Gas savings plan with leaks + China&#821 • Table.Briefings

Dear reader,

“Europe will not be divided,” said German Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) in response to yesterday’s agreement on a gas plan for the winter: Member states want to save at least 15 percent gas from August until March next year – voluntarily at first, and also mandatory if an EU-wide emergency is declared. But there is a whole range of potential exceptions, as Manuel Berkel analyzes. The savings target of 15 percent is not sufficient anyway, said Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) – it should be 20 percent.

The narrative that China is driving Africa into a debt trap with its loans is a fairly common one. A few weeks ago, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also spoke along these lines and warned of a debt crisis in the Global South triggered by Chinese loans. Katja Scherer has taken a closer look at this thesis and comes to the conclusion: African countries’ debt problems are more likely to be caused by other lenders. Western creditors played a central role.

“We don’t have to be greener than the Greens?” is a phrase Nina Scheer has often heard in the SPD and one that has always annoyed her. She joined the party as a teenager out of ecological interest, and is now the climate protection and energy policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group. Read more about Scheer today’s Profile by Janna Degener-Storr.

Your
Sarah Schaefer

The EU’s leaky gas-saving plan

By

Manuel Berkel

In the end, the Czech Council Presidency actually succeeded. The EU member states want to cut gas consumption by at least 15 percent between August and March of next year – initially voluntarily, and later mandatory in the event of a Union-wide alert. “At the end, everybody understands that this sacrifice is necessary,” said Jozef Síkela, the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, after the energy ministers’ meeting. “We have to and we will share the pain.”

German Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck was pleased with the unity of the EU states. “We will not be divided,” said the Green politician. He called the result a “strong signal against all mockers and despisers of the EU”.

Before the Council meeting, Poland still rejected commitments to save energy. In the end, however, only Budapest opposed the winter plan, said State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs Sven Giegold (Greens). According to a government spokesman, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó even stated that implementation was out of the question for Hungary.

During the public part of the meeting, however, several states backed the idea of a joint procurement platform for gas, including Austria, Portugal and Germany. There were also frequent calls for more financial aid to support companies affected by high energy prices. Luxembourg’s Energy Minister Claude Turmes (Greens), for example, urged the Commission to extend the temporary crisis framework until the summer of 2024.

Exemptions for storage and gas-fired power plants

However, the agreement reached by the 27 was made possible by numerous amendments to the Commission’s proposal. Countries may now request an exemption from the savings target if they

have no connection to the EU gas network (Ireland, Malta, Cyprus). However, according to Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, these countries will not be obliged to save gas even after a Union-wide alert is declared.
have limited connections to the gas market and fully utilize their interconnectors or LNG terminals to transport gas to the rest of the EU market (Spain, Portugal, France, Croatia)
have exceeded their gas storage targets (Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Denmark)
their gas consumption increased by eight percent or more in the past year compared to the previous five years (Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia)
their industries are heavily reliant on gas as feedstock, which would be particularly relevant for Germany
are not connected to the European power grid. This applies to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania if Russia severs the connection to the joint electricity market. However, according to the Czech presidency, this may also include other countries that temporarily have a high demand for gas for power plants in order to stabilize the power supply.

The assessments on the affected states were provided by Bruegel. “This appears to water down parts of the Commission’s original proposal,” Ben McWilliams and Simone Tagliapietra criticized in a joint statement. The hope is that member states will achieve the 15 percent savings voluntarily, the two think tank experts further stated. “Several exemptions might make it difficult to implement a mandatory target.”

Qualified majority required in the Council

Contrary to what information first spread during the Permanent Representatives meeting on Monday afternoon, the Council must now approve the declaration of the Union-wide emergency by a qualified majority, which would make the savings goal mandatory.

The exemption for gas as a feedstock mainly for the industry has been further reinforced by the Permanent Representatives on Monday night. In the “Rev 3” version adopted by ministers, member states are permitted to exclude gas consumption for non-energy purposes from the gas savings calculation. They do not have to request an exemption. The list of individual industries has been removed, as Europe.Table previously reported. However, the new recital 14 b still contains the term “critical industries“, which member states may exclude from the gas savings target.

