Today, in our fall preview, we focus on EU transport policy. A swift agreement is expected between the EU Parliament and the Council on the proposals to phase out internal combustion engines in 2035 and tighten CO2 fleet limits for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. The situation is likely to be different with regard to the dossier on the development of a public charging infrastructure (AFIR). The Commission’s pending proposals, such as for pollutant regulation in transport (Euro 7) and CO2 fleet regulation for heavy-duty vehicles, are eagerly awaited. Markus Grabitz provides an overview of the timetables and possible lines of conflict.
“Golden Power Rules” – that’s what Italy’s FDI screening mechanism is called. Under Mario Draghi, the country has screened investments from China relatively strictly. Since he took office in February 2021, this has prevented three Chinese takeovers, among other things. The critical approach to China could intensify significantly after the parliamentary election, as Amelie Richter analyzes: Favorite Giorgia Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia, has run on a clear anti-China approach and has shown that she is also likely to be confrontational regarding China’s Taiwan policy.
The top position at Agora Energiewende was vacant after longtime head Patrick Graichen moved to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as State Secretary. Now Frauke Thies heads the think tank as part of a dual leadership team. Her focus is on Brussels, from where she is to strengthen Agora’s European work. The main topic currently on the experts’ minds is: How do we get through the energy crisis in a way that makes sense in terms of climate policy? Read more about Thies in today’s profile by Sarah Tekath.
The Commission’s Fit for 55 package car-related proposals are in the home stretch of the legislative process. The two key instruments aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90 percent by 2030 are at risk. The co-legislators – the EU Parliament and the Council – are expected to reach an agreement on the first dossier quickly, which involves phasing out internal combustion engines by 2035 and tightening CO2 fleet limits for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
The situation is different for the second dossier, which deals with the development of a public charging infrastructure (AFIR). The Parliament will vote on the report only in the second week of session in October (from 18.10.). Once the vote has been held, the schedule for the trilogue will be drawn up.
Schedule: At today’s meeting of Ertug with the shadow rapporteurs, a compromise text is to be carpentered, which will be voted on in committee on October 3. If things go quickly, the vote will take place in the Strasbourg plenum in the second week of October. The trilogue will start in November at the earliest and will certainly not be completed by the Czech Council presidency by Christmas. A result is not expected until spring 2023 at the earliest.
The Commission’s proposal requires member states to create a minimum number of charging points for e-fleets and hydrogen vehicles in the public space along the main roads. The number is based on the respective fleet size of the vehicles with the alternative drives. More charging capacity is to be provided for pure EVs (BEV) than for plug-in hybrids. The minimum distance between charging stations will also be defined.
The supply of liquid methane and the establishment of power supply for aircraft in parking and waiting positions as well as ships in inland and seaports are also to be regulated. Potential for conflict: The member states are more likely to put on the brakes, the Parliament wants to move forward more ambitiously and would also like to enforce penalties of €1,000 for each charging point that has not been created.
Actors: Frans Timmermans (Vice-President of the Commission, responsible for the Green Deal); rapporteur Ismail Ertug (SPD); shadow rapporteur Jens Gieseke (CDU); the responsible committee in the EP: Transport Committee (TRAN)
The AFIR proposal is dated July 14, 2021.
Schedule: Rapporteur Jan Huitema is expected to announce the first trilogue dates at Thursday’s ENVI meeting. It is expected that a maximum of three trilogue meetings will be needed to reach an agreement. It is becoming apparent what will be agreed upon: Parliament and member states want no more passenger cars with combustion engines to be newly registered in the EU from 2035. Additionally, manufacturers are to reduce CO2 emissions from new passenger cars by a further 55 percent between 2021 and 2030 and by 50 percent for vans. The Parliament’s chief negotiator also wants to introduce binding interim targets in 2027 but is unlikely to succeed in the trilogue.
One point of contention is synthetic fuels. Parliament and the Commission do not want manufacturers to be able to count the use of synthetic fuels toward the CO2 balance of fleets. The environment ministers of the 27 member states have asked the Commission to make a proposal for the market ramp-up of synthetic fuels. For the proposal to still be integrated into legislation, it would have to come quickly. But that is difficult to predict.
