The political balance of power in Italy is in heavy flux these days. On Friday, the cabinet in Rome is expected to launch the draft for a constitutional reform – a preliminary agreement was reported last night. Through the new electoral law, the right-wing conservative government of Giorgia Meloni promises the country more stability. But the strongest left-wing opposition forces, the Five Star Movement and the Partito Democratico (PD), see the control mechanisms of the 1948 constitution in danger.
The core of the plans is the direct election of the head of government. In the future, electoral alliances would have to put forward a candidate. It would also be more difficult for the opposition to contribute to a new government majority if a prime minister could no longer rely on a majority. However, the reform would require either a referendum or a two-thirds majority in both chambers of parliament – difficult to imagine given the fragmentation of the Italian party landscape.
Meanwhile, the left-wing parties around the Social Democrats of the PD are finding new unity. The alliance wants to celebrate a success against Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia in next year’s European elections. But the potential partners are at odds and, given the geopolitical situation, deeply divided. Read our Analysis to find out why a town of 150,000 inhabitants in Puglia nevertheless gives the left hope.
I wish you a pleasant reading.
Your Manuel Berkel
Feature
Italy: alliance against Meloni
A few days ago, mayoral elections were held in Foggia. Maria Aida Episcopo was able to assert herself in the first round of voting – with 52 percent of the votes, she is the new head of the city in Puglia. The remarkable thing: Behind the candidate, who had been put forward by the Five Star Movement, was an alliance that united virtually all the parties of Italy’s center-left. The Partito Democratico (PD), Italia Viva, Azione – all those parties, in other words, that cannot find common ground at the national level. “Together you win”, said PD leader Elly Schlein, adding: “An alternative to the right, it exists.”
Since March, Schlein has been the leader of the PD, which can be compared to the German Social Democrats. When she was elected, the 38-year-old was seen as the hopeful candidate to stand up to the icon of the right, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of the Fratelli d’Italia. Meloni herself was one of the first to congratulate Schlein at the time. “I hope that the election of a young woman to the party leadership will help the left to look forward and not always backward.” Schlein herself said: “The election result is a clear mandate to reorient the party from the ground up.”
Socialists hold place behind Meloni’s Fratelli
In the parliamentary elections around a year ago, the PD won 19 percent of the vote. After a brief drop to 14 percent at the end of 2022, the party has been relatively consistently just below the 20 percent mark for months. This puts it in second place behind the ruling ultra-right Fratelli d’Italia (currently 28.7 percent).
After a number of local elections, Elly Schlein is now facing a test: the European elections in June 2024. The new chairwoman seems to be putting the necessary reorientation of the content of her PD on the backburner for the time being. She knows that the right-wing bloc of Meloni’s governing coalition of her Fratelli, Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Forza Italia can only be overcome in alliance with other parties. The alliance is virtually the only chance to counter the right-wing bloc in terms of strength.
European elections in Italy good for surprises
Will the European elections bring another Polish moment? There, Donald Tusk’s liberal-conservative Civic Coalition did not win the parliamentary election a few days ago, but it did wrest a governing majority from the ruling PiS party. And European elections in Italy have often been good for surprises: In the 2019election, Matteo Salvini’s Lega shot up to 34.3 percent – a gain of 28 percentage points compared to the election five years earlier. In 2014, the PD of then-freshly installed Prime Minister Matteo Renzi even managed to win 40 percent of the vote.
For the upcoming European elections, most of the vote growth in Italy is likely to be reserved for the Fratelli d’Italia. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party came in at 6.5 percent in the 2019 European elections. In the national polls, it is currently at 28.
Renzi and PD are irreconcilable
But what alliance could form against the right in Italy? After resigning as prime minister following the lost constitutional referendum in December 2016, Renzi can no longer be united with the PD. He has formed his own party: Italia Viva (IV). And he has been trying for some time to make this the initiator of a third force. But his IV is currently polling at just 2.4 percent. And a merger with one of his arch-enemies, Carlo Calenda of the small party Azione, failed only a few days ago. In the European elections, both could now fail to clear the four-percent hurdle. But both Renzi and Calenda have probably broken with the PD forever.
That leaves Elly Schlein with no other choice than Conte and his Five Star Movement. However, it is questionable whether a strong new alliance will actually be formed by June. What may workat the local level in some places cannot be transferred to Europe. Opinions are already divided on the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine. Elly Schlein is an Atlanticist; Giuseppe Conte’s party broke apart over the issue in June 2022. Then-Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, a supporter of Italian arms deliveries and longtime party leader, even resigned from the movement in a dispute with Conte. Conte has repeatedly spoken out against further arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Contentious issues Middle East and Ukraine
Most recently, the war in the Middle East shows how far apart we are. Conte takes part in Italy-wide demonstrations for peace; his party is behind him. Schlein has a harder time: In order not to anger the different camps in her party, she is pursuing a course of “both/and”. Hamas must be clearly condemned, but Palestinian civilians must be protected. She is fighting against all forms of anti-Semitism, but also against Islamophobia.