Another article also calls on members to take long-term potential damage to industrial equipment into account when taking measures to reduce consumption, which is particularly true of glass manufacturing.

Protection for households with district heating

Yesterday, the ministers added a protection for households to the “Room Document”, which is also available to Europe.Table. In the recitals, they clarified that protected consumers should continue to be supplied in the event of a gas shortage even if they are connected to a district heating network. From a purely technical perspective, such networks would be easier to adjust centrally than numerous decentralized gas boilers.

Overall, the energy markets reacted to the agreement with skepticism. Gas prices rose by around 14 percent at times to a four-month high of €202 per megawatt hour. In its wake, the price of Brent crude oil also jumped by up to 2 percent. As a result of the gas shortage, customers have begun to switch to other energy sources such as oil or diesel, said analyst Ricardo Evangelista from the broker firm ActivTrades. Should Russia shut off the gas tap completely, further price hikes have to be expected.

IEA demands a 20 percent reduction

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Europe is already behind schedule, and the 15 percent reduction target is no longer sufficient. “We need to save 20 percent of our gas consumption,” IEA head Fatih Birol told German broadcaster ZDF. “If we don’t take serious action, we could face a major gas supply crisis.”

The industry is already preparing for a lasting and difficult situation. “Germany and Europe are facing a long-term gas shortage,” Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the Executive Board of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said yesterday ahead of the meeting in Brussels. Society, companies, government institutions and private households, would have to save energy wherever possible, he said.

Bruegel previously pointed out that individual states would have to save significantly more gas than 15 percent – for instance, Germany over 20 percent. Following the Federal Network Agency, the German Minister of Economic Affairs Habeck yesterday also indicated for the first time that Germany could exceed the EU target. “In fact, for some countries and I would say for Germany as well, we should try to do better.” with dpa, rtr

Debt in Africa: China’s loans are not the only problem

Chaotic images have come out of Sri Lanka in recent weeks: Angry citizens storming the presidential palace; military forces even opening fire on protestors. The country is in the midst of a severe economic crisis – and one of the reasons for this is the country’s large foreign debt.

The conditions are terrible for the people of Sri Lanka. What is even worse: The situation in the country is – from an economic perspective – not an isolated case. Serious debt crises are currently imminent in many countries in the Global South, warned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently. There was a “real serious risk that the next major debt crisis in the Global South will stem from loans that China has granted around the world and does not have a complete overview of, because there are so many players involved,” Scholz said. This could hurt China and the Global South, and it will also “not leave the rest of the world untouched”.

In the media, this statement took on a life of its own and became a simple narrative. “Scholz: Financial crisis looms over Chinese loans in Africa,” reported the news agency dpa – a headline that several publications, including Zeit Online and SZ.de, copied unchanged. However, this headline is incorrect in several regards. First, studies show that it is by no means only Chinese loans that are causing problems on the African continent. Western creditors also have a part. And second, Scholz was not referring to Africa at all in his statement, but to the “Global South” as a whole. That includes emerging and developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Acute payment problems in seven countries

But since the narrative that Africa faces a debt crisis thanks to China is now out in the world, there is all the more reason to take a closer look at the facts. It is true that many African countries are currently heavily indebted and in some cases even insolvent. This is shown in the AFDB Africa Economic Outlook 2022, which reveals that of the 38 African countries for which data are available, 15 countries exhibited a high debt risk in the spring and 7 countries already have acute payment problems, like Zambia, for example. There, of all places, China does indeed play an important role as a lender. But this is the exception and not the rule.

Data from the prestigious China Africa Research Initiative at the US Johns Hopkins University show: Chinese loans account for less than 33 percent in more than half of African countries with debt problems. “That means the problems are more likely to be caused by lenders other than China,” says South African debt expert Jim Matsemela. He heads the Asset & Liability Management Division at the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI). It is a pan-African organization that provides a platform for peer learning and exchange for African finance, budget and planning ministries.