Actors: Frans Timmermans (Vice-President of the Commission, responsible for the Green Deal); rapporteur Jan Huitema (Liberals); shadow rapporteur Jens Gieseke (CDU); responsible committee in the EP: Environment Committee (ENVI). The Committees for Transport (TRAN) and Industry (ITRE) deliver opinions.
The Commission submitted its proposal for CO2 fleet regulation on July 14, 2021.
The Commission proposes to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels in large ships of 5000 gross tons or more from 2025. In a resolution, the Parliament calls for a move away from heavy fuel oil in shipping and more investment for the decarbonization of shipping.
Actors: In Parliament, the Transport Committee (TRAN) is responsible; rapporteur Jörgen Warborn (EPP, Sweden), the Industry (ITRE) and Environment (ENVI) Committees are involved. The TRAN Committee is scheduled to vote in October, the plenary in November.
As part of the Fit for 55 package, the Commission proposes to take measures for the use of sustainable fuels in aviation. This is intended to create a level playing field for sustainable aviation. The measures are called the ReFuelEU Aviation Initiative.
Actors: In Parliament, the Transport Committee (TRAN) is the lead committee. The rapporteur is Søren Gade (Liberal, Denmark).
Also part of Fit-for 55 is the Commission’s effort to increase the involvement of European-based airlines in CORSIA, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) carbon footprint reduction scheme. To this end, the provisions in the aviation Emissions Trading System (ETS) are to be amended to require member states to inform EU-based airlines of their offset obligations under CORSIA.
Actors: In Parliament, the Environment Committee is responsible. The rapporteur is Sunčana Glavak (EPP, Croatia).
It is planned that the Commission will present its proposal for the next stage of pollutant regulation in transport (Euro 7) on October 12. This would affect passenger cars, vans, buses and commercial vehicles – both internal combustion engines and, for example, EVs with regard to tire wear. In the meantime, however, there are initial indications from the Commission that the deadline will be postponed again. The number of pollutants covered is to be expanded and the limits tightened. The industry is waiting for the Euro 7 proposal; it needs planning certainty.
On October 26, the Commission plans to present its proposal for the Air Quality Directive. It is envisaged that the air quality standards will be brought closer to the very strict recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). The question is whether the Commission will propose a 1:1 implementation of the limit values.
The proposal for CO2 fleet regulation for heavy commercial vehicles is due on November 30. As with passenger cars and delivery vans, this again raises the question of from which year no more trucks with combustion engines should be registered in the EU. There is also the question of which technologies the Commission will allow for decarbonization: Battery electric as well as trucks with fuel cells are set. It is questionable how the Commission will deal with the hydrogen engine and synthetic fuels in commercial vehicles. with Claire Stam
China’s share of direct investment in the European Union declined last year. In 2021, the People’s Republic accounted for just 2.3 percent of all foreign acquisitions, according to a new report by the EU Commission. In 2020, it was still 3.4 percent. In the greenfield sector, investment fell from 7.1 percent to 6 percent. Greenfield investment is a term used to describe the construction or expansion of new or existing plants with a focus on production. However, the value of FDI from China increased: While €6.5 billion were invested in 2020, the figure was around €9 billion in 2021.
According to the Brussels authority, strict Chinese capital controls and the concentration on certain core industries have reduced direct investment from the People’s Republic. The explanation of the development also includes: Some EU states have strengthened their audit mechanisms and are looking more closely at potential investments. Under Mario Draghi’s government, Italy was considered a good example in this regard.
Draghi has used the “Golden Power Rules” – as Italy’s FDI screening mechanism is called – more than any of the previous heads of government. Since he took office in February 2021, the investment checks have been applied to prevent three Chinese takeovers and the terms of a stake increase by an existing shareholder. Another acquisition was reversed altogether, even though it was completed before Draghi’s tenure.
“Italy’s Golden Power has been subject to numerous updates since its introduction in 2012,” says Francesca Ghiretti, an analyst at Berlin-based China research institute Merics. Italy has one of the most effective foreign investment review mechanisms in the European Union.
However, for the revision of EU-wide guidelines scheduled for 2023, the Italian approach may only be limited: Because FDI screening is based on national security and decided in capitals, Brussels can never go as far as individual member states themselves, Ghiretti explains. Thus, the revision of the EU’s investment screening can take the Italian approach as a model at most.
