No, blackouts, i.e., an uncontrolled and unforeseen failure of network elements, will not occur in France, said Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the regulatory authority CRE. Nevertheless, the situation is tense. Depending on the scenario, France faces the threat of 20 to 70 hours of power outages in winter. In their text, Tanja Kuchenbecker and Manuel Berkel analyze if and when the risk for the German grid increases.
Manuel Berkel also reports on the long-awaited Delegated Act on hydrogen. Europe.Table has the latest draft and it contains some important changes.
Is anything happening with the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)? Joe Biden held out the prospect of improvements to Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s visit to the White House, “which could, in principle, make it easier for European countries to participate.” The EU is also discussing several options on how to deal with the IRA, ranging from countering it to equalizing arms, ahead of the EU summit on Dec. 15. Till Hoppe outlines the options.
Meanwhile, EU Council President Charles Michel was in China trying to resume talks with President Xi Jinping after the failed EU-China dialogue in early April. The talks touched on many topics – human rights, equality in economic relations, the recent protests in China. But although a clear focus was lacking, Michel’s visit was a good start for a beginning of talks, according to Amelie Richter.
It is becoming increasingly clear that France will have to deal with power supply bottlenecks in winter. The European Association of Network Operators ENTSO-E confirmed yesterday in its Winter Outlook that there could be power outages for tens of hours in winter.
Due to the support of neighboring countries, the situation has actually improved slightly compared to forecasts from October. The extended lifetime of German nuclear power plants helps other countries – including France – in the winter, said ENTSO-E’s lead expert Cindy Bastiaensen yesterday when asked by Europe.Table.
However, in their reference scenario, Europe’s grid operators still expect that electricity demand in France will not be met for a total of 20 hours next winter. The number may seem small, but even short and localized outages would interfere with people’s lives.
France’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has been assembling a crisis team every week for the past month, and the government has developed an emergency plan. Prefects are instructed to prepare for controlled interruptions in supply of two hours. These are to be local shutdowns that do not affect entire cities or departments. Experts do not expect large-scale, unplanned outages. Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the regulator CRE, said, “There will be no blackouts.”
According to the government, local outages could affect about 60 percent of the population. According to the network operator RTE, the risk is greatest during peak hours between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., and between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. If power were to be interrupted, the affected population would be informed by 5 p.m. the day before via the Ecowatt app.
Hospitals and other important facilities, such as the fire department and police, are to be spared. Internet, landlines and cell phones will not work during the outage. Trains and the metro will not run, and schools will be closed. It is still questionable whether the central emergency number 112 will work everywhere.
The reason is the situation in the French nuclear power plants. Utility EDF told Europe.Table that 21 of 56 nuclear reactors were not running at the end of November. Maintenance work, corrosion problems, the pandemic and strikes have slowed EDF down.
Eleven reactors are still scheduled to be restarted in December, but the French network operator RTE expects that this could drag on into January. The remaining reactors are scheduled to be shut down by February. EDF is already a long way behind the plan that the utility published in mid-September, according to which only nine reactors should not be running at present.
According to the latest RTE forecast from mid-November, European network operators also expect the situation to worsen overall. The ENTSO-E forecast of 20 hours with power outages is based on data from September. With the latest figures from France, the association now expects the number of hours with power outages to be between two scenarios of 20 and 70 hours.
According to ENTSO-E, the danger can be significantly reduced by saving electricity. The EU energy ministers have decided that all states should save ten percent of electricity consumption and cap consumption by five percent at peak times.
Savings efforts are still falling short of the resolutions. Since October, the decline in electricity consumption has been noticeable. Compared to the years 2014 to 2019, it is in some weeks up to 6.7 percent below. However, the trend is increasing. Energy is being saved mainly in industry settings, less so in private households.
A government plan from early October calls for a 10 percent reduction in energy use over the next two years compared to 2019, including less heating in public buildings, less lighting and colder swimming pools.
But another key to security of supply, according to ENTSO-E, is for EU countries to support each other rather than, say, stop each other from exporting electricity. “If each country were to play for itself, the risks would be much higher,” Bastiaensen said.
