In the night from Saturday to Sunday, the clocks were once again advanced to summer time. And once again, the question arises as to when the change between summer and winter time will end. In fact, the EU already announced in 2018 to abolish the seasonal time changes. Since then, the ball has been in the court of the EU member states. Last week, a Commission spokesperson once again stated that there was nothing new in this matter. It will probably take a little more time.
A lot of time was lost in the dispute between German Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans over the phase-out of internal combustion vehicles in 2035. Now, the dispute has been settled. Wissing withdraws his blockade and in return gets the promise that the Commission will give “e-fuels only” cars a chance. However, this promise is not as legally binding as the Transport Minister is making it out to be.
The construction of the nuclear fusion reactor ITER in southern France is also taking a long time and is costing the EU billions. The money is being chalked up as climate financing, because the hope of a clean energy mix hangs on nuclear fusion. Yet the experimental reactor itself will probably never generate electricity, reports Charlotte Wirth.
In today’s profile we have the Hessian ambassador to the EU, Friedrich von Heusinger, who has been in Brussels for over 30 years and yet sometimes finds the city and the European institutions complicated.
In the dispute over the end of the internal combustion engine, the German Free Democratic Party (FDP) always demanded legal certainty that “e-fuels only” vehicles could also be registered after 2035. A corresponding demand was indeed included in a recital of the tightened EU fleet standards, which stipulate CO2 reduction targets for car manufacturers. But Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans already stressed in June last year that it was up to the Commission whether or not to present such a proposal. That was not enough for the FDP, which was the reason for their rebellion.
Even the agreement reached over the weekend does not create the legal certainty that German Transport Minister Volker Wissing demanded. MEPs from the SPD, CDU and Greens are already expressing considerable doubts about whether the compromise between Wissing and Timmermans can be put into practice.
According to the German Federal Ministry of Transport, the agreement states:
The last step would mean that manufacturers of “e-fuels only” cars could count them towards achieving their CO2 reduction targets. But the Commission could lack the legal basis for a delegated act. The co-legislators European Parliament and Council must allow the Commission to clarify certain details of a law via delegated acts. In the case of the combustion car phase-out law, this permission is not in the current text. MEPs like Michael Bloss (Greens) have therefore already announced the legal examination and, if necessary, an action before the European Court of Justice if the delegated act is coming.
The CDU MEP Peter Liese opposes the combustion engine ban in substance, but doubts the legality of the construct: “Nine out of ten lawyers will say that it is not possible,” he told Table.Media. So the delegated act could be overturned by the ECJ. Liese says that the Commission itself also assumes that the whole thing is not legally watertight.
In this case, the Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Transport have agreed that instead of a delegated act, an ordinary revision of the EU fleet regulation would take place. This would mean a say for the Parliament and the member states. Both co-legislators would thus be in a position to prevent an exemption for e-fuels from the combustion engine phase-out.
Moreover, this process takes time and will probably not be completed before the spring 2024 European elections. The Ministry of Transport itself is expecting this to happen in autumn 2024. However, the Commission’s promise to integrate “e-fuels only” cars into fleet regulation via a proper legislative procedure if necessary is not legally binding, said Bloss. The next EU Commission would not have to abide by it.
In any case, the current text of the law already stipulates a review of the law in 2026. How extensively the law will then be revised is up to the next EU Commission and the next EU Parliament and the member states. The bottom line is that although Wissing has wrested a clearer declaration of intent from Timmermans than before, it is not a guarantee that combustion vehicles can still be registered after 2035 – with or without e-fuels.
One thing is for sure: The blockade of the German FDP has been resolved. The EU ambassadors will schedule a new vote early this week in order to complete the formal adoption at the ministerial level at the Energy Council on Tuesday (28 March).
The nuclear fusion reactor ITER will cost at least 22 billion euros. The reactor is being built in Cadarache in southern France and is intended to pave the way for electricity generation from nuclear fusion. “By the end of this century, as fossil fuels will be phasing out of the energy mix, fusion could become a suitable complement to energy from renewables,” the EU Commission wrote in a communication in 2017. The EU is digging deep into its pockets for this. In the financial budget 2021-2027 alone, 5.6 billion are earmarked for funding the reactor.