The Golden Power Rules are far from perfect, Ghiretti said. “The decisions about which investments to block and which to renegotiate are very political and depend on who is running the country at the time. It can then go either way.” Thus Italy, the screening model student, could soon undergo a transformation.
How Rome will deal with FDI screening and foreign investment in the future will be particularly interesting to see after the election at the end of September – because with the quite likely election victory of the right-wing populist alliance under Giorgia Meloni, a “schizophrenic” China policy, as Ghiretti calls it, could move into the Palazzo Chigi.
On September 25, Italy will elect a new parliament. It will then appoint the head of government – or, as is now the case, possibly Italy’s first female head of government. The favored candidate is the 45-year-old right-wing populist Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia, has so far taken a clear anti-China stance. However, her alliance partner Matteo Salvini of the right-wing populist Lega party and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi have pursued a rather erratic China policy in the past, says Merics analyst Ghiretti. “One day he was speaking out against China, the next day, he was in favor of it,” Ghiretti says, referring to Lega leader Salvini, who has already served as Italy’s Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister from June 2018 to September 2019.
That the right-wing populist alliance could also use its China policy as leverage against Brussels would not be a big surprise, Ghiretti says. The past’s inconsistent policies and contradictory statements of the three alliance partners toward Beijing make it difficult to predict the coming China policy under a possible Prime Minister Meloni.
Since 2014, Giorgia Meloni has headed Fratelli d’Italia, a party she co-founded two years earlier. Fratelli describes itself as a “national conservative, nationalist, traditionalist, post-fascist and sovereignist party.” In the EU Parliament, its members are represented in the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformers party, among others, together with the Polish ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
Meloni’s policies are often compared to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: ultraconservative family views, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-migration. When it comes to China, however, the 45-year-old has a different mindset than Hungary’s head of government, says Italian journalist Giulia Pompili, who has closely followed China’s activities in her home country for years: “Something like what happened with Fudan University in Budapest would never happen with Meloni.”
A bitter dispute erupted in Hungary’s capital over the planned establishment of a Hungarian offshoot of China’s Fudan University (China.Table reported). While Orbán’s right-wing nationalist government is pushing ahead with the construction, angry citizens criticized that this would fund an institution controlled by the Chinese Communist Party with Hungarian taxpayers’ money. The Italian right-wing populist Meloni was instead going “Trumpian,” as in “Italy First”.
Because of that focus, the possible next prime minister has also been virtually absent from foreign policy stages so far, Pompili says. “She has been very focused on Italian affairs until now,” says Pompili. But for a few weeks, she says, China has moved into the 45-year-old’s circle of attention – and she’s going all in. At the end of July, Meloni posted a photo on Twitter with Andrea Sing-Ying Lee, Taiwan’s representative in Italy. What is particularly striking about this is that Meloni herself refers to him as an “ambassador” – a phrase that is not well received in Beijing. Meloni clearly wanted to send a signal, says journalist Pompili.
The impact direction of Italy’s next possible prime minister will also affect foreign investment: “My guess is that under a Meloni government, direct investment from China will fall dramatically,” says Pompili – regardless if not the entire leadership will originate from the right-wing populist Fratelli d’Italia.
It is not yet clear who will fill the post of the foreign minister if Meloni, Berlusconi, and Salvini win the election. However, Meloni has put former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata on her electoral list. This does not mean that the latter will fill the post again. However, the 76-year-old, who is known for a clear anti-China policy, moves inside the right-wing populist’s inner circle.
Meloni’s election campaign is currently benefiting greatly from the lack of a plan on the part of the centrists around Enrico Letta. “Letta hardly ever speaks out on foreign policy or China,” says journalist Pompili. Within the Democrats, she says, no real position is discernible. Letta has spoken out in favor of protecting foreign investments and critical infrastructure in Italy at the same time – however, a precise roadmap is not available with Letta, Pompili says.
Even though Frauke Thies only started her job a few weeks ago, a kind of typical daily routine has already emerged. During the day, the week is packed with appointments, meetings and events with decision-makers and researchers from the energy and climate sector. In the evenings, she tries to spend time with her family.