The situation is more delicate for Schlein than for Conte. Too strong a focus on the Five Star Movement could be a disadvantage. Her own party still lacks a real realignment in terms of content. The new leader still has to deliver that. Many are already disappointed that she has not yet done so. And Conte and his Five Stars have often proven to be very flexible in their choice of partners. After the 2018 election, they first formed a coalition with the right-wing populist Matteo Salvini, then in 2019 with the Social Democrats, who had previously been the absolute nemesis – they were suddenly good enough, especially as means to stay in power.
Thus, the renewed cuddling course could also be a tactical move by Conte: The deputies of the Five Star Movement are still factionless in the European Parliament. If the movement cooperates more closely with the PD at home, joining the Social Democratic group S&D could also become an issue again in Brussels. Almut Siefert
European election 2024
giorgia meloni
Italy
Events
Nov. 2, 2023; 10 a.m.-3 p.m., online Handelsblatt, SeminarFocal points of energy law The seminar will provide practical knowledge on the fundamentals and current developments in energy law, including an overview of energy markets and energy law, gas shortages, and impacts due to decarbonization.INFO & REGISTRATION
News
Trade agreement with Australia fails for the time being
Negotiations between the EU Commission and the government of Australia on a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) have failed for the time being. On the fringes of a meeting of G7 trade ministers in Osaka, the deal should have been finalized over the weekend. But on Monday night, the talks broke off. The Australian side rejected a proposal submitted by the EU. The decisive factor was provisions on the exchange of agricultural products.
Producers from Australia wanted to push for higher duty-free access for their products to the EU market. The EU side only slightly improved its offer for beef, lamb and sugar, which has been on the table for three months, it said. EU chief negotiator Valdis Dombrovskis said: “Unfortunately, our Australian partners were not ready to conclude on the basis of previously agreed targets.”
New talks in 2025 at the earliest
Negotiations had been ongoing since 2018. The EU had hoped to gain access to key mineral resources in particular, which are needed for the Green Deal. Australia is one of the leading suppliers on the world market of lithium, rare earths, cobalt and hydrogen. The EU also hopes to gain preferential access to Australia’s market, as do the US, Japan, China and Korea and other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. An agreement could have helped boost the EU’s economic output by €3.9 billion by 2030, Brussels said.
Now it is feared that the talks will lie idle for at least the EU election year of 2024 and that a breakthrough will not be possible until 2025 at the earliest.
Trade politician Bernd Lange shows disappointment
Bernd Lange (SPD), head of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, called the failure of the negotiations “very regrettable”. He went on to tell Table.Media: “On the Australian side, the duty-free quotas for beef and sheep meat have become such a dogma that it was no longer possible to find a compromise at all.”
He also said he had the impression that Australia’s government was not moving very strongly toward an agreement “due to domestic political developments”. He said it was “absurd” to let “such an important agreement on stable market access, transformation, fossil-free energy production, sustainability in workers’ rights and environmental standards and much more fail because of a few thousand tons of duty-free meat”. Fragmented globalization and geopolitical developments require a different approach, he said. “That’s where you have to jump over your own shadow once in a while.” mgr
Arbeitnehmerrechte
Trade Policy
States coordinate on regulation of AI
While negotiations at the EU level on the AI Act are making slow progress, the EU and Germany are signing more and more new agreements at the international level to get a grip on the risks of artificial intelligence (AI).
G7 to promote responsible AI governance globally
The AI Guidelines and Voluntary Code of Conduct agreed by the G7 countries under the G7 Hiroshima AI Process, led by Japan and published on Monday, are intended to complement at the international level the legally binding rules currently being developed by the EU through the AI Act.
The eleven guiding principles are intended to provide guidance to organizations developing or deploying advanced AI systems such as baseline models and generative AI. These principles include commitments to mitigate risk and misuse, as well as to identify vulnerabilities and report security incidents. They also include a labeling system that allows users to identify AI-generated content. Based on the guidelines, the G7 developed the Code of Conduct to promote responsible AI governance worldwide.
The G7 intends to review and update both documents as needed to adapt them to rapidly evolving technology.
Germany cooperates with Italy and France on AI
In Rome on Monday, Italian Minister for Enterprise Adolfo Urso, German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire met with industry representatives from the three countries to “give new impetus to industrial cooperation in areas of strategic importance” such as AI. This was announced by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs on Monday. According to the statement, Italy plans to promote a discussion on the same topics at G7 level during its G7 presidency in 2024.
This “novel collaboration” between Italy, Germany and France aims to effectively support both demand and supply against the backdrop of the evolving geopolitical scenario, the BMWK statement added. The aim, it said, is to pave the way for“a globally competitive European AI industry”. To this end, the three ministers had agreed to “reduce the administrative burden and simplify procedures for transnational projects”. In this way, they want to enable European startups to participate in digital and green transformation projects.
Presidential decree from Biden on trustworthy AI
Also on Monday came US President Joe Biden’s presidential executive order, which, among other things, stipulates that for programs that could potentially become dangerous to national security, the economy or health, developersmust notify the US government as soon as the AI models are released. Developers will also be required to share the results of safety tests with authorities.
Among other things, the US government fears that AI could be used to develop dangerous malware or even biological weapons. Standards are to be defined for testing AI programs – and the Department of Homeland Security is to apply them to critical infrastructure as well. Global risks from AI are also to be a topic at the AI Safety Summit in the UK this week.