Nicolas Lippolis from the Department of International Politics at Oxford University comes to the same conclusion. Together with his research colleague Harry Verhoeven, he has examined the role of China in Africa’s debt landscape. His conclusion: “External debt to Eurobond holders increased more than external debt to Chinese creditors between 2011 and 2019.” (China.Table reported) Eurobonds are special bonds traded on international financial markets. African countries can use them to raise debt in international currencies, such as US dollars. Creditors are often asset managers or banks.

Many debts due in the next ten years

The debt of African countries from Eurobonds reached a particularly high level in 2018 and 2019. This can also be read in the book “Where Credit is Due” by investor and emerging markets expert Gregory Smith. At the time, interest rates around the world were low, growth prospects in many African countries were promising – and that global crises such as the Covid pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine would hit any time soon was hardly expected by anyone. “The problem is that now, of all times, when financing conditions have deteriorated significantly, a lot of African countries’ external debt is maturing over the next decade,” says Jim Matsemela. That is likely to render refinancing problematic.

All developing and emerging countries with high foreign debts are currently facing this problem. This also applies to countries in Asia and Latin America. However, the situation on the African continent should be differentiated, says policy expert Nicolas Lippolis. The debt landscape on the continent is diverse; some countries are more heavily indebted to multilateral organizations, others to individual states, and yet others to private creditors.

He assumes that payment defaults in Africa do not automatically entail systemic risks – unlike, for example, in Latin America in the 1980s. “Latin American economies were very large back then,” he says. Most loans to governments had been granted by commercial banks.

So not all experts consider a widespread debt crisis in the global South, as Olaf Scholz predicts, to be equally probable. Nevertheless, it is clear that the problem of high debt must be addressed. To this end, the international community launched the Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI (Common Framework for short) in 2020. It gives countries the option of negotiating debt reductions with creditors on a case-by-case basis. However, this process still lags behind due to disagreements between creditors.

Common Framework little used so far

Political scientist Nicolas Lippolis believes that the West is more to blame than China in this respect. The fact that the Common Framework strongly follows the procedures laid down by the Paris Club – i.e. primarily Western lenders – is a source of potential conflict. In addition, the West does not recognize the Chinese notion that commercial banks are considered private creditors in China. “These banks are very autonomous and profit-driven in their day-to-day lending business, even though the government theoretically has a say.” Lippolis believes the EU and US should do more to keep systemic competition between China and the West out of the Common Framework. “Everyone would benefit from that.”

So far, only Ethiopia, Chad and Zambia have used the Common Framework. Many experts are urgently calling for faster implementation of the initiative. Jim Matsemela of CABRI thinks that African governments also have a responsibility. “They need to accelerate voluntary structural reforms and improve the transparency of their fiscal and debt policies so that international investors continue to have confidence,” he says.

CABRI provides a platform for sovereign debt managers in Africa to address such issues. Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and Mauritius are on a good path, Matsemela says. Kenya, for example, recently had a $235 million loan approved by the International Monetary Fund as a result. Katja Scherer, WirtschaftinAfrika.de

EU extends sanctions against Russia, UK imposes new ones

The European Union will extend its sanctions against Russia’s economy by another six months until the end of January 2023, energy ministers decided at their meeting in Brussels on Tuesday. The sanctions were first imposed in 2014 in the wake of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean and were significantly expanded after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. They include restrictions on finance, energy, transport, technology as well as dual-use and luxury goods.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom issued new sanctions on Tuesday against 29 Russian governors as well as Minister of Justice Konstantin Chukchenko. “We will continue to impose harsh sanctions on those who are trying to legitimize Putin’s illegal invasion until Ukraine prevails,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday.

Chukchenko and his deputy Oleg Sviridenko are being punished for oppressing their own people by cracking down on free speech, the Foreign Office said in London. The governors of various territories allegedly transferred money to the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine under pressure from President Vladimir Putin, facilitating the Russian occupation. Punitive measures were also decided against two senior politicians from the separatist areas.