The ITER project dates back to an agreement between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, which was formalized in 2006. Besides Euratom, Russia, the USA, China, Japan, India and South Korea are participating in the project.
The EU covers 45 percent of the funding. Since 2019, it has accounted for this money as climate financing, as decided by the Council. “Regarding ITER’s place in energy policy and decarbonization, […] although it does not contribute directly to energy and climate targets in the short- to medium-term, its potential role in the decarbonization of the energy landscape post-2050 is very significant,” reads the draft EU budget for 2023.
The hope of a clean energy mix after 2050 also hangs on ITER, says Hartmut Zohm, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. Zohm specializes in tokamak reactors: “If we assume that we won’t manage to cover 100 percent of our needs worldwide with wind and sun, then we need a non-fossil source for the base load: That leaves nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.”
Unlike fission reactors, nuclear fusion does not use uranium, but tritium, whose radioactivity decreases after twelve years. Nevertheless, there is a risk that radioactive hydrogen could leak into the environment when the reactor is in operation.
However, Zohm also says, “ITER is first and foremost a scientific project.” It will demonstrate that a plasma is self-sustaining once ignited. The experimental reactor will never generate electricity. Only the energy balance in the plasma will be positive: ITER is expected to release ten times as much fusion energy as is needed to start the fusion reaction. That shows scientifically that the plasma burns, Zohm said. “Then, if you want to generate electricity with it and get net energy out of it, you have to increase the fusion power even more, for example by enlarging the machine or increasing the magnetic field.”
The EU Commission has spent around a million euros on a wide variety of studies in recent years to work out the economic added value of the experimental reactor. A 2018 study on the impact of ITER activities in the EU, for example, says: “Whilst the goal is to contribute to the development of a commercial fusion power technology this remains so far into the future that it is not a key driver for ITER.” And, it “is not realistic to expect any substantial contribution of ITER and DEMO to the 2050 European energy and climate targets.”
The reasons why Brussels is billing the ITER money as climate spending may lie elsewhere. Even under the last budget, the EU failed to meet the 20 percent climate spending target it had set for itself, the European Court of Auditors criticized in a 2022 report. The auditors expressed concern that climate targets will not be met in the current budget either. “Not all the reported climate-related spending under the EU budget was actually relevant to climate action. That is why we make several recommendations to better link the EU’s expenditure to its climate and energy objectives,” the auditors concluded. They did not comment on the extent to which that applied to ITER, because contributions were not yet considered climate finance in the last budget.
Meanwhile, ITER’s cost simulation is based on an outdated projection from 2016, and a new calculation regarding the cost and schedule is in the works, confirms a spokesperson for the ITER Organization. Significant delays have occurred in recent years, not least due to the Covid pandemic. According to the last official schedule, the first plasma was supposed to be ignited in December 2025. Experiments with tritium and deuterium were scheduled for 2035. That timeline is no longer realistic, the spokesman said.
The war in Ukraine is also throwing off the schedule. Russia is one of the ITER states: One of ITER’s central components, a giant magnet, was manufactured under the supervision of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom: 200 tons in weight, 9 meters in diameter. Production time: about ten years.
This is one of the reasons why the reactor project is one of the few exceptions to the EU sanctions against Moscow. The ship with the magnet from St. Petersburg arrived in Marseille in mid-February. About 70 Russian scientists are currently working in Cadarache. ITER is not a political agency; Russia has promised to honor its commitments, it is said. Criticism, if any, is hidden. The 2023 EU budget speaks of a “reputational risk”. Meanwhile, the ITER treaty does not even provide for the withdrawal of a partner country.