Since July 1, 2022, Frauke Thies heads Agora Energiewende in a dual leadership role with the previous managing director Markus Steigenberger. The position had become vacant after the think tank’s longtime head, Patrick Graichen, moved to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as State Secretary.
As environmental scientist and economist, she brings a wealth of experience gained over more than ten years working for various organizations in the climate change and energy sectors. Most recently, she managed the climate protection portfolio of the Open Society Foundations in Europe. Previously, she was, among other things, managing director of the European business association for digital and decentralized energy solutions, smartEn, and policy director at Solarpower Europe.
At Agora Energiewende, Thies will now strengthen the think tank’s European work. To this end, she works primarily in the Brussels office. Frauke Thies knows her way around here: She has lived in the Brussels area for years – with her partner and three children.
Agora is in dialogue with people from politics, science, business and civil society to advance climate neutrality in Germany, Europe and worldwide. “Ultimately, we are concerned with shaping politically implementable solutions,” says Thies. The experts develop scientifically sound analyses and seek discussion with affected stakeholders to identify what the key steps toward climate neutrality are, what framework conditions are necessary to achieve them, and what measures can further accelerate the transformation.
Due to the current political situation, however, the experts in the think tank are currently focusing on measures to get through the energy crisis responsibly. These include concepts for gas savings in households and industry, for example, via heat pumps. “Climate protection and energy security go hand in hand. We are working to ensure that the solutions currently being discussed in Germany and Europe make sense in terms of climate policy,” says Thies.
The topic of climate change and the environment has occupied Frauke Thies since her school days. At that time, the nuclear phase-out was a big topic. When she was still in school, she went to demonstrations and organized events on the topic of nuclear energy. At the University of Lüneburg, where she studied environmental sciences, she organized a lecture series on the topic of transformation, with speakers from science and business.
However, delving into topics is not just something Thies does in her professional life but also in her private life. In her free time, she enjoys discussing things with friends and having long conversations. If there is still some time left in the evening after her youngest child has gone to bed, she likes to pick up a good book. It can even be something entertaining: “I’m a pretty non-discriminating reader,” she says and laughs. Sarah Tekath
Today, in our fall preview, we focus on EU transport policy. A swift agreement is expected between the EU Parliament and the Council on the proposals to phase out internal combustion engines in 2035 and tighten CO2 fleet limits for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. The situation is likely to be different with regard to the dossier on the development of a public charging infrastructure (AFIR). The Commission’s pending proposals, such as for pollutant regulation in transport (Euro 7) and CO2 fleet regulation for heavy-duty vehicles, are eagerly awaited. Markus Grabitz provides an overview of the timetables and possible lines of conflict.
“Golden Power Rules” – that’s what Italy’s FDI screening mechanism is called. Under Mario Draghi, the country has screened investments from China relatively strictly. Since he took office in February 2021, this has prevented three Chinese takeovers, among other things. The critical approach to China could intensify significantly after the parliamentary election, as Amelie Richter analyzes: Favorite Giorgia Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia, has run on a clear anti-China approach and has shown that she is also likely to be confrontational regarding China’s Taiwan policy.
The top position at Agora Energiewende was vacant after longtime head Patrick Graichen moved to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as State Secretary. Now Frauke Thies heads the think tank as part of a dual leadership team. Her focus is on Brussels, from where she is to strengthen Agora’s European work. The main topic currently on the experts’ minds is: How do we get through the energy crisis in a way that makes sense in terms of climate policy? Read more about Thies in today’s profile by Sarah Tekath.
The Commission’s Fit for 55 package car-related proposals are in the home stretch of the legislative process. The two key instruments aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90 percent by 2030 are at risk. The co-legislators – the EU Parliament and the Council – are expected to reach an agreement on the first dossier quickly, which involves phasing out internal combustion engines by 2035 and tightening CO2 fleet limits for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
The situation is different for the second dossier, which deals with the development of a public charging infrastructure (AFIR). The Parliament will vote on the report only in the second week of session in October (from 18.10.). Once the vote has been held, the schedule for the trilogue will be drawn up.