France currently imports electricity mainly from Germany and Belgium and partly from Spain and the UK. France has agreed with Germany that Germany will supply electricity and France will supply gas. France’s sovereignty in energy is dwindling. Nicolas Goldberg, an energy expert at Colombus Consulting points out, “The situation is severe.”
The situation is not only tense this winter. For 2023, the outlook is not much better. EDF hopes for a supply of 300 to 330 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy; normally, the production from a nuclear power plant is 370 to 400 TWh.
“Next year, France will have to continue importing,” Goldberg said. For 2024, he said, everything depends on how maintenance work goes, renewable energy is expanded and whether the new pressurized water reactor EPR in Flamanville comes online.
ENTSO-E does not expect any negative effects on Germany. Even in the newly calculated extreme scenario, there would be no load shortfall in Germany. However, neighboring Poland would experience power outages of up to ten hours, and the situation in Sweden would also worsen.
The tense situation in neighboring countries would then also increase the risk for Germany, according to the report. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to secure gas supplies to gas-fired power plants even in the event of a shortage. Tanja Kuchenbecker, Manuel Berkel
Emmanuel Macron was received in Washington with a big station. US President Joe Biden had more than just warm words for his guest from France. He also held out the prospect of improvements to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the US Chips Act. “There are improvements we can make that can basically make it easier for European countries to participate or stand on their own,” Biden said. He and Macron had discussed the issue at length, he said.
The IRA, a roughly $400 billion US climate program, was Macron’s main concern along with the Ukraine war. In the other EU states, too, close attention was paid to whether the French president could achieve changes in implementation in Washington. Following him, the EU Commission delegation led by Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis will now travel to the United States, meeting their US counterparts at the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on Monday (the draft final declaration can be found here).
After the TTC, the EU states then want to make an initial assessment. The issue is likely to occupy the heads of state and government at the EU summit on Dec. 15. This is because there is great concern that many industrial companies prefer to invest abroad in view of the high energy prices in Europe and the enticing calls from Washington (and Beijing).
Top politicians such as Macron and Vestager are currently holding talks with CEOs in an attempt to dissuade the companies. But appeals will hardly suffice. Governments at national and European level must now decide in the short term how to respond. The financial leeway is limited – the EU states have already earmarked €600 billion for aid in the energy crisis alone.
The following options are being discussed:
The EU could take action against the passages in the IRA that link subsidies to production in North America – which is clearly not compatible with World Trade Organization rules. But hardly anyone wants that in the current political world situation, with the possible exception of France.
An EU versus US case at the WTO would generate headlines around the world, but would be unlikely to produce timely results given the paralysis of the Geneva dispute settlement mechanism. At last week’s Trade Council, many ministers stressed that the dispute over the IRA should not undermine transatlantic relations. EU tools such as the Foreign Subsidies Instrument are also inappropriate here, according to Brussels.
The EU could follow Washington’s lead and erect its own hurdles for foreign companies. Macron has been drumming up support for a “Buy European” act for weeks. In Germany, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck shows some sympathy for it.
He brought up the idea of taking criteria such as the carbon footprint into account when promoting the production of solar panels or wind turbines – which would favor “more regional production”. However, the EU could hardly afford to blatantly ignore WTO rules in the process. “We should not copy what we don’t like in others,” warns a senior EU diplomat.
Germany and France are pulling in the same direction here: “We need a second phase of the Green Deal: from regulation to a green industrial policy,” said State Secretary for Economic Affairs Sven Giegold yesterday at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels.
The issue offers a welcome opportunity after the recent dissonances to get the Franco-German engine running again. Even traditionally skeptical states like the Netherlands could get involved, according to diplomats – provided Paris and Berlin coordinate closely with their partners.
The industrial policy approach would hit two birds with one stone: new subsidies for climate-friendly technologies and less bureaucracy.