The British government also placed two nephews of the Russian oligarch, Alisher Usmanov, on the sanctions list, who is said to maintain close ties with Putin. The brothers, Sarvar and Sandzhar Ismailov, are believed to own real estate in upscale London neighborhoods. Sarvar Ismailov also once held a leading role at English first division soccer club FC Everton. rtr/dpa/luk

Tank ‘ring exchange’ with the Czech Republic in final stages

Negotiations between Germany and the Czech Republic on a “tank ring exchange” to support Ukraine are nearing completion, according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. One is “in the finalization phase of the joint contract,” Baerbock said at a press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. In the view of the Foreign Minister, the agreement could serve as a blueprint for agreements with other countries.

Back in May, Germany already agreed with the government in Prague to provide the Czech armed forces with 15 German Leopard 2 tanks in return for the supply of 20 Soviet-designed T-72 tanks to Ukraine. Negotiations on the details, however, are still ongoing. Baerbock stated that the tanks were to be supplied from industrial stocks.

The idea of the so-called ring exchange was born shortly after the start of the Ukraine war in order to supply the country with heavy weapons as quickly as possible. Negotiations were conducted with Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Greece. Baerbock admitted over the weekend that progress was not as swift as originally expected.

Rocket launchers supplied to Ukraine

Lipavský called the ring exchange “an important symbol,” but also said that Soviet-type weapons were running out and were also not of particularly good quality. Thus, it would be appropriate to think about the direct delivery of Western-type weapons to Ukraine. In the meantime, German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has declared that the promised Mars II multiple rocket launchers have been delivered to Ukraine. In addition, another three self-propelled howitzers are also reported to have been delivered.

CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) will also embark on a two-day visit to the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Wednesday. In light of the discontent in Poland over Germany’s role in arms support for Ukraine, Merz intends to seek close contact with the leadership in Warsaw, according to the parliamentary group.

From Poland’s perspective, Berlin is too reluctant to supply weapons. Warsaw also expresses disappointment about another planned ring exchange: It has handed over more than 200 tanks to Ukraine, but is unhappy with the German offer of compensation. dpa

Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz declares default on payments

Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz has declared default on servicing several Eurobonds. The company has not received permission from the Cabinet of Ministers to repay the debts, Naftogaz said in a statement Tuesday. However, the company said it had enough money in its accounts.

More specifically, it concerns the repayment of Eurobonds (and their interest) due this year, as well as interest payments for Eurobonds with a maturity date of 2024. Reportedly, payments of a three-digit million euro amount have been missed. Two weeks ago, the Financial Times reported that Naftogaz requested the holders of bonds worth the equivalent of almost €1.4 billion to defer payments.

Last Thursday, the Ukrainian government ordered Naftogaz managers “due to unsatisfactory work” to obtain approval from the Cabinet of Ministers for all operations. Naftogaz, one of Ukraine’s largest companies, is involved in the production, processing and transportation of natural gas and oil. It is the first default by a Ukrainian state-owned company since the Russian attack five months ago.

In addition, two more state-owned companies, Ukravtodor, a road construction company, and Ukrenerho, an electricity grid operator, have requested deferral of payments for two years each. “The state is now consolidating all existing resources to priority needs,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram. These would include financing the army, preparing for the heating season, paying pensions and rebuilding critical infrastructure. Schmyhal estimated the sums due for payment at the equivalent of just over €1.5 billion. dpa

Gazprom increases pressure on pipeline

Russian gas giant Gazprom has sharply increased pressure in the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline, which supplies Russian gas to Europe, without prior notice. The Ukrainian state pipeline operator made the announcement on Tuesday. Such pressure spikes could lead to emergencies such as pipeline ruptures, and pipeline operators are required to inform each other in advance, the Ukrainian company said.

“Failing to inform the operator in a timely manner carries potential risks to the normal operation of the pipeline,” it said. Details on whether this operation is currently at risk were not provided. Gazprom could not be reached for comment by press time.