However, the delays of the ITER project are also the result of problems with the French nuclear regulator ASN. Their protocols speak of a “lack of safety culture,” “nonconformities that have not been fixed,” and “difficulties in obtaining information and documents.” That is a strong criticism, admits Mathieu Masson, Deputy Head of ASN’s Marseille Section and responsible for ITER controls. He explains, “What we call ‘safety culture’ is the ability of the operator to manage the risks inherent in its activity.” Currently, he says, ITER is in the construction phase, so safety challenges are low. “But we need to be sure that risk management for design and construction phases is satisfactory before irreversible construction operations are due,” Masson urges.
One such construction operation is the assembly of the vacuum vessel in which the magnetic field required for plasma fusion is generated. Here, construction is at a standstill because the necessary parts show significant deviations. The reason: The parts come from different manufacturers on different continents. “This is perhaps in the spirit of each ITER partner learning the technology,” says Hartmut Zohm. However, he says, it is not efficient. “An industry would never think of having four wheels for the same car built by four manufacturers on three continents.”
Zohm criticizes that the ITER team in Cadarache has no control over the manufacturers. The engineers can only check whether components are compliant and fit once they arrive in Cadarache. With expensive consequences, as some parts now have to be adapted or repaired before the ASN gives the green light for assembly.
One of the problems is that the project is simultaneously being planned and built due to its complex technical requirements and the variety of suppliers, says Mathieu Rasson of the French regulatory authority. That would make it more difficult for the operator to keep track of the configuration.
However, this also means that the construction of ITER is a constant learning process, emphasizes Hartmut Zohm: “We are building a machine of unprecedented complexity. With solutions that have never existed before.” One is already learning what works and what does not work with the technology. The knowledge gained is enormous, even before the start of operation, he says. This knowledge will also be used in the design of the DEMO reactor, which will also generate electricity for the first time. Construction is to start after the ITER project. Date: uncertain.
The career decision was made during a train ride from Munich to Erlangen. Friedrich von Heusinger had just successfully passed the second state law examination and already agreed to accept a judgeship in Traunstein. Then came the offer from the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs. “I changed my mind overnight,” says Heusinger. “That’s how I came to Europe.” In the meantime, the current head of the Hessian state representation, has been in Brussels for more than 30 years.
At first, he didn’t even know that the position would involve Europe. What drew him to the position in the policy department of the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs was similar to why he originally wanted to become a judge: To shape law and be able to help decide how it is applied. “The policy department of the Ministry of Social Affairs offered me even greater scope for this,” explains Heusinger. And in the Europe department, this was particularly broad. “Today, about 80 percent of political decisions affecting German domestic policy are decided or influenced by Brussels.”
Heusinger was well prepared when he took up his post at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Munich in January 1989 in his early 30s. In law school at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, he had taken an elective course in European and international law. “At the time, it was exotic,” Heusinger recalls. “Today, European law is a mandatory subject.”
He became the first employee in the newly formed Europe department. “A stroke of luck,” says Heusinger, because he was able to help set up the department. His task was to explain what was coming from Brussels and what it meant for Bavaria. And, as he had hoped, he also became a shaper of the law, representing Bavaria in the working group of the German states on European labor and social policy. “That was exciting,” he recalls.
It was only logical that he soon wished to go to Brussels. He seized the opportunity when it presented itself. In 1991, he moved to the Bavarian representation in Brussels. He already knew his colleagues there. Until 2001, he was the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs’ mirror officer at the EU. After that, he was deputy head of the representation for four years.
“You cannot make European policy without knowing how Brussels works,” Heusinger says today. This begins with the perception, which is European and not German, and also affects working methods. The Commission always makes decisions as a collegiate body – this also distinguishes the Berlaymont system from the German federal government.
In 2005, another exciting opportunity arose for Heusinger, who was born in 1958 in Hesse: The Hessian state representation was looking for a new director. “As a child of the state, you always look at your state representation,” says Heusinger. He probably would not have applied for any other state representation. “It does help to have a close connection to the region you represent.”
This is how Heusinger made an unusual move from Bavaria to Hesse – within Brussels. He has now been Hesse’s ambassador to the European capital for 18 years – making him one of the longest-serving state representatives. Nevertheless, “I still find Brussels complicated,” says Heusinger. At least he has built up such a resilient network over the years that he always knows who to turn to.