Schedule: At today’s meeting of Ertug with the shadow rapporteurs, a compromise text is to be carpentered, which will be voted on in committee on October 3. If things go quickly, the vote will take place in the Strasbourg plenum in the second week of October. The trilogue will start in November at the earliest and will certainly not be completed by the Czech Council presidency by Christmas. A result is not expected until spring 2023 at the earliest.
The Commission’s proposal requires member states to create a minimum number of charging points for e-fleets and hydrogen vehicles in the public space along the main roads. The number is based on the respective fleet size of the vehicles with the alternative drives. More charging capacity is to be provided for pure EVs (BEV) than for plug-in hybrids. The minimum distance between charging stations will also be defined.
The supply of liquid methane and the establishment of power supply for aircraft in parking and waiting positions as well as ships in inland and seaports are also to be regulated. Potential for conflict: The member states are more likely to put on the brakes, the Parliament wants to move forward more ambitiously and would also like to enforce penalties of €1,000 for each charging point that has not been created.
Actors: Frans Timmermans (Vice-President of the Commission, responsible for the Green Deal); rapporteur Ismail Ertug (SPD); shadow rapporteur Jens Gieseke (CDU); the responsible committee in the EP: Transport Committee (TRAN)
The AFIR proposal is dated July 14, 2021.
Schedule: Rapporteur Jan Huitema is expected to announce the first trilogue dates at Thursday’s ENVI meeting. It is expected that a maximum of three trilogue meetings will be needed to reach an agreement. It is becoming apparent what will be agreed upon: Parliament and member states want no more passenger cars with combustion engines to be newly registered in the EU from 2035. Additionally, manufacturers are to reduce CO2 emissions from new passenger cars by a further 55 percent between 2021 and 2030 and by 50 percent for vans. The Parliament’s chief negotiator also wants to introduce binding interim targets in 2027 but is unlikely to succeed in the trilogue.
One point of contention is synthetic fuels. Parliament and the Commission do not want manufacturers to be able to count the use of synthetic fuels toward the CO2 balance of fleets. The environment ministers of the 27 member states have asked the Commission to make a proposal for the market ramp-up of synthetic fuels. For the proposal to still be integrated into legislation, it would have to come quickly. But that is difficult to predict.
Actors: Frans Timmermans (Vice-President of the Commission, responsible for the Green Deal); rapporteur Jan Huitema (Liberals); shadow rapporteur Jens Gieseke (CDU); responsible committee in the EP: Environment Committee (ENVI). The Committees for Transport (TRAN) and Industry (ITRE) deliver opinions.
The Commission submitted its proposal for CO2 fleet regulation on July 14, 2021.
The Commission proposes to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels in large ships of 5000 gross tons or more from 2025. In a resolution, the Parliament calls for a move away from heavy fuel oil in shipping and more investment for the decarbonization of shipping.
Actors: In Parliament, the Transport Committee (TRAN) is responsible; rapporteur Jörgen Warborn (EPP, Sweden), the Industry (ITRE) and Environment (ENVI) Committees are involved. The TRAN Committee is scheduled to vote in October, the plenary in November.
As part of the Fit for 55 package, the Commission proposes to take measures for the use of sustainable fuels in aviation. This is intended to create a level playing field for sustainable aviation. The measures are called the ReFuelEU Aviation Initiative.
Actors: In Parliament, the Transport Committee (TRAN) is the lead committee. The rapporteur is Søren Gade (Liberal, Denmark).
Also part of Fit-for 55 is the Commission’s effort to increase the involvement of European-based airlines in CORSIA, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) carbon footprint reduction scheme. To this end, the provisions in the aviation Emissions Trading System (ETS) are to be amended to require member states to inform EU-based airlines of their offset obligations under CORSIA.
Actors: In Parliament, the Environment Committee is responsible. The rapporteur is Sunčana Glavak (EPP, Croatia).
It is planned that the Commission will present its proposal for the next stage of pollutant regulation in transport (Euro 7) on October 12. This would affect passenger cars, vans, buses and commercial vehicles – both internal combustion engines and, for example, EVs with regard to tire wear. In the meantime, however, there are initial indications from the Commission that the deadline will be postponed again. The number of pollutants covered is to be expanded and the limits tightened. The industry is waiting for the Euro 7 proposal; it needs planning certainty.