Russia continues to pump gas through Ukraine even though the two countries are at war. On Monday, Gazprom stated that its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine amounted to 41.7 million cubic meters (mcm), up from 41.2 mcm the previous day. rtr

Wintershall Dea holds on to Russia business

Oil and gas producer Wintershall Dea does not intend to withdraw from its investments in Russia despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. “Our view on Russian activities has not changed,” said CEO Mario Mehren on Tuesday at the presentation of the company’s half-year figures. He said Wintershall Dea would continue its joint ventures in Russia with Russian gas group Gazprom. The board was committed to protecting Wintershall Dea’s assets in the country and its employees there, Mehren stressed. Walking out of Russia would be a big gift for the government in Moscow, said Mehren.

The Kassel-based company, in which the chemical group BASF holds 72.7 percent and the Letter One investor group of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman 27.3 percent, decided in March to no longer pursue new oil and gas production projects in Russia and to stop payments to the country. Wintershall Dea generated around 51 percent of its total production there in the first half of the year and has stakes in three production projects at the Yuzhno Russkoye natural gas field and the Achimov formation of the Urengoy field in Siberia. The company is also a co-owner of Nord Stream AG, which owns the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea gas pipeline, with a 15.5 percent stake.

Trust in Russia destroyed

Commenting on the controversial reduction of gas supply volume via Nord Stream 1, Mehren said he is not speculating on the reasons for the reduction in shipment volumes. “I have no insight, even as a shareholder of Nord Stream AG, what the real reasons for this reduction are.” Wintershall Dea does not plan to sell shares in the pipeline project, even though Gazprom has destroyed confidence in Russia as a reliable supplier for Europe.

If Europe wants to reduce its dependency on imports, production within the EU is a must, said Mehren. “We need more domestic funding again.” Wintershall Dea is therefore examining all options to increase production from its German fields as quickly as possible. The company is currently producing from 16 oil and around 40 gas fields in Germany and has concentrated its activities on the three most important natural gas and oil production sites in northern Germany. rtr

Romania: Judges’ associations sharply criticize judicial changes

Three associations of judges and prosecutors in Romania have sharply criticized the Justice Ministry’s latest draft court reforms. The proposed regulations were contrary to European Union standards and requirements to which the country has committed itself, said the statement released in Bucharest on Tuesday. “Despite commitments made to the European Commission, almost all of the harmful changes criticized by international bodies over the last few years remain in place,” the judges and prosecutors wrote.

Romania has been embroiled in a dispute for years over the independence of courts and prosecutors’ offices in the fight against corruption. Socialist Prime Minister Liviu Dragnea, who held office from 2015 to 2019, massively restricted the scope of action of the special prosecution offices DIICOT (against organized crime) and DNA (anti-corruption), which had been operating successfully until then. A separate government-appointed disciplinary chamber was also created for judges and prosecutors.

Subsequently, Dragnea himself served a prison sentence for corruption. The following bourgeois-socialist coalition made a commitment to the EU to fully restore the independence of the judiciary. This pledge is also a prerequisite for Romania to receive money from the EU’s Covid recovery funds.

However, the draft laws presented last Thursday did not point in this direction, the judges’ associations noted. Among other things, important judges’ and prosecutors’ offices would continue to be filled by political appointees. In addition, the government-appointed chief public prosecutor would in the future be able to order the special prosecutor’s offices to drop all proceedings. dpa

ECB report warns about climate risks for the financial sector

The European Central Bank (ECB) has warned of the dangers of climate shocks for the stability of the financial system. Sudden price corrections on stock markets resulting from a reassessment of climate risks could hit investment funds and insurers, put companies in distress and lead to credit losses at banks, according to a survey published Tuesday. Based on measurements, the report gave euro-area banks a rather poor mark in terms of reducing their credit exposures to climate-damaging companies.

“These measures suggest that no meaningful reduction in emission intensity in the loan portfolios of euro area banks has taken place in recent years,” the report says. Also, the risks of climate-related credit losses remained clustered in the banking sector. More than 20 percent of potential losses would lie with only five percent of banks in the currency area. The ECB, which has been responsible for supervising the major banks in the euro area since the fall of 2014, has repeatedly urged institutions in the past to address climate risks and improve their risk management.