Berlin and Paris are therefore looking for ways to avoid the problems with state aid law and win over the Commission to their cause. One way: to at least partially Europeanize industrial aid. “Otherwise, we would have unfair competition within Europe between those who can pay and those who can’t,” says Giegold. First, however, the skeptics have to be convinced – in Berlin’s coalition, that’s the FDP.
In terms of financial volume, the IRA and REPowerEU are quite comparable. While the EU Commission is making around €300 billion available, the US government is providing almost $400 billion for a wide range of areas. According to an overview by McKinsey, $250 billion of this will go to the energy sector. Many in the business community see the crucial difference more in the simpler procedures for accessing the funds.
The US logic: Depending on how much a company reduces CO2 emissions, it can reduce its taxes in stages, explains Torsten Oltmanns of the Center for Sustainable Transformation. This is the case with the hydrogen megatrend, for example: As long as the production of one kilogram of hydrogen does not cause more than four kilograms of CO2, tax breaks apply.
The full rebate is available if the CO2 intensity is below 450 grams per kilo of the energy carrier. For the association Hydrogen Europe, the IRA has clear advantages: “This law offers a much clearer, easier to understand funding instrument,” CEO Jorgo Chatzimarkakis said recently in an interview with Europe.Table.
The wind power industry is calling for faster approval procedures in particular – projects with 80 gigawatts are currently waiting for approval in Europe, criticizes the Wind Europe association. In addition, the criteria for the tenders should be changed: Not only the price should decide, but also sustainability criteria. with Manuel Berkel
EU Council President Charles Michel has called on Beijing, during his visit to China, to press Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. “We are counting on China to use its influence,” Michel said after talks with state and party leader Xi Jinping.
He said Xi had clearly assured him that the People’s Republic would not supply weapons to Russia and rejected nuclear threats. “President Xi and I agreed that nuclear threats are unacceptable and highly dangerous.”
The country has a special responsibility as a UN veto power to ensure that the UN Charter is respected, the EU Council president added. The Belgian said he hoped China would use all means in the coming weeks and months to “convince” Russia to end the war and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty. There was no joint press statement after the meeting; both sides issued their own statements.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU has been appealing to the Chinese leadership to put pressure on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. So far, however, with very limited success. Belief in Beijing’s influence had declined massively, especially after the unsuccessful EU-China dialogue in early April.
The EU’s foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell had subsequently dubbed the video summit a “dialogue of the deaf”. A recorded video message by Michel himself, intended for the opening of the export fair in Shanghai, was not shown on purpose. In it, the EU Council leader had called on Russia to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine.
The message from the Chinese side after the meeting also stated that Ukraine was discussed. However, the word “war” was still not used, only a “crisis” was mentioned. During the talks, Xi Jinping insisted on a political solution through negotiations, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Xi was quoted as saying that “resolving the Ukraine crisis by political means is in the best interests of Europe and in the common interests of all countries in Eurasia.” Under the current conditions, escalation and expansion of the crisis must be avoided, Xi said, according to state media.
The devil is in the details: China “supported the EU in strengthening its mediation,” the Chinese statement stated. The People’s Republic also cited an “establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture.” This wording can already be found in a similar way in the joint statement issued by Russia and China at the beginning of February this year, criticizing a possible NATO expansion in Europe.
Another choice of words in the Chinese statement is noteworthy, Justyna Szczudlik, a China analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) in Warsaw, writes on Twitter: it says China is always on the side of peace and will “continue to play a constructive role in its own way,” as Szczudlik writes. She summarizes, “Let me be clear: this is like ‘constructive role with Chinese characteristics’ = endorsing Russia.” Beijing’s timely response to the EU appeal remains unlikely, even after the meeting.
Communication after the meeting also varied on other topics, with the EU Council President assuring that he had addressed the recent protests in China. “In a broader sense, there was an exchange about Covid and the experiences in Europe and China, including the respective measures taken and the response of the societies,” a spokesperson for Michel said after the three-hour meeting. However, the Chinese statement did not mention this point. Members of the EU Parliament, in particular, had called for a clear signal from the EU Council President to the Chinese leadership before Michel’s trip.