At the same time, Biden wants to accelerate the use of AI in government and thus strengthen the US as an AI development location. To this end, the authorities are to hire more AI experts. It should become easier for experts from other countries to work in the USA. vis
Artificial Intelligence Regulation
Digitalpolitik
G7
Robert Habeck
Western Balkans: Von der Leyen pledges €6 billion
The European Union plans to support the countries of the Western Balkans with investments of €6 billion in the reforms needed to join the EU, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday in the northern Macedonian capital of Skopje.
Northern Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina would have to take advantage of the “window of opportunity” for EU enlargement. Northern Macedonia must, among other things, establish an efficient public administration and, as demanded by Bulgaria, amend its constitution to recognize Bulgarians as a minority. The basis for the states’ reforms is the EU’s new growth plan for the region.
Association of municipalities to take care of Serbs in Kosovo
“These reforms will be accompanied by investments”, von der Leyen said during a press conference with northern Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski at the start of her trip to the Western Balkans.
Later in the day, she visited Kosovo, where she called on the country to grant more autonomy to the Serb minority and to establish an association of municipalities to take care of them. Serbia and Montenegro were the first countries in the region to begin EU accession talks. Albania and northern Macedonia began talks last year. Bosnia and Kosovo, however, still lag far behind their neighbors in the process. rtr
EU accession
Western Balkans
Commission approves French aid to battery manufacturer Verkor
The French battery manufacturer Verkor is to receive €659 million in support for a research and development project. The EU Commission has approved a French measure to this effect under EU state aid rules. The money is to go toward researching and developing new processes for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. This should cover the project until the end of 2026.
Verkor’s project will focus on four priorities, according to the commission:
the automation of electrode production and battery formation through digitization of the processes;
the improvement of recycling techniques;
the recovery of materials;
the development of an innovative pilot production line that will pave the way for large-scale battery production.
The measure is part of France’s “France 2030” transformation plan. Verkor will use further funds generated by investors in September to drive forward, among other things, the construction of a first gigafactory in Dunkerque and the production of high-performance, low-carbon battery cells. leo
Aid
Battery
France
Roadmap for the Critical Raw Materials Club
The plan for a Critical Raw Materials Club, through which the EU aims to diversify procurement opportunities for critical raw materials, is a promising model for successful commodity diplomacy, according to a new research paper from the Jacques Delors Centre. However, for this to happen, the EU would need to provide credible initial funding at the club’s inception and streamline its fragmented development finance model, it says. The paper is being published today and was available in advance to Table.Media.
With the Raw Materials Club, the EU Commission aims to establish a cooperative forum for resource-rich and consumer countries to improve cooperation in raw materials policy, stimulate investment and support resource-rich countries in their goal of building local processing capacities. It intends the club to complement the US-led Minerals Security Partnership (MSP). The first meeting is scheduled to take place later this year.
In the paper, author Francesco Findeisen argues that a club with a hybrid design, starting with voluntary commitments, minimal structure and a limited number of members, and defining a process to evolve into a more ambitious and binding structure, is the most promising model. However, as such, this approach is insufficient. To be successful, he said, the EU must provide credible initial funding at the club’s inception and streamline its fragmented development funding model. leo
Raw materials
Brexit: Commission approves €20 million for fisheries
The EU Commission has approved German aid to support the fisheries sector amounting to €20 million. The funds are intended to protect against the effects of the UK’s exit from the EU.
The aim is to compensate fishing businesses for income losses related to Brexit-related cuts in fishing quotas, the Commission said Monday. Owners of fishing vessels up to 24 meters in length can be compensated for a maximum of 15 percent of estimated income losses. Owners of longer vessels are eligible for compensation for a maximum of 10 percent of income losses. The scheme runs until the end of the year. luk
Aid
Brexit
Nutrition
Slovakia: Left-wing populist Takáč new agriculture minister
Slovakia has found a new agriculture minister in Richard Takáč. The 41-year-old is part of the new government under Prime Minister Robert Fico, the news service Agra Europe reports. At the beginning of October, the SMER-SD under its leader Fico won the elections. Takáč has been deputy chairman of SMER-SD since 2020. The latter is considered left-wing populist and nationalist, as well as Russia-friendly. Takáč has been a deputy in Slovakia’s National Council since 2020. Previously, he reportedly worked as a businessman in the furniture industry, among other things. According to Slovak media reports, he is a graduate of the Agricultural University in Nitra.
The SMER-SD has formed a coalition with the Hlas-SD, which split from it three years ago, and the radical right-wing SNS. Due to its cooperation with the SNS, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament recently expelled the three SMER-SD MEPs from its ranks. The full list of the Slovak cabinet can be found here.
Coalition with right-wing radical SNS
Observers in Brussels fear that Fico and his government, which is considered pro-Russian, could once again become a problem case for the EU. Fico resigned as prime minister in 2020 after the affair surrounding the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée. Kuciak had been investigating mafia structures that allegedly reached into the government. In concrete terms, this also involved large-scale fraud involving EU agricultural subsidies.