A disorderly transition to a greener economy, for example, if the carbon price were to rise suddenly and significantly, could see stock market losses for insurers and mutual funds of 3 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of their stress-tested assets in the short term, according to the report. Such market dynamics spiral upward. If sudden climate shocks were to occur, assets could fall quickly and distress selling could also be triggered. According to simulations, “a gradual greening of bank balance sheets, particularly among the most exposed banks, could eliminate the vast majority of transition risk losses”. rtr

Online platform Wish commits to more price transparency

The US company Wish has agreed to become more transparent about its pricing in order to comply with relevant EU consumer regulations. This was announced by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). ACM cooperates closely with the European Commission and the European network of national consumer protection authorities.

Consumers can order fashion, home textiles and electronics on the Wish online platform. The platform is now active in more than 60 countries – including the EU. As part of their regular monitoring of business practices of online platforms, the EU consumer protection authorities identified several problems with EU consumer law at Wish. Consumer watchdogs also raised concerns in connection with the coordinated screening of COVID-related product advertising in 2020.

Wish: no more misleading discounts

After initiating a dialog in April 2021, Wish has now committed to stopping misleading practices. This involves, on the one hand, advertising with fake discounts that are not based, for example, on original prices. And secondly, the use of undisclosed personalized prices based on the behavior and location of customers.

Commissioner for Justice and Consumer Affairs Didier Reynders remarked that “consumers need to be informed upfront about how much they have to pay for a product, including all taxes,” and their decisions must not be based on pretended price reductions. “Price transparency is a key asset for a well-functioning and competitive Single Market, for consumers and businesses alike.” While Reynders welcomed the changes pledged by the company, he expects “continuous efforts on ensuring product safety, in line with their commitments under the Product Safety Pledge“.

Strict requirements for personalized pricing

In this context, ACM pointed out that companies may only use personalized prices under strict transparency conditions. For example, they should clearly indicate the use of such practices before purchase, and consumers must also understand how their personal data influences prices. As a result, Wish decided to stop using these technologies. vis

Nina Scheer – climate protection is social democratic

*Nina Scheer is the climate protection and energy policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group.*

“We don’t have to be greener than the Greens.” Nina Scheer has often heard this remark in her own party. And it has always annoyed her. Her father, the social democrat Hermann Scheer, was committed to renewable energies. Her mother Irm Pontenagel was the Managing Director of Eurosolar. And she joined the SPD when she was 16 years old out of ecological interest. “I didn’t have to separate myself politically from my parents when I was a teenager, because my family background reflected my own convictions on important issues,” says the politician.

As a teenager, Nina Scheer interviewed the Green environmental activist Petra Kelly for the school newspaper. As a student, she worked for the German journal Zeitschrift für Neues Energierecht (ZNER), and dedicated her political scientific dissertation to the topic of “Welthandelsfreiheit vor Umweltschutz?” (World Trade Freedom over Environmental Protection?) After her father’s death, she and her mother founded the Hermann Scheer Foundation, where she still serves as an honorary member of the board.

Later, the now 50-year-old served for more than six years as Managing Director of the German green business association UnternehmensGrün (now the Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft). To this day, the single mother of an 18-year-old considers environmental and energy policy to be a social democratic task at its core. Only recently, the Bundestag passed further legislation on the energy transition with the so-called Easter Package, for which she has fought hard: By 2030, at least 80 percent of electricity is to be generated from renewable energies.

Initiator of the energy transition appeal

When asked about the highlights of her career, Nina Scheer mentions the Sozialdemokratischer Energiewende-Appell (Social Democratic Energy Transition Appeal), which she launched in 2018. On the portal energiewende-appell.de, like-minded individuals can profess that they consider the rapid and comprehensive introduction of renewable energies to be an urgent task. “The appeal now has 1,700 signatories,” says Scheer. “It has strengthened the justice-, freedom- and solidarity-based interpretation of an energy transition at the party’s base.” Many of her comrades shared the view that areas such as resource protection, energy security and the prevention of energy poverty were social democratic tasks.