Beijing, meanwhile, sought to emphasize the common ground between the two economic blocs. In doing so, Xi sought to show positivity and improve relations with Brussels amid Beijing’s growing rivalry with Washington. Brussels and Beijing have no “real strategic differences or conflicts,” Xi said. He hoped they could join forces to jointly “resist decoupling,” Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media.
At the same time, Michel insisted on more equality and fairness in economic relations with China. There must be equal access for European companies in China and for Chinese companies in the EU’s internal market. The background is complaints from European companies about restrictions in China. “We do not want excessive dependence,” Michel stressed. He also stressed that European companies would be willing to supply vaccines to China if they were approved there.
Accordingly, Xi also came to talk about a permanent construction site: Both sides were working on advancing the CAI investment agreement. This part of the conversation did not make it into the EU’s statement. Michel did, however, have the opportunity to raise the issue of human rights in general. The EU Council President had stressed the universality of fundamental freedoms and “reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to its ‘One-China Policy’ and recalled the EU’s long-standing position on the Taiwan Strait.”
The first meeting was rich in topics, even if a clear focus was missing. For the resumption of personal talks, however, Michel’s visit was a start. The consensus on trade issues emphasized above all by Xi – and subsequently also by the state media – was certainly also intended to send a signal in the direction of Washington. EU and US representatives met there on Thursday for a dialogue on China and the Indo-Pacific.
There is hardly anything ordinary about the La Poesia restaurant, which opened in Paris on Nov. 2, mainly because meals are prepared with products supplied by the Italian organization Libera Terra. The organization manages agricultural land that has been seized from the Mafia.
Even the cuvées are not ordinary: Each bottle honors on the label one of the many victims of the Mafia. In Paris, the fight against the Mafia thus harmonizes from now on with Italian culinary art. This is the task that the restaurant La Poesia, located at 3, Rue de la Fidélité in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, has set itself.
The restaurant, born of a family history between France and Italy, entered into a partnership unprecedented in France with the Italian organization Libera Terra. Libera Terra not only manages agricultural land seized by the judiciary and formerly owned by the Mafia. The organization also unites the work of agricultural cooperatives located on this land and selects them based on their compliance with social and environmental rules.
La Poesia, however, wants to go one step further: The restaurant is currently forging partnerships with French associations that work for social reintegration. The restaurant plans to recruit staff from the people who are under the protection of these associations. This approach mirrors Italian practices of reinvesting money and goods seized from organized crime in social institutions.
The initiative of the restaurant La Poesia raises a question: What to do with goods that have belonged to criminals when the judiciary orders their confiscation? Strategies vary from country to country. France resells them at auctions and recovers the money for the treasury. Italy, where so-called preventive seizures have been in place since 1982 to combat the Mafia, passed a more innovative law in 1996 that allows assets seized from organized crime to be bequeathed to social causes.
This provision, recognized by the European Court of Human Rights in 2014, has become the hallmark of Italian justice. The country thus lists 40,000 seized properties, almost half of which have been redistributed. Thus, prestigious villas with swimming pools are transformed into vacation centers for disadvantaged children, tomato fields or olive trees are stamped “anti-Mafia” for production, or buildings are converted into administrative offices.
The practice is still marginal in France despite the passage of an Italian-style law in 2021, but the Italian idea of social redistribution of goods taken from mobsters is gradually finding its way there. Former Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet was enthusiastic about the idea.
And in February 2020, Macron and then Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met in Naples for bilateral talks and publicly confirmed the project, even before the practical modalities were defined. Currently, the French administration has a long list of apartments, buildings and villas scattered throughout the country, confiscated from Mafiosi.