Maroš Šefčovič, the Slovakian executive vice-president of the European Commission, who has recently become responsible for the Green Deal, is said to be close to the SMER-SD. When he ran in the 2019 presidential election, it was with the support of the SMER-SD. red
Agricultural Policy
Heads
Kai Zenner – the AI Influencer
Kai Zenner is a digital expert and, as Axel Voss’ assistant, negotiates the AI Act on a technical level.
Anyone who wants to know where the legislative process currently stands in terms of artificial intelligence in Europe should know Kai Zenner. Like no other, he informs the interested public about the progress of the dossier via LinkedIn, X and his blog, and appears at countless events as an expert on the regulation of AI. He is trying to make the process a bit more transparent, he says. And he’s not just making friends along the way.
Since August 2017, Kai Zenner has headed the office of MEP Axel Voss (EPP) in Brussels and is also his digital policy advisor. “We have been convinced since 2017 that AI has and will have a massive impact on our lives“, he says. The goal of regulation should therefore be to protect society from dangers without inhibiting innovation too much. And of course, Voss and Zenner are convinced they have “a good feel and many ideas for this middle ground“.
Passionate about politics and history
The fact that Zenner ended up in digital policy was by no means a foregone conclusion from the start. He first came across the topic in Brussels when he was a Research Associate at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 2015 to 2017. That was his first job after his studies and a few internships – and, as he says, a good conclusion to his education. It was there that he launched the Think digital! event series, and the topic has stuck with him ever since. During this time, he also got to know Axel Voss, who in turn has been a guest on many panels on the topic of digital and AI.
Kai Zenner was born in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony in 1985 and grew up in the tranquil town of Bad Zwischenahn. When he wanted to go somewhere exciting, he went to Oldenburg with his friends as a teenager. His first childhood career aspiration was to become a banker, because his grandfather ran a Volksbank branch in a neighboring town. But he soon found another passion for himself: “Politics and history always interested me a lot”, he recalls. “As a child, I used to draw all the flags of the world and break everything down very systematically.” Talking about history with his grandparents also inspired him, as did the history books he read.
Studying in Bremen, Freiburg, Münster and Edinburgh
After graduating from high school with an advanced course in history, he began studying politics in Bremen in 2005. “It was always clear to me that I wanted to do something in politics,” says Zenner. He would have preferred to study history, but at the time the conditions on the job market were so unfavorable that it would have been difficult to find a good job there. And Bremen was ideal for him: a bit far from home, but not too far. “I always play it a little safe,” he explains. “I look at a thing first, and only when I’m sure do I trust myself to do things.”
The bachelor’s degree in politics was followed by a move to Freiburg to study law, to make his resume a little more interesting, he says. “Freiburg was the big thing, you couldn’t really get any further away from my home village in Germany.” It was one of the best two years of his life, he says. Still, after his intermediate exams, he switched to Münster, where he was able to choose European law and international law as his majors. “That was exactly what had mainly interested me in law.” Becoming a judge or lawyer was never an option for him.
Two mainstays: law and politics
Zenner completed his political studies during a year abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland with a master’s degree in international relations, focusing on security studies, foreign policy and international law. He wrote his master’s thesis on states of emergency in history. His double degree program took up a lot of time, but: “It helped me a lot in my day-to-day work that I have two mainstays in law and politics,” he says in retrospect.
During various internships during his studies and afterwards, he continued to test what he liked and what he didn’t like – also to gain the security that was so important to him. He liked the internship with CDU member of parliament Thomas Kossenday and at the Federal Press Office. “They completely convinced me that I wanted to be active in the political environment.”
Freedom as the most important component
Zenner needs a lot of freedom in his work. A boss who gives him guidelines and then lets him do what he thinks is just right for him: “Those are the best bosses for me. I thrive under these bosses“, he says. Axel Voss is one such boss. In 2017, the job interview took place at Brasserie London on Place du Luxembourg, not far from the EU Parliament. “We talked for two hours”, he recalls. “I thought it was great because he metme at eye level.”
And then the work on AI soon got underway, long before the Commission presented its proposal for the AI Act in 2021. During the 2019 election campaign, Zenner wrote a digital manifesto. “That’s when Axel Voss and I made suggestions on where the new Commission under Ursula von der Leyen should take digital policy action.” This was followed in the Legal Affairs Committee by the own-initiative report on artificial intelligence, the AIDA special committee, work on AI liability, and much more.
Mission not over yet
Zenner also has plans for the upcoming mandate – if Axel Voss succeeds in getting back into the EU Parliament this time as well. The planned ePrivacy Regulation or, if necessary, a revision of the GDPR, the law on collective class actions, and the new AI Liability Directive – “these are the topics we are burning for”, he says. “That’s why we don’t see our mission as over yet.”
However, he is not yet thinking much about the upcoming mandate: At the moment, he is crunching the negotiations on the AI Act in order to be able to conclude them this year. In 2023, he received the “Best MEP Assistant” award for his commitment that went far beyond his duties. At the moment, he unfortunately has only little time for his wife and two-year-old son, and hardly any for friends or hobbies.