On October 26, the Commission plans to present its proposal for the Air Quality Directive. It is envisaged that the air quality standards will be brought closer to the very strict recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). The question is whether the Commission will propose a 1:1 implementation of the limit values.
The proposal for CO2 fleet regulation for heavy commercial vehicles is due on November 30. As with passenger cars and delivery vans, this again raises the question of from which year no more trucks with combustion engines should be registered in the EU. There is also the question of which technologies the Commission will allow for decarbonization: Battery electric as well as trucks with fuel cells are set. It is questionable how the Commission will deal with the hydrogen engine and synthetic fuels in commercial vehicles. with Claire Stam
China’s share of direct investment in the European Union declined last year. In 2021, the People’s Republic accounted for just 2.3 percent of all foreign acquisitions, according to a new report by the EU Commission. In 2020, it was still 3.4 percent. In the greenfield sector, investment fell from 7.1 percent to 6 percent. Greenfield investment is a term used to describe the construction or expansion of new or existing plants with a focus on production. However, the value of FDI from China increased: While €6.5 billion were invested in 2020, the figure was around €9 billion in 2021.
According to the Brussels authority, strict Chinese capital controls and the concentration on certain core industries have reduced direct investment from the People’s Republic. The explanation of the development also includes: Some EU states have strengthened their audit mechanisms and are looking more closely at potential investments. Under Mario Draghi’s government, Italy was considered a good example in this regard.
Draghi has used the “Golden Power Rules” – as Italy’s FDI screening mechanism is called – more than any of the previous heads of government. Since he took office in February 2021, the investment checks have been applied to prevent three Chinese takeovers and the terms of a stake increase by an existing shareholder. Another acquisition was reversed altogether, even though it was completed before Draghi’s tenure.
“Italy’s Golden Power has been subject to numerous updates since its introduction in 2012,” says Francesca Ghiretti, an analyst at Berlin-based China research institute Merics. Italy has one of the most effective foreign investment review mechanisms in the European Union.
However, for the revision of EU-wide guidelines scheduled for 2023, the Italian approach may only be limited: Because FDI screening is based on national security and decided in capitals, Brussels can never go as far as individual member states themselves, Ghiretti explains. Thus, the revision of the EU’s investment screening can take the Italian approach as a model at most.
The Golden Power Rules are far from perfect, Ghiretti said. “The decisions about which investments to block and which to renegotiate are very political and depend on who is running the country at the time. It can then go either way.” Thus Italy, the screening model student, could soon undergo a transformation.
How Rome will deal with FDI screening and foreign investment in the future will be particularly interesting to see after the election at the end of September – because with the quite likely election victory of the right-wing populist alliance under Giorgia Meloni, a “schizophrenic” China policy, as Ghiretti calls it, could move into the Palazzo Chigi.
On September 25, Italy will elect a new parliament. It will then appoint the head of government – or, as is now the case, possibly Italy’s first female head of government. The favored candidate is the 45-year-old right-wing populist Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia, has so far taken a clear anti-China stance. However, her alliance partner Matteo Salvini of the right-wing populist Lega party and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi have pursued a rather erratic China policy in the past, says Merics analyst Ghiretti. “One day he was speaking out against China, the next day, he was in favor of it,” Ghiretti says, referring to Lega leader Salvini, who has already served as Italy’s Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister from June 2018 to September 2019.
That the right-wing populist alliance could also use its China policy as leverage against Brussels would not be a big surprise, Ghiretti says. The past’s inconsistent policies and contradictory statements of the three alliance partners toward Beijing make it difficult to predict the coming China policy under a possible Prime Minister Meloni.
Since 2014, Giorgia Meloni has headed Fratelli d’Italia, a party she co-founded two years earlier. Fratelli describes itself as a “national conservative, nationalist, traditionalist, post-fascist and sovereignist party.” In the EU Parliament, its members are represented in the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformers party, among others, together with the Polish ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
Meloni’s policies are often compared to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: ultraconservative family views, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-migration. When it comes to China, however, the 45-year-old has a different mindset than Hungary’s head of government, says Italian journalist Giulia Pompili, who has closely followed China’s activities in her home country for years: “Something like what happened with Fudan University in Budapest would never happen with Meloni.”