By the same token, the Commission officials also find Germany complicated. “Many didn’t know the importance of the federal states in Germany,” explains Heusinger. Yet Hesse’s importance in Europe is not so small. After all, Hesse has a larger population than twelve EU members, and Hesse’s gross domestic product per capita in 2021, at 48,200 euros, was between Finland (45,600 euros) and the Netherlands (49,000 euros).
Heusinger does not see himself as a lobbyist. Still, just like them, he tries to meet the relevant people as early as possible and get involved when an issue becomes of interest to Hesse. “We offer information and always seek dialogue, all the way up to the Commissioners’ cabinets.” He has never stood in front of closed doors, says Heusinger.
But Hesse’s ambassador to the EU does not only go to the people, he also invites them into his own home. The Hessian representation at Rue Montoyer 21 in the heart of the European Quarter is a meeting place. More than 1,200 appointments are held here each year, including 70 to 80 major events. In 2019 – before the pandemic – 25,000 guests attended. The house wants to be a platform, a door opener.
The Hessian State Representation is set up as a multi-region house and includes the regions of Hesse, Nouvelle Aquitaine (France), Emilia-Romagna (Italy) and Wielkopolska (Poland) under one roof. In addition, a number of European representations of companies and organizations. “The multi-region house is a unique selling point,” Heusinger emphasizes. “We present ourselves to the EU together with four regions and are thus perceived differently than other German states.”
Europe has grown close to Heusinger’s heart. For more than 30 years, he has been shaping European policy, up to and including saving the term cider, which was actually supposed to be deleted during the reform of the wine market regulation. What he has not been successful at? “Bringing European banking supervision to Frankfurt.” Instead, Heusinger is now trying to get the anti-money laundering authority Amla to come to Germany.
Today, one of Heusinger’s daughters and two granddaughters also live in Brussels. This is another reason why he wants to stay loyal to the city after his retirement on July 1, 2024. As a retiree, he will have more time to relax with a nice movie or a historical novel and a glass of wine. Corinna Visser
In the night from Saturday to Sunday, the clocks were once again advanced to summer time. And once again, the question arises as to when the change between summer and winter time will end. In fact, the EU already announced in 2018 to abolish the seasonal time changes. Since then, the ball has been in the court of the EU member states. Last week, a Commission spokesperson once again stated that there was nothing new in this matter. It will probably take a little more time.
A lot of time was lost in the dispute between German Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans over the phase-out of internal combustion vehicles in 2035. Now, the dispute has been settled. Wissing withdraws his blockade and in return gets the promise that the Commission will give “e-fuels only” cars a chance. However, this promise is not as legally binding as the Transport Minister is making it out to be.
The construction of the nuclear fusion reactor ITER in southern France is also taking a long time and is costing the EU billions. The money is being chalked up as climate financing, because the hope of a clean energy mix hangs on nuclear fusion. Yet the experimental reactor itself will probably never generate electricity, reports Charlotte Wirth.
In today’s profile we have the Hessian ambassador to the EU, Friedrich von Heusinger, who has been in Brussels for over 30 years and yet sometimes finds the city and the European institutions complicated.
In the dispute over the end of the internal combustion engine, the German Free Democratic Party (FDP) always demanded legal certainty that “e-fuels only” vehicles could also be registered after 2035. A corresponding demand was indeed included in a recital of the tightened EU fleet standards, which stipulate CO2 reduction targets for car manufacturers. But Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans already stressed in June last year that it was up to the Commission whether or not to present such a proposal. That was not enough for the FDP, which was the reason for their rebellion.
Even the agreement reached over the weekend does not create the legal certainty that German Transport Minister Volker Wissing demanded. MEPs from the SPD, CDU and Greens are already expressing considerable doubts about whether the compromise between Wissing and Timmermans can be put into practice.