Instead of being an assistant, can he imagine becoming a politician himself one day? “Becoming a German MEP would be an exciting option”, he says. However, he would have to live in a constituency and constantly commute between Germany and Brussels. “I can’t imagine that at the moment: Brussels is the center of life for me and my family.” Corinna Visser
The political balance of power in Italy is in heavy flux these days. On Friday, the cabinet in Rome is expected to launch the draft for a constitutional reform – a preliminary agreement was reported last night. Through the new electoral law, the right-wing conservative government of Giorgia Meloni promises the country more stability. But the strongest left-wing opposition forces, the Five Star Movement and the Partito Democratico (PD), see the control mechanisms of the 1948 constitution in danger.
The core of the plans is the direct election of the head of government. In the future, electoral alliances would have to put forward a candidate. It would also be more difficult for the opposition to contribute to a new government majority if a prime minister could no longer rely on a majority. However, the reform would require either a referendum or a two-thirds majority in both chambers of parliament – difficult to imagine given the fragmentation of the Italian party landscape.
Meanwhile, the left-wing parties around the Social Democrats of the PD are finding new unity. The alliance wants to celebrate a success against Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia in next year’s European elections. But the potential partners are at odds and, given the geopolitical situation, deeply divided. Read our Analysis to find out why a town of 150,000 inhabitants in Puglia nevertheless gives the left hope.
I wish you a pleasant reading.
Your Manuel Berkel
Feature
Italy: alliance against Meloni
A few days ago, mayoral elections were held in Foggia. Maria Aida Episcopo was able to assert herself in the first round of voting – with 52 percent of the votes, she is the new head of the city in Puglia. The remarkable thing: Behind the candidate, who had been put forward by the Five Star Movement, was an alliance that united virtually all the parties of Italy’s center-left. The Partito Democratico (PD), Italia Viva, Azione – all those parties, in other words, that cannot find common ground at the national level. “Together you win”, said PD leader Elly Schlein, adding: “An alternative to the right, it exists.”
Since March, Schlein has been the leader of the PD, which can be compared to the German Social Democrats. When she was elected, the 38-year-old was seen as the hopeful candidate to stand up to the icon of the right, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of the Fratelli d’Italia. Meloni herself was one of the first to congratulate Schlein at the time. “I hope that the election of a young woman to the party leadership will help the left to look forward and not always backward.” Schlein herself said: “The election result is a clear mandate to reorient the party from the ground up.”
Socialists hold place behind Meloni’s Fratelli
In the parliamentary elections around a year ago, the PD won 19 percent of the vote. After a brief drop to 14 percent at the end of 2022, the party has been relatively consistently just below the 20 percent mark for months. This puts it in second place behind the ruling ultra-right Fratelli d’Italia (currently 28.7 percent).
After a number of local elections, Elly Schlein is now facing a test: the European elections in June 2024. The new chairwoman seems to be putting the necessary reorientation of the content of her PD on the backburner for the time being. She knows that the right-wing bloc of Meloni’s governing coalition of her Fratelli, Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Forza Italia can only be overcome in alliance with other parties. The alliance is virtually the only chance to counter the right-wing bloc in terms of strength.
European elections in Italy good for surprises
Will the European elections bring another Polish moment? There, Donald Tusk’s liberal-conservative Civic Coalition did not win the parliamentary election a few days ago, but it did wrest a governing majority from the ruling PiS party. And European elections in Italy have often been good for surprises: In the 2019election, Matteo Salvini’s Lega shot up to 34.3 percent – a gain of 28 percentage points compared to the election five years earlier. In 2014, the PD of then-freshly installed Prime Minister Matteo Renzi even managed to win 40 percent of the vote.
For the upcoming European elections, most of the vote growth in Italy is likely to be reserved for the Fratelli d’Italia. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party came in at 6.5 percent in the 2019 European elections. In the national polls, it is currently at 28.
Renzi and PD are irreconcilable
But what alliance could form against the right in Italy? After resigning as prime minister following the lost constitutional referendum in December 2016, Renzi can no longer be united with the PD. He has formed his own party: Italia Viva (IV). And he has been trying for some time to make this the initiator of a third force. But his IV is currently polling at just 2.4 percent. And a merger with one of his arch-enemies, Carlo Calenda of the small party Azione, failed only a few days ago. In the European elections, both could now fail to clear the four-percent hurdle. But both Renzi and Calenda have probably broken with the PD forever.
That leaves Elly Schlein with no other choice than Conte and his Five Star Movement. However, it is questionable whether a strong new alliance will actually be formed by June. What may workat the local level in some places cannot be transferred to Europe. Opinions are already divided on the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine. Elly Schlein is an Atlanticist; Giuseppe Conte’s party broke apart over the issue in June 2022. Then-Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, a supporter of Italian arms deliveries and longtime party leader, even resigned from the movement in a dispute with Conte. Conte has repeatedly spoken out against further arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Contentious issues Middle East and Ukraine
Most recently, the war in the Middle East shows how far apart we are. Conte takes part in Italy-wide demonstrations for peace; his party is behind him. Schlein has a harder time: In order not to anger the different camps in her party, she is pursuing a course of “both/and”. Hamas must be clearly condemned, but Palestinian civilians must be protected. She is fighting against all forms of anti-Semitism, but also against Islamophobia.