And as for La Poesia, it is not only a restaurant but also a place of culture. On Dec. 10, two well-known personalities of Italian justice, Antonio Balsamo, President of the Court of Palermo, and Francesco Menditto, Prosecutor of Tivoli, will be present. They will hold a meeting in their honor 30 years after the murder of their colleagues Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
No, blackouts, i.e., an uncontrolled and unforeseen failure of network elements, will not occur in France, said Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the regulatory authority CRE. Nevertheless, the situation is tense. Depending on the scenario, France faces the threat of 20 to 70 hours of power outages in winter. In their text, Tanja Kuchenbecker and Manuel Berkel analyze if and when the risk for the German grid increases.
Manuel Berkel also reports on the long-awaited Delegated Act on hydrogen. Europe.Table has the latest draft and it contains some important changes.
Is anything happening with the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)? Joe Biden held out the prospect of improvements to Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s visit to the White House, “which could, in principle, make it easier for European countries to participate.” The EU is also discussing several options on how to deal with the IRA, ranging from countering it to equalizing arms, ahead of the EU summit on Dec. 15. Till Hoppe outlines the options.
Meanwhile, EU Council President Charles Michel was in China trying to resume talks with President Xi Jinping after the failed EU-China dialogue in early April. The talks touched on many topics – human rights, equality in economic relations, the recent protests in China. But although a clear focus was lacking, Michel’s visit was a good start for a beginning of talks, according to Amelie Richter.
It is becoming increasingly clear that France will have to deal with power supply bottlenecks in winter. The European Association of Network Operators ENTSO-E confirmed yesterday in its Winter Outlook that there could be power outages for tens of hours in winter.
Due to the support of neighboring countries, the situation has actually improved slightly compared to forecasts from October. The extended lifetime of German nuclear power plants helps other countries – including France – in the winter, said ENTSO-E’s lead expert Cindy Bastiaensen yesterday when asked by Europe.Table.
However, in their reference scenario, Europe’s grid operators still expect that electricity demand in France will not be met for a total of 20 hours next winter. The number may seem small, but even short and localized outages would interfere with people’s lives.
France’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has been assembling a crisis team every week for the past month, and the government has developed an emergency plan. Prefects are instructed to prepare for controlled interruptions in supply of two hours. These are to be local shutdowns that do not affect entire cities or departments. Experts do not expect large-scale, unplanned outages. Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the regulator CRE, said, “There will be no blackouts.”
According to the government, local outages could affect about 60 percent of the population. According to the network operator RTE, the risk is greatest during peak hours between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., and between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. If power were to be interrupted, the affected population would be informed by 5 p.m. the day before via the Ecowatt app.
Hospitals and other important facilities, such as the fire department and police, are to be spared. Internet, landlines and cell phones will not work during the outage. Trains and the metro will not run, and schools will be closed. It is still questionable whether the central emergency number 112 will work everywhere.
The reason is the situation in the French nuclear power plants. Utility EDF told Europe.Table that 21 of 56 nuclear reactors were not running at the end of November. Maintenance work, corrosion problems, the pandemic and strikes have slowed EDF down.
Eleven reactors are still scheduled to be restarted in December, but the French network operator RTE expects that this could drag on into January. The remaining reactors are scheduled to be shut down by February. EDF is already a long way behind the plan that the utility published in mid-September, according to which only nine reactors should not be running at present.
According to the latest RTE forecast from mid-November, European network operators also expect the situation to worsen overall. The ENTSO-E forecast of 20 hours with power outages is based on data from September. With the latest figures from France, the association now expects the number of hours with power outages to be between two scenarios of 20 and 70 hours.
According to ENTSO-E, the danger can be significantly reduced by saving electricity. The EU energy ministers have decided that all states should save ten percent of electricity consumption and cap consumption by five percent at peak times.
Savings efforts are still falling short of the resolutions. Since October, the decline in electricity consumption has been noticeable. Compared to the years 2014 to 2019, it is in some weeks up to 6.7 percent below. However, the trend is increasing. Energy is being saved mainly in industry settings, less so in private households.
A government plan from early October calls for a 10 percent reduction in energy use over the next two years compared to 2019, including less heating in public buildings, less lighting and colder swimming pools.
But another key to security of supply, according to ENTSO-E, is for EU countries to support each other rather than, say, stop each other from exporting electricity. “If each country were to play for itself, the risks would be much higher,” Bastiaensen said.
