sitting on the ninth floor of the Charlemagne building in Brussels, preparing to take on perhaps the most influential post in European economic policy. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has nominated him as Vice-President of the Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy. He has achieved this thanks to his political flair and thanks to Emmanuel Macron.
In 2014, he joined Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet as an advisor to the then Minister of the Economy. Among other things, he worked on the “Loi Macron” – a law that was intended to remove bureaucratic obstacles in a number of sectors and thus ensure economic growth. Cutting red tape is once again high on the EU agenda.
In 2016, he played a leading role in his boss’s presidential campaign. Instead of entering the National Assembly like many of Macron’s companions, he remained close to the president and became a political advisor at the Elysée Palace. In 2019, he entered the European Parliament as the list leader of Macron’s party, where he also took over the leadership of the liberal Renew group in 2021.
At the same time, he remained in the game in Paris. In September 2022, he took over the presidency of Renaissance and in January 2024, he was nominated by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs – a post he held until last Monday.
In recent years, Séjourné has managed to exert influence and expand his power in Paris and Brussels at the same time. Despite this, the public knows him poorly. When the French media write about him, it is often as the “man in the shadows“. How has he managed to have such a stellar career despite this relative obscurity?
“He has a keen understanding of the balance of power,” says a source who has worked closely with Séjourné. This makes him a respected mediator. “When he was president of the Renew Group, Séjourné often said that if he could find a solution between Pascal Canfin and Nicola Beer, he could find a solution for Europe.” The positions of the French and German Liberals are often very different, especially in terms of economic policy, but Séjourné managed to keep both sides on board.
FDP MEP Moritz Körner praises the Frenchman as a “political professional” who “would be an important asset to the new Commission”. “He is more liberal than his predecessor Breton, so we can expect good cooperation with him”, says Körner. The contrasts with Thierry Breton could hardly be greater. While Breton sought publicity and confrontation and made powerful enemies in the process, Séjourné mostly operated in the background. He was careful not to burn any bridges.
“He is a politician who listens and absorbs a lot of the expertise of others”, says Séjourné’s close acquaintance Table.Briefings. People close to him say that, both as Foreign Minister and as Renew President, he drew heavily on the expertise of the administration and the party secretariat, rather than making decisions in a small circle of close advisors.
In politically sensitive industrial policy dossiers, he will have to rely on both his administrative skills and his political intuition. He will benefit from the fact that he already knows many of his new Commission colleagues. On the one hand through his work as group leader in Parliament, but also as French Foreign Minister. He has already had dealings with his colleagues Ribera, Hoekstra and Jørgensen in international climate negotiations. Séjourné will have to propose the Clean Industry Deal with the same people in the first hundred days of the new Commission.
If you ask around him, you will hear that he is concerned about Europe being left behind (“decrochage”). He wants to find a way to get away from the chronic underinvestment in the European economy. According to his mission letter, the establishment of a competitiveness fund will be one of his tasks.
He will therefore have to devote himself to the most political of all EU issues – financing. “As a close confidant of Macron, […] it can be assumed that he – in contrast to the FDP – will advocate increased European debt“, says Körner. A good relationship with the German government will be all the more important for Séjourné if he wants to get involved in the discussion about new EU debt.
Séjourné is rumored to be planning a Franco-German leadership for his cabinet. It is already known that Bertrand L’Huillier will head Séjourné’s two-member mini-preparatory cabinet. L’Huillier already led Séjourné’s team in Parliament and also accompanied him to the Foreign Ministry. So if L’Huillier is to become head of cabinet, it can be assumed that a German citizen will take on the post of deputy head of cabinet.
But before Séjourné can put together his cabinet, he has to convince Parliament of his merits. This week, he met the various parliamentary group leaders in Brussels and probably tried to do what he does best: Forging alliances in the background.
Does Europe still have a place at the top of the world in the future? Our freedom and prosperity depend on the path Europe takes now and whether science and research lead the way. The new EU Commission faces major tasks. Ever since Mario Draghi’s report on the EU’s competitiveness, it has been clear that Europe must become significantly more innovative in order to keep up with global competition.
The new Commission is in a fundamentally changed geopolitical situation. We are witnessing the rise of authoritarian and nationalist governments. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences have made us painfully aware of the dangers of one-sided economic dependency. China is increasingly emerging as Europe’s systemic rival. And regardless of who wins the race to the White House, the USA is in retreat as Europe’s guarantor of stability.
It is high time for Europe to invest in its own sovereignty. It should be clear to us that Europe cannot remain as it is now. And not because it is bad now, but because it is too unambitious. Too little self-confidence. Too little focus on its own strengths. What we need is the courage and willingness to initiate change ourselves.
Three points that, in my view, make it clear what we urgently need:
So where is Europe heading? I am convinced that if we as Europeans stand up for each other, if we tackle obstacles as common European challenges and pool our strengths even more intensively than before, then we will get back on the road to success. As a senator in Hamburg, I see every day what Europe can do: Scientists from all parts of the world work together here in an interdisciplinary and networked way across institutional boundaries.
Our Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld is a European project in which start-ups collaborate with cutting-edge research and only have to cross the road to do so. Where European technological sovereignty, basic research and application in the private sector are to come together with the world’s most powerful X-ray laser microscope PETRA IV. I experience a special spirit in Hamburg. People who are enthusiastic about joint projects. Who cooperatively and boldly overcome boundaries. Who discover new things and create innovation. That is what the idea of Europe stands for. And that is what Europe needs now.