A bitter dispute erupted in Hungary’s capital over the planned establishment of a Hungarian offshoot of China’s Fudan University (China.Table reported). While Orbán’s right-wing nationalist government is pushing ahead with the construction, angry citizens criticized that this would fund an institution controlled by the Chinese Communist Party with Hungarian taxpayers’ money. The Italian right-wing populist Meloni was instead going “Trumpian,” as in “Italy First”.
Because of that focus, the possible next prime minister has also been virtually absent from foreign policy stages so far, Pompili says. “She has been very focused on Italian affairs until now,” says Pompili. But for a few weeks, she says, China has moved into the 45-year-old’s circle of attention – and she’s going all in. At the end of July, Meloni posted a photo on Twitter with Andrea Sing-Ying Lee, Taiwan’s representative in Italy. What is particularly striking about this is that Meloni herself refers to him as an “ambassador” – a phrase that is not well received in Beijing. Meloni clearly wanted to send a signal, says journalist Pompili.
The impact direction of Italy’s next possible prime minister will also affect foreign investment: “My guess is that under a Meloni government, direct investment from China will fall dramatically,” says Pompili – regardless if not the entire leadership will originate from the right-wing populist Fratelli d’Italia.
It is not yet clear who will fill the post of the foreign minister if Meloni, Berlusconi, and Salvini win the election. However, Meloni has put former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata on her electoral list. This does not mean that the latter will fill the post again. However, the 76-year-old, who is known for a clear anti-China policy, moves inside the right-wing populist’s inner circle.
Meloni’s election campaign is currently benefiting greatly from the lack of a plan on the part of the centrists around Enrico Letta. “Letta hardly ever speaks out on foreign policy or China,” says journalist Pompili. Within the Democrats, she says, no real position is discernible. Letta has spoken out in favor of protecting foreign investments and critical infrastructure in Italy at the same time – however, a precise roadmap is not available with Letta, Pompili says.
Even though Frauke Thies only started her job a few weeks ago, a kind of typical daily routine has already emerged. During the day, the week is packed with appointments, meetings and events with decision-makers and researchers from the energy and climate sector. In the evenings, she tries to spend time with her family.
Since July 1, 2022, Frauke Thies heads Agora Energiewende in a dual leadership role with the previous managing director Markus Steigenberger. The position had become vacant after the think tank’s longtime head, Patrick Graichen, moved to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as State Secretary.
As environmental scientist and economist, she brings a wealth of experience gained over more than ten years working for various organizations in the climate change and energy sectors. Most recently, she managed the climate protection portfolio of the Open Society Foundations in Europe. Previously, she was, among other things, managing director of the European business association for digital and decentralized energy solutions, smartEn, and policy director at Solarpower Europe.
At Agora Energiewende, Thies will now strengthen the think tank’s European work. To this end, she works primarily in the Brussels office. Frauke Thies knows her way around here: She has lived in the Brussels area for years – with her partner and three children.
Agora is in dialogue with people from politics, science, business and civil society to advance climate neutrality in Germany, Europe and worldwide. “Ultimately, we are concerned with shaping politically implementable solutions,” says Thies. The experts develop scientifically sound analyses and seek discussion with affected stakeholders to identify what the key steps toward climate neutrality are, what framework conditions are necessary to achieve them, and what measures can further accelerate the transformation.
Due to the current political situation, however, the experts in the think tank are currently focusing on measures to get through the energy crisis responsibly. These include concepts for gas savings in households and industry, for example, via heat pumps. “Climate protection and energy security go hand in hand. We are working to ensure that the solutions currently being discussed in Germany and Europe make sense in terms of climate policy,” says Thies.
The topic of climate change and the environment has occupied Frauke Thies since her school days. At that time, the nuclear phase-out was a big topic. When she was still in school, she went to demonstrations and organized events on the topic of nuclear energy. At the University of Lüneburg, where she studied environmental sciences, she organized a lecture series on the topic of transformation, with speakers from science and business.
However, delving into topics is not just something Thies does in her professional life but also in her private life. In her free time, she enjoys discussing things with friends and having long conversations. If there is still some time left in the evening after her youngest child has gone to bed, she likes to pick up a good book. It can even be something entertaining: “I’m a pretty non-discriminating reader,” she says and laughs. Sarah Tekath