France currently imports electricity mainly from Germany and Belgium and partly from Spain and the UK. France has agreed with Germany that Germany will supply electricity and France will supply gas. France’s sovereignty in energy is dwindling. Nicolas Goldberg, an energy expert at Colombus Consulting points out, “The situation is severe.”
The situation is not only tense this winter. For 2023, the outlook is not much better. EDF hopes for a supply of 300 to 330 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy; normally, the production from a nuclear power plant is 370 to 400 TWh.
“Next year, France will have to continue importing,” Goldberg said. For 2024, he said, everything depends on how maintenance work goes, renewable energy is expanded and whether the new pressurized water reactor EPR in Flamanville comes online.
ENTSO-E does not expect any negative effects on Germany. Even in the newly calculated extreme scenario, there would be no load shortfall in Germany. However, neighboring Poland would experience power outages of up to ten hours, and the situation in Sweden would also worsen.
The tense situation in neighboring countries would then also increase the risk for Germany, according to the report. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to secure gas supplies to gas-fired power plants even in the event of a shortage. Tanja Kuchenbecker, Manuel Berkel
Emmanuel Macron was received in Washington with a big station. US President Joe Biden had more than just warm words for his guest from France. He also held out the prospect of improvements to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the US Chips Act. “There are improvements we can make that can basically make it easier for European countries to participate or stand on their own,” Biden said. He and Macron had discussed the issue at length, he said.
The IRA, a roughly $400 billion US climate program, was Macron’s main concern along with the Ukraine war. In the other EU states, too, close attention was paid to whether the French president could achieve changes in implementation in Washington. Following him, the EU Commission delegation led by Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis will now travel to the United States, meeting their US counterparts at the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on Monday (the draft final declaration can be found here).
After the TTC, the EU states then want to make an initial assessment. The issue is likely to occupy the heads of state and government at the EU summit on Dec. 15. This is because there is great concern that many industrial companies prefer to invest abroad in view of the high energy prices in Europe and the enticing calls from Washington (and Beijing).
Top politicians such as Macron and Vestager are currently holding talks with CEOs in an attempt to dissuade the companies. But appeals will hardly suffice. Governments at national and European level must now decide in the short term how to respond. The financial leeway is limited – the EU states have already earmarked €600 billion for aid in the energy crisis alone.
The following options are being discussed:
The EU could take action against the passages in the IRA that link subsidies to production in North America – which is clearly not compatible with World Trade Organization rules. But hardly anyone wants that in the current political world situation, with the possible exception of France.
An EU versus US case at the WTO would generate headlines around the world, but would be unlikely to produce timely results given the paralysis of the Geneva dispute settlement mechanism. At last week’s Trade Council, many ministers stressed that the dispute over the IRA should not undermine transatlantic relations. EU tools such as the Foreign Subsidies Instrument are also inappropriate here, according to Brussels.
The EU could follow Washington’s lead and erect its own hurdles for foreign companies. Macron has been drumming up support for a “Buy European” act for weeks. In Germany, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck shows some sympathy for it.
He brought up the idea of taking criteria such as the carbon footprint into account when promoting the production of solar panels or wind turbines – which would favor “more regional production”. However, the EU could hardly afford to blatantly ignore WTO rules in the process. “We should not copy what we don’t like in others,” warns a senior EU diplomat.
Germany and France are pulling in the same direction here: “We need a second phase of the Green Deal: from regulation to a green industrial policy,” said State Secretary for Economic Affairs Sven Giegold yesterday at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels.
The issue offers a welcome opportunity after the recent dissonances to get the Franco-German engine running again. Even traditionally skeptical states like the Netherlands could get involved, according to diplomats – provided Paris and Berlin coordinate closely with their partners.
The industrial policy approach would hit two birds with one stone: new subsidies for climate-friendly technologies and less bureaucracy.