The situation is more delicate for Schlein than for Conte. Too strong a focus on the Five Star Movement could be a disadvantage. Her own party still lacks a real realignment in terms of content. The new leader still has to deliver that. Many are already disappointed that she has not yet done so. And Conte and his Five Stars have often proven to be very flexible in their choice of partners. After the 2018 election, they first formed a coalition with the right-wing populist Matteo Salvini, then in 2019 with the Social Democrats, who had previously been the absolute nemesis – they were suddenly good enough, especially as means to stay in power.
Thus, the renewed cuddling course could also be a tactical move by Conte: The deputies of the Five Star Movement are still factionless in the European Parliament. If the movement cooperates more closely with the PD at home, joining the Social Democratic group S&D could also become an issue again in Brussels. Almut Siefert
European election 2024
giorgia meloni
Italy
Events
Nov. 2, 2023; 10 a.m.-3 p.m., online Handelsblatt, SeminarFocal points of energy law The seminar will provide practical knowledge on the fundamentals and current developments in energy law, including an overview of energy markets and energy law, gas shortages, and impacts due to decarbonization.INFO & REGISTRATION
News
Trade agreement with Australia fails for the time being
Negotiations between the EU Commission and the government of Australia on a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) have failed for the time being. On the fringes of a meeting of G7 trade ministers in Osaka, the deal should have been finalized over the weekend. But on Monday night, the talks broke off. The Australian side rejected a proposal submitted by the EU. The decisive factor was provisions on the exchange of agricultural products.
Producers from Australia wanted to push for higher duty-free access for their products to the EU market. The EU side only slightly improved its offer for beef, lamb and sugar, which has been on the table for three months, it said. EU chief negotiator Valdis Dombrovskis said: “Unfortunately, our Australian partners were not ready to conclude on the basis of previously agreed targets.”
New talks in 2025 at the earliest
Negotiations had been ongoing since 2018. The EU had hoped to gain access to key mineral resources in particular, which are needed for the Green Deal. Australia is one of the leading suppliers on the world market of lithium, rare earths, cobalt and hydrogen. The EU also hopes to gain preferential access to Australia’s market, as do the US, Japan, China and Korea and other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. An agreement could have helped boost the EU’s economic output by €3.9 billion by 2030, Brussels said.
Now it is feared that the talks will lie idle for at least the EU election year of 2024 and that a breakthrough will not be possible until 2025 at the earliest.
Trade politician Bernd Lange shows disappointment
Bernd Lange (SPD), head of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, called the failure of the negotiations “very regrettable”. He went on to tell Table.Media: “On the Australian side, the duty-free quotas for beef and sheep meat have become such a dogma that it was no longer possible to find a compromise at all.”
He also said he had the impression that Australia’s government was not moving very strongly toward an agreement “due to domestic political developments”. He said it was “absurd” to let “such an important agreement on stable market access, transformation, fossil-free energy production, sustainability in workers’ rights and environmental standards and much more fail because of a few thousand tons of duty-free meat”. Fragmented globalization and geopolitical developments require a different approach, he said. “That’s where you have to jump over your own shadow once in a while.” mgr
Arbeitnehmerrechte
Trade Policy
States coordinate on regulation of AI
While negotiations at the EU level on the AI Act are making slow progress, the EU and Germany are signing more and more new agreements at the international level to get a grip on the risks of artificial intelligence (AI).
G7 to promote responsible AI governance globally
The AI Guidelines and Voluntary Code of Conduct agreed by the G7 countries under the G7 Hiroshima AI Process, led by Japan and published on Monday, are intended to complement at the international level the legally binding rules currently being developed by the EU through the AI Act.
The eleven guiding principles are intended to provide guidance to organizations developing or deploying advanced AI systems such as baseline models and generative AI. These principles include commitments to mitigate risk and misuse, as well as to identify vulnerabilities and report security incidents. They also include a labeling system that allows users to identify AI-generated content. Based on the guidelines, the G7 developed the Code of Conduct to promote responsible AI governance worldwide.
The G7 intends to review and update both documents as needed to adapt them to rapidly evolving technology.
Germany cooperates with Italy and France on AI
In Rome on Monday, Italian Minister for Enterprise Adolfo Urso, German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire met with industry representatives from the three countries to “give new impetus to industrial cooperation in areas of strategic importance” such as AI. This was announced by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs on Monday. According to the statement, Italy plans to promote a discussion on the same topics at G7 level during its G7 presidency in 2024.
This “novel collaboration” between Italy, Germany and France aims to effectively support both demand and supply against the backdrop of the evolving geopolitical scenario, the BMWK statement added. The aim, it said, is to pave the way for“a globally competitive European AI industry”. To this end, the three ministers had agreed to “reduce the administrative burden and simplify procedures for transnational projects”. In this way, they want to enable European startups to participate in digital and green transformation projects.
Presidential decree from Biden on trustworthy AI
Also on Monday came US President Joe Biden’s presidential executive order, which, among other things, stipulates that for programs that could potentially become dangerous to national security, the economy or health, developersmust notify the US government as soon as the AI models are released. Developers will also be required to share the results of safety tests with authorities.
Among other things, the US government fears that AI could be used to develop dangerous malware or even biological weapons. Standards are to be defined for testing AI programs – and the Department of Homeland Security is to apply them to critical infrastructure as well. Global risks from AI are also to be a topic at the AI Safety Summit in the UK this week.