According to the German Federal Ministry of Transport, the agreement states:
The last step would mean that manufacturers of “e-fuels only” cars could count them towards achieving their CO2 reduction targets. But the Commission could lack the legal basis for a delegated act. The co-legislators European Parliament and Council must allow the Commission to clarify certain details of a law via delegated acts. In the case of the combustion car phase-out law, this permission is not in the current text. MEPs like Michael Bloss (Greens) have therefore already announced the legal examination and, if necessary, an action before the European Court of Justice if the delegated act is coming.
The CDU MEP Peter Liese opposes the combustion engine ban in substance, but doubts the legality of the construct: “Nine out of ten lawyers will say that it is not possible,” he told Table.Media. So the delegated act could be overturned by the ECJ. Liese says that the Commission itself also assumes that the whole thing is not legally watertight.
In this case, the Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Transport have agreed that instead of a delegated act, an ordinary revision of the EU fleet regulation would take place. This would mean a say for the Parliament and the member states. Both co-legislators would thus be in a position to prevent an exemption for e-fuels from the combustion engine phase-out.
Moreover, this process takes time and will probably not be completed before the spring 2024 European elections. The Ministry of Transport itself is expecting this to happen in autumn 2024. However, the Commission’s promise to integrate “e-fuels only” cars into fleet regulation via a proper legislative procedure if necessary is not legally binding, said Bloss. The next EU Commission would not have to abide by it.
In any case, the current text of the law already stipulates a review of the law in 2026. How extensively the law will then be revised is up to the next EU Commission and the next EU Parliament and the member states. The bottom line is that although Wissing has wrested a clearer declaration of intent from Timmermans than before, it is not a guarantee that combustion vehicles can still be registered after 2035 – with or without e-fuels.
One thing is for sure: The blockade of the German FDP has been resolved. The EU ambassadors will schedule a new vote early this week in order to complete the formal adoption at the ministerial level at the Energy Council on Tuesday (28 March).
The nuclear fusion reactor ITER will cost at least 22 billion euros. The reactor is being built in Cadarache in southern France and is intended to pave the way for electricity generation from nuclear fusion. “By the end of this century, as fossil fuels will be phasing out of the energy mix, fusion could become a suitable complement to energy from renewables,” the EU Commission wrote in a communication in 2017. The EU is digging deep into its pockets for this. In the financial budget 2021-2027 alone, 5.6 billion are earmarked for funding the reactor.
The ITER project dates back to an agreement between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, which was formalized in 2006. Besides Euratom, Russia, the USA, China, Japan, India and South Korea are participating in the project.
The EU covers 45 percent of the funding. Since 2019, it has accounted for this money as climate financing, as decided by the Council. “Regarding ITER’s place in energy policy and decarbonization, […] although it does not contribute directly to energy and climate targets in the short- to medium-term, its potential role in the decarbonization of the energy landscape post-2050 is very significant,” reads the draft EU budget for 2023.
The hope of a clean energy mix after 2050 also hangs on ITER, says Hartmut Zohm, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. Zohm specializes in tokamak reactors: “If we assume that we won’t manage to cover 100 percent of our needs worldwide with wind and sun, then we need a non-fossil source for the base load: That leaves nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.”
Unlike fission reactors, nuclear fusion does not use uranium, but tritium, whose radioactivity decreases after twelve years. Nevertheless, there is a risk that radioactive hydrogen could leak into the environment when the reactor is in operation.
However, Zohm also says, “ITER is first and foremost a scientific project.” It will demonstrate that a plasma is self-sustaining once ignited. The experimental reactor will never generate electricity. Only the energy balance in the plasma will be positive: ITER is expected to release ten times as much fusion energy as is needed to start the fusion reaction. That shows scientifically that the plasma burns, Zohm said. “Then, if you want to generate electricity with it and get net energy out of it, you have to increase the fusion power even more, for example by enlarging the machine or increasing the magnetic field.”
The EU Commission has spent around a million euros on a wide variety of studies in recent years to work out the economic added value of the experimental reactor. A 2018 study on the impact of ITER activities in the EU, for example, says: “Whilst the goal is to contribute to the development of a commercial fusion power technology this remains so far into the future that it is not a key driver for ITER.” And, it “is not realistic to expect any substantial contribution of ITER and DEMO to the 2050 European energy and climate targets.”