Berlin and Paris are therefore looking for ways to avoid the problems with state aid law and win over the Commission to their cause. One way: to at least partially Europeanize industrial aid. “Otherwise, we would have unfair competition within Europe between those who can pay and those who can’t,” says Giegold. First, however, the skeptics have to be convinced – in Berlin’s coalition, that’s the FDP.
In terms of financial volume, the IRA and REPowerEU are quite comparable. While the EU Commission is making around €300 billion available, the US government is providing almost $400 billion for a wide range of areas. According to an overview by McKinsey, $250 billion of this will go to the energy sector. Many in the business community see the crucial difference more in the simpler procedures for accessing the funds.
The US logic: Depending on how much a company reduces CO2 emissions, it can reduce its taxes in stages, explains Torsten Oltmanns of the Center for Sustainable Transformation. This is the case with the hydrogen megatrend, for example: As long as the production of one kilogram of hydrogen does not cause more than four kilograms of CO2, tax breaks apply.
The full rebate is available if the CO2 intensity is below 450 grams per kilo of the energy carrier. For the association Hydrogen Europe, the IRA has clear advantages: “This law offers a much clearer, easier to understand funding instrument,” CEO Jorgo Chatzimarkakis said recently in an interview with Europe.Table.
The wind power industry is calling for faster approval procedures in particular – projects with 80 gigawatts are currently waiting for approval in Europe, criticizes the Wind Europe association. In addition, the criteria for the tenders should be changed: Not only the price should decide, but also sustainability criteria. with Manuel Berkel
EU Council President Charles Michel has called on Beijing, during his visit to China, to press Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. “We are counting on China to use its influence,” Michel said after talks with state and party leader Xi Jinping.
He said Xi had clearly assured him that the People’s Republic would not supply weapons to Russia and rejected nuclear threats. “President Xi and I agreed that nuclear threats are unacceptable and highly dangerous.”
The country has a special responsibility as a UN veto power to ensure that the UN Charter is respected, the EU Council president added. The Belgian said he hoped China would use all means in the coming weeks and months to “convince” Russia to end the war and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty. There was no joint press statement after the meeting; both sides issued their own statements.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU has been appealing to the Chinese leadership to put pressure on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. So far, however, with very limited success. Belief in Beijing’s influence had declined massively, especially after the unsuccessful EU-China dialogue in early April.
The EU’s foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell had subsequently dubbed the video summit a “dialogue of the deaf”. A recorded video message by Michel himself, intended for the opening of the export fair in Shanghai, was not shown on purpose. In it, the EU Council leader had called on Russia to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine.
The message from the Chinese side after the meeting also stated that Ukraine was discussed. However, the word “war” was still not used, only a “crisis” was mentioned. During the talks, Xi Jinping insisted on a political solution through negotiations, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Xi was quoted as saying that “resolving the Ukraine crisis by political means is in the best interests of Europe and in the common interests of all countries in Eurasia.” Under the current conditions, escalation and expansion of the crisis must be avoided, Xi said, according to state media.
The devil is in the details: China “supported the EU in strengthening its mediation,” the Chinese statement stated. The People’s Republic also cited an “establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture.” This wording can already be found in a similar way in the joint statement issued by Russia and China at the beginning of February this year, criticizing a possible NATO expansion in Europe.
Another choice of words in the Chinese statement is noteworthy, Justyna Szczudlik, a China analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) in Warsaw, writes on Twitter: it says China is always on the side of peace and will “continue to play a constructive role in its own way,” as Szczudlik writes. She summarizes, “Let me be clear: this is like ‘constructive role with Chinese characteristics’ = endorsing Russia.” Beijing’s timely response to the EU appeal remains unlikely, even after the meeting.
Communication after the meeting also varied on other topics, with the EU Council President assuring that he had addressed the recent protests in China. “In a broader sense, there was an exchange about Covid and the experiences in Europe and China, including the respective measures taken and the response of the societies,” a spokesperson for Michel said after the three-hour meeting. However, the Chinese statement did not mention this point. Members of the EU Parliament, in particular, had called for a clear signal from the EU Council President to the Chinese leadership before Michel’s trip.