At the same time, Biden wants to accelerate the use of AI in government and thus strengthen the US as an AI development location. To this end, the authorities are to hire more AI experts. It should become easier for experts from other countries to work in the USA. vis
Artificial Intelligence Regulation
Digitalpolitik
G7
Robert Habeck
Western Balkans: Von der Leyen pledges €6 billion
The European Union plans to support the countries of the Western Balkans with investments of €6 billion in the reforms needed to join the EU, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday in the northern Macedonian capital of Skopje.
Northern Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina would have to take advantage of the “window of opportunity” for EU enlargement. Northern Macedonia must, among other things, establish an efficient public administration and, as demanded by Bulgaria, amend its constitution to recognize Bulgarians as a minority. The basis for the states’ reforms is the EU’s new growth plan for the region.
Association of municipalities to take care of Serbs in Kosovo
“These reforms will be accompanied by investments”, von der Leyen said during a press conference with northern Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski at the start of her trip to the Western Balkans.
Later in the day, she visited Kosovo, where she called on the country to grant more autonomy to the Serb minority and to establish an association of municipalities to take care of them. Serbia and Montenegro were the first countries in the region to begin EU accession talks. Albania and northern Macedonia began talks last year. Bosnia and Kosovo, however, still lag far behind their neighbors in the process. rtr
EU accession
Western Balkans
Commission approves French aid to battery manufacturer Verkor
The French battery manufacturer Verkor is to receive €659 million in support for a research and development project. The EU Commission has approved a French measure to this effect under EU state aid rules. The money is to go toward researching and developing new processes for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. This should cover the project until the end of 2026.
Verkor’s project will focus on four priorities, according to the commission:
the automation of electrode production and battery formation through digitization of the processes;
the improvement of recycling techniques;
the recovery of materials;
the development of an innovative pilot production line that will pave the way for large-scale battery production.
The measure is part of France’s “France 2030” transformation plan. Verkor will use further funds generated by investors in September to drive forward, among other things, the construction of a first gigafactory in Dunkerque and the production of high-performance, low-carbon battery cells. leo
Aid
Battery
France
Roadmap for the Critical Raw Materials Club
The plan for a Critical Raw Materials Club, through which the EU aims to diversify procurement opportunities for critical raw materials, is a promising model for successful commodity diplomacy, according to a new research paper from the Jacques Delors Centre. However, for this to happen, the EU would need to provide credible initial funding at the club’s inception and streamline its fragmented development finance model, it says. The paper is being published today and was available in advance to Table.Media.
With the Raw Materials Club, the EU Commission aims to establish a cooperative forum for resource-rich and consumer countries to improve cooperation in raw materials policy, stimulate investment and support resource-rich countries in their goal of building local processing capacities. It intends the club to complement the US-led Minerals Security Partnership (MSP). The first meeting is scheduled to take place later this year.
In the paper, author Francesco Findeisen argues that a club with a hybrid design, starting with voluntary commitments, minimal structure and a limited number of members, and defining a process to evolve into a more ambitious and binding structure, is the most promising model. However, as such, this approach is insufficient. To be successful, he said, the EU must provide credible initial funding at the club’s inception and streamline its fragmented development funding model. leo
Raw materials
Brexit: Commission approves €20 million for fisheries
The EU Commission has approved German aid to support the fisheries sector amounting to €20 million. The funds are intended to protect against the effects of the UK’s exit from the EU.
The aim is to compensate fishing businesses for income losses related to Brexit-related cuts in fishing quotas, the Commission said Monday. Owners of fishing vessels up to 24 meters in length can be compensated for a maximum of 15 percent of estimated income losses. Owners of longer vessels are eligible for compensation for a maximum of 10 percent of income losses. The scheme runs until the end of the year. luk
Aid
Brexit
Nutrition
Slovakia: Left-wing populist Takáč new agriculture minister
Slovakia has found a new agriculture minister in Richard Takáč. The 41-year-old is part of the new government under Prime Minister Robert Fico, the news service Agra Europe reports. At the beginning of October, the SMER-SD under its leader Fico won the elections. Takáč has been deputy chairman of SMER-SD since 2020. The latter is considered left-wing populist and nationalist, as well as Russia-friendly. Takáč has been a deputy in Slovakia’s National Council since 2020. Previously, he reportedly worked as a businessman in the furniture industry, among other things. According to Slovak media reports, he is a graduate of the Agricultural University in Nitra.
The SMER-SD has formed a coalition with the Hlas-SD, which split from it three years ago, and the radical right-wing SNS. Due to its cooperation with the SNS, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament recently expelled the three SMER-SD MEPs from its ranks. The full list of the Slovak cabinet can be found here.
Coalition with right-wing radical SNS
Observers in Brussels fear that Fico and his government, which is considered pro-Russian, could once again become a problem case for the EU. Fico resigned as prime minister in 2020 after the affair surrounding the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée. Kuciak had been investigating mafia structures that allegedly reached into the government. In concrete terms, this also involved large-scale fraud involving EU agricultural subsidies.