The reasons why Brussels is billing the ITER money as climate spending may lie elsewhere. Even under the last budget, the EU failed to meet the 20 percent climate spending target it had set for itself, the European Court of Auditors criticized in a 2022 report. The auditors expressed concern that climate targets will not be met in the current budget either. “Not all the reported climate-related spending under the EU budget was actually relevant to climate action. That is why we make several recommendations to better link the EU’s expenditure to its climate and energy objectives,” the auditors concluded. They did not comment on the extent to which that applied to ITER, because contributions were not yet considered climate finance in the last budget.
Meanwhile, ITER’s cost simulation is based on an outdated projection from 2016, and a new calculation regarding the cost and schedule is in the works, confirms a spokesperson for the ITER Organization. Significant delays have occurred in recent years, not least due to the Covid pandemic. According to the last official schedule, the first plasma was supposed to be ignited in December 2025. Experiments with tritium and deuterium were scheduled for 2035. That timeline is no longer realistic, the spokesman said.
The war in Ukraine is also throwing off the schedule. Russia is one of the ITER states: One of ITER’s central components, a giant magnet, was manufactured under the supervision of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom: 200 tons in weight, 9 meters in diameter. Production time: about ten years.
This is one of the reasons why the reactor project is one of the few exceptions to the EU sanctions against Moscow. The ship with the magnet from St. Petersburg arrived in Marseille in mid-February. About 70 Russian scientists are currently working in Cadarache. ITER is not a political agency; Russia has promised to honor its commitments, it is said. Criticism, if any, is hidden. The 2023 EU budget speaks of a “reputational risk”. Meanwhile, the ITER treaty does not even provide for the withdrawal of a partner country.
However, the delays of the ITER project are also the result of problems with the French nuclear regulator ASN. Their protocols speak of a “lack of safety culture,” “nonconformities that have not been fixed,” and “difficulties in obtaining information and documents.” That is a strong criticism, admits Mathieu Masson, Deputy Head of ASN’s Marseille Section and responsible for ITER controls. He explains, “What we call ‘safety culture’ is the ability of the operator to manage the risks inherent in its activity.” Currently, he says, ITER is in the construction phase, so safety challenges are low. “But we need to be sure that risk management for design and construction phases is satisfactory before irreversible construction operations are due,” Masson urges.
One such construction operation is the assembly of the vacuum vessel in which the magnetic field required for plasma fusion is generated. Here, construction is at a standstill because the necessary parts show significant deviations. The reason: The parts come from different manufacturers on different continents. “This is perhaps in the spirit of each ITER partner learning the technology,” says Hartmut Zohm. However, he says, it is not efficient. “An industry would never think of having four wheels for the same car built by four manufacturers on three continents.”
Zohm criticizes that the ITER team in Cadarache has no control over the manufacturers. The engineers can only check whether components are compliant and fit once they arrive in Cadarache. With expensive consequences, as some parts now have to be adapted or repaired before the ASN gives the green light for assembly.
One of the problems is that the project is simultaneously being planned and built due to its complex technical requirements and the variety of suppliers, says Mathieu Rasson of the French regulatory authority. That would make it more difficult for the operator to keep track of the configuration.
However, this also means that the construction of ITER is a constant learning process, emphasizes Hartmut Zohm: “We are building a machine of unprecedented complexity. With solutions that have never existed before.” One is already learning what works and what does not work with the technology. The knowledge gained is enormous, even before the start of operation, he says. This knowledge will also be used in the design of the DEMO reactor, which will also generate electricity for the first time. Construction is to start after the ITER project. Date: uncertain.
The career decision was made during a train ride from Munich to Erlangen. Friedrich von Heusinger had just successfully passed the second state law examination and already agreed to accept a judgeship in Traunstein. Then came the offer from the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs. “I changed my mind overnight,” says Heusinger. “That’s how I came to Europe.” In the meantime, the current head of the Hessian state representation, has been in Brussels for more than 30 years.