Beijing, meanwhile, sought to emphasize the common ground between the two economic blocs. In doing so, Xi sought to show positivity and improve relations with Brussels amid Beijing’s growing rivalry with Washington. Brussels and Beijing have no “real strategic differences or conflicts,” Xi said. He hoped they could join forces to jointly “resist decoupling,” Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media.
At the same time, Michel insisted on more equality and fairness in economic relations with China. There must be equal access for European companies in China and for Chinese companies in the EU’s internal market. The background is complaints from European companies about restrictions in China. “We do not want excessive dependence,” Michel stressed. He also stressed that European companies would be willing to supply vaccines to China if they were approved there.
Accordingly, Xi also came to talk about a permanent construction site: Both sides were working on advancing the CAI investment agreement. This part of the conversation did not make it into the EU’s statement. Michel did, however, have the opportunity to raise the issue of human rights in general. The EU Council President had stressed the universality of fundamental freedoms and “reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to its ‘One-China Policy’ and recalled the EU’s long-standing position on the Taiwan Strait.”
The first meeting was rich in topics, even if a clear focus was missing. For the resumption of personal talks, however, Michel’s visit was a start. The consensus on trade issues emphasized above all by Xi – and subsequently also by the state media – was certainly also intended to send a signal in the direction of Washington. EU and US representatives met there on Thursday for a dialogue on China and the Indo-Pacific.
There is hardly anything ordinary about the La Poesia restaurant, which opened in Paris on Nov. 2, mainly because meals are prepared with products supplied by the Italian organization Libera Terra. The organization manages agricultural land that has been seized from the Mafia.
Even the cuvées are not ordinary: Each bottle honors on the label one of the many victims of the Mafia. In Paris, the fight against the Mafia thus harmonizes from now on with Italian culinary art. This is the task that the restaurant La Poesia, located at 3, Rue de la Fidélité in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, has set itself.
The restaurant, born of a family history between France and Italy, entered into a partnership unprecedented in France with the Italian organization Libera Terra. Libera Terra not only manages agricultural land seized by the judiciary and formerly owned by the Mafia. The organization also unites the work of agricultural cooperatives located on this land and selects them based on their compliance with social and environmental rules.
La Poesia, however, wants to go one step further: The restaurant is currently forging partnerships with French associations that work for social reintegration. The restaurant plans to recruit staff from the people who are under the protection of these associations. This approach mirrors Italian practices of reinvesting money and goods seized from organized crime in social institutions.
The initiative of the restaurant La Poesia raises a question: What to do with goods that have belonged to criminals when the judiciary orders their confiscation? Strategies vary from country to country. France resells them at auctions and recovers the money for the treasury. Italy, where so-called preventive seizures have been in place since 1982 to combat the Mafia, passed a more innovative law in 1996 that allows assets seized from organized crime to be bequeathed to social causes.
This provision, recognized by the European Court of Human Rights in 2014, has become the hallmark of Italian justice. The country thus lists 40,000 seized properties, almost half of which have been redistributed. Thus, prestigious villas with swimming pools are transformed into vacation centers for disadvantaged children, tomato fields or olive trees are stamped “anti-Mafia” for production, or buildings are converted into administrative offices.
The practice is still marginal in France despite the passage of an Italian-style law in 2021, but the Italian idea of social redistribution of goods taken from mobsters is gradually finding its way there. Former Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet was enthusiastic about the idea.
And in February 2020, Macron and then Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met in Naples for bilateral talks and publicly confirmed the project, even before the practical modalities were defined. Currently, the French administration has a long list of apartments, buildings and villas scattered throughout the country, confiscated from Mafiosi.
And as for La Poesia, it is not only a restaurant but also a place of culture. On Dec. 10, two well-known personalities of Italian justice, Antonio Balsamo, President of the Court of Palermo, and Francesco Menditto, Prosecutor of Tivoli, will be present. They will hold a meeting in their honor 30 years after the murder of their colleagues Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