Maroš Šefčovič, the Slovakian executive vice-president of the European Commission, who has recently become responsible for the Green Deal, is said to be close to the SMER-SD. When he ran in the 2019 presidential election, it was with the support of the SMER-SD. red
Agricultural Policy
Heads
Kai Zenner – the AI Influencer
Kai Zenner is a digital expert and, as Axel Voss’ assistant, negotiates the AI Act on a technical level.
Anyone who wants to know where the legislative process currently stands in terms of artificial intelligence in Europe should know Kai Zenner. Like no other, he informs the interested public about the progress of the dossier via LinkedIn, X and his blog, and appears at countless events as an expert on the regulation of AI. He is trying to make the process a bit more transparent, he says. And he’s not just making friends along the way.
Since August 2017, Kai Zenner has headed the office of MEP Axel Voss (EPP) in Brussels and is also his digital policy advisor. “We have been convinced since 2017 that AI has and will have a massive impact on our lives“, he says. The goal of regulation should therefore be to protect society from dangers without inhibiting innovation too much. And of course, Voss and Zenner are convinced they have “a good feel and many ideas for this middle ground“.
Passionate about politics and history
The fact that Zenner ended up in digital policy was by no means a foregone conclusion from the start. He first came across the topic in Brussels when he was a Research Associate at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 2015 to 2017. That was his first job after his studies and a few internships – and, as he says, a good conclusion to his education. It was there that he launched the Think digital! event series, and the topic has stuck with him ever since. During this time, he also got to know Axel Voss, who in turn has been a guest on many panels on the topic of digital and AI.
Kai Zenner was born in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony in 1985 and grew up in the tranquil town of Bad Zwischenahn. When he wanted to go somewhere exciting, he went to Oldenburg with his friends as a teenager. His first childhood career aspiration was to become a banker, because his grandfather ran a Volksbank branch in a neighboring town. But he soon found another passion for himself: “Politics and history always interested me a lot”, he recalls. “As a child, I used to draw all the flags of the world and break everything down very systematically.” Talking about history with his grandparents also inspired him, as did the history books he read.
Studying in Bremen, Freiburg, Münster and Edinburgh
After graduating from high school with an advanced course in history, he began studying politics in Bremen in 2005. “It was always clear to me that I wanted to do something in politics,” says Zenner. He would have preferred to study history, but at the time the conditions on the job market were so unfavorable that it would have been difficult to find a good job there. And Bremen was ideal for him: a bit far from home, but not too far. “I always play it a little safe,” he explains. “I look at a thing first, and only when I’m sure do I trust myself to do things.”
The bachelor’s degree in politics was followed by a move to Freiburg to study law, to make his resume a little more interesting, he says. “Freiburg was the big thing, you couldn’t really get any further away from my home village in Germany.” It was one of the best two years of his life, he says. Still, after his intermediate exams, he switched to Münster, where he was able to choose European law and international law as his majors. “That was exactly what had mainly interested me in law.” Becoming a judge or lawyer was never an option for him.
Two mainstays: law and politics
Zenner completed his political studies during a year abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland with a master’s degree in international relations, focusing on security studies, foreign policy and international law. He wrote his master’s thesis on states of emergency in history. His double degree program took up a lot of time, but: “It helped me a lot in my day-to-day work that I have two mainstays in law and politics,” he says in retrospect.
During various internships during his studies and afterwards, he continued to test what he liked and what he didn’t like – also to gain the security that was so important to him. He liked the internship with CDU member of parliament Thomas Kossenday and at the Federal Press Office. “They completely convinced me that I wanted to be active in the political environment.”
Freedom as the most important component
Zenner needs a lot of freedom in his work. A boss who gives him guidelines and then lets him do what he thinks is just right for him: “Those are the best bosses for me. I thrive under these bosses“, he says. Axel Voss is one such boss. In 2017, the job interview took place at Brasserie London on Place du Luxembourg, not far from the EU Parliament. “We talked for two hours”, he recalls. “I thought it was great because he metme at eye level.”
And then the work on AI soon got underway, long before the Commission presented its proposal for the AI Act in 2021. During the 2019 election campaign, Zenner wrote a digital manifesto. “That’s when Axel Voss and I made suggestions on where the new Commission under Ursula von der Leyen should take digital policy action.” This was followed in the Legal Affairs Committee by the own-initiative report on artificial intelligence, the AIDA special committee, work on AI liability, and much more.
Mission not over yet
Zenner also has plans for the upcoming mandate – if Axel Voss succeeds in getting back into the EU Parliament this time as well. The planned ePrivacy Regulation or, if necessary, a revision of the GDPR, the law on collective class actions, and the new AI Liability Directive – “these are the topics we are burning for”, he says. “That’s why we don’t see our mission as over yet.”
However, he is not yet thinking much about the upcoming mandate: At the moment, he is crunching the negotiations on the AI Act in order to be able to conclude them this year. In 2023, he received the “Best MEP Assistant” award for his commitment that went far beyond his duties. At the moment, he unfortunately has only little time for his wife and two-year-old son, and hardly any for friends or hobbies.
Instead of being an assistant, can he imagine becoming a politician himself one day? “Becoming a German MEP would be an exciting option”, he says. However, he would have to live in a constituency and constantly commute between Germany and Brussels. “I can’t imagine that at the moment: Brussels is the center of life for me and my family.” Corinna Visser