At first, he didn’t even know that the position would involve Europe. What drew him to the position in the policy department of the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs was similar to why he originally wanted to become a judge: To shape law and be able to help decide how it is applied. “The policy department of the Ministry of Social Affairs offered me even greater scope for this,” explains Heusinger. And in the Europe department, this was particularly broad. “Today, about 80 percent of political decisions affecting German domestic policy are decided or influenced by Brussels.”
Heusinger was well prepared when he took up his post at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Munich in January 1989 in his early 30s. In law school at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, he had taken an elective course in European and international law. “At the time, it was exotic,” Heusinger recalls. “Today, European law is a mandatory subject.”
He became the first employee in the newly formed Europe department. “A stroke of luck,” says Heusinger, because he was able to help set up the department. His task was to explain what was coming from Brussels and what it meant for Bavaria. And, as he had hoped, he also became a shaper of the law, representing Bavaria in the working group of the German states on European labor and social policy. “That was exciting,” he recalls.
It was only logical that he soon wished to go to Brussels. He seized the opportunity when it presented itself. In 1991, he moved to the Bavarian representation in Brussels. He already knew his colleagues there. Until 2001, he was the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs’ mirror officer at the EU. After that, he was deputy head of the representation for four years.
“You cannot make European policy without knowing how Brussels works,” Heusinger says today. This begins with the perception, which is European and not German, and also affects working methods. The Commission always makes decisions as a collegiate body – this also distinguishes the Berlaymont system from the German federal government.
In 2005, another exciting opportunity arose for Heusinger, who was born in 1958 in Hesse: The Hessian state representation was looking for a new director. “As a child of the state, you always look at your state representation,” says Heusinger. He probably would not have applied for any other state representation. “It does help to have a close connection to the region you represent.”
This is how Heusinger made an unusual move from Bavaria to Hesse – within Brussels. He has now been Hesse’s ambassador to the European capital for 18 years – making him one of the longest-serving state representatives. Nevertheless, “I still find Brussels complicated,” says Heusinger. At least he has built up such a resilient network over the years that he always knows who to turn to.
By the same token, the Commission officials also find Germany complicated. “Many didn’t know the importance of the federal states in Germany,” explains Heusinger. Yet Hesse’s importance in Europe is not so small. After all, Hesse has a larger population than twelve EU members, and Hesse’s gross domestic product per capita in 2021, at 48,200 euros, was between Finland (45,600 euros) and the Netherlands (49,000 euros).
Heusinger does not see himself as a lobbyist. Still, just like them, he tries to meet the relevant people as early as possible and get involved when an issue becomes of interest to Hesse. “We offer information and always seek dialogue, all the way up to the Commissioners’ cabinets.” He has never stood in front of closed doors, says Heusinger.
But Hesse’s ambassador to the EU does not only go to the people, he also invites them into his own home. The Hessian representation at Rue Montoyer 21 in the heart of the European Quarter is a meeting place. More than 1,200 appointments are held here each year, including 70 to 80 major events. In 2019 – before the pandemic – 25,000 guests attended. The house wants to be a platform, a door opener.
The Hessian State Representation is set up as a multi-region house and includes the regions of Hesse, Nouvelle Aquitaine (France), Emilia-Romagna (Italy) and Wielkopolska (Poland) under one roof. In addition, a number of European representations of companies and organizations. “The multi-region house is a unique selling point,” Heusinger emphasizes. “We present ourselves to the EU together with four regions and are thus perceived differently than other German states.”
Europe has grown close to Heusinger’s heart. For more than 30 years, he has been shaping European policy, up to and including saving the term cider, which was actually supposed to be deleted during the reform of the wine market regulation. What he has not been successful at? “Bringing European banking supervision to Frankfurt.” Instead, Heusinger is now trying to get the anti-money laundering authority Amla to come to Germany.
Today, one of Heusinger’s daughters and two granddaughters also live in Brussels. This is another reason why he wants to stay loyal to the city after his retirement on July 1, 2024. As a retiree, he will have more time to relax with a nice movie or a historical novel and a glass of wine. Corinna Visser