Besides politics, Nina Scheer has a second passion that has been with her since childhood: music. She first studied the violin, was a member of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra for three years, and freelanced for several years after earning her music degree, while studying law. Ultimately, her life’s path led her away from the concert halls to politics and a seat in the Bundestag. And this leaves little time for other interests. Janna Degener-Storr

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORS

Till
Hoppe

Charlotte
Wirth

Falk
Steiner

Timo
Landenberger

Corinna
Visser

Lukas
Knigge

Eric
Bonse

Sarah
Schaefer

Manuel
Berkel

Lisa-Martina
Klein

Markus
Grabitz

Stephan
Israel

Claire
Stam

Dear reader,

“Europe will not be divided,” said German Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) in response to yesterday’s agreement on a gas plan for the winter: Member states want to save at least 15 percent gas from August until March next year – voluntarily at first, and also mandatory if an EU-wide emergency is declared. But there is a whole range of potential exceptions, as Manuel Berkel analyzes. The savings target of 15 percent is not sufficient anyway, said Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) – it should be 20 percent.

The narrative that China is driving Africa into a debt trap with its loans is a fairly common one. A few weeks ago, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also spoke along these lines and warned of a debt crisis in the Global South triggered by Chinese loans. Katja Scherer has taken a closer look at this thesis and comes to the conclusion: African countries’ debt problems are more likely to be caused by other lenders. Western creditors played a central role.

“We don’t have to be greener than the Greens?” is a phrase Nina Scheer has often heard in the SPD and one that has always annoyed her. She joined the party as a teenager out of ecological interest, and is now the climate protection and energy policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group. Read more about Scheer today’s Profile by Janna Degener-Storr.

Your
Sarah Schaefer

The EU’s leaky gas-saving plan

By

Manuel Berkel

In the end, the Czech Council Presidency actually succeeded. The EU member states want to cut gas consumption by at least 15 percent between August and March of next year – initially voluntarily, and later mandatory in the event of a Union-wide alert. “At the end, everybody understands that this sacrifice is necessary,” said Jozef Síkela, the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, after the energy ministers’ meeting. “We have to and we will share the pain.”

German Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck was pleased with the unity of the EU states. “We will not be divided,” said the Green politician. He called the result a “strong signal against all mockers and despisers of the EU”.

Before the Council meeting, Poland still rejected commitments to save energy. In the end, however, only Budapest opposed the winter plan, said State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs Sven Giegold (Greens). According to a government spokesman, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó even stated that implementation was out of the question for Hungary.

During the public part of the meeting, however, several states backed the idea of a joint procurement platform for gas, including Austria, Portugal and Germany. There were also frequent calls for more financial aid to support companies affected by high energy prices. Luxembourg’s Energy Minister Claude Turmes (Greens), for example, urged the Commission to extend the temporary crisis framework until the summer of 2024.

Exemptions for storage and gas-fired power plants

However, the agreement reached by the 27 was made possible by numerous amendments to the Commission’s proposal. Countries may now request an exemption from the savings target if they

have no connection to the EU gas network (Ireland, Malta, Cyprus). However, according to Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, these countries will not be obliged to save gas even after a Union-wide alert is declared.
have limited connections to the gas market and fully utilize their interconnectors or LNG terminals to transport gas to the rest of the EU market (Spain, Portugal, France, Croatia)
have exceeded their gas storage targets (Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Denmark)
their gas consumption increased by eight percent or more in the past year compared to the previous five years (Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia)
their industries are heavily reliant on gas as feedstock, which would be particularly relevant for Germany
are not connected to the European power grid. This applies to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania if Russia severs the connection to the joint electricity market. However, according to the Czech presidency, this may also include other countries that temporarily have a high demand for gas for power plants in order to stabilize the power supply.

The assessments on the affected states were provided by Bruegel. “This appears to water down parts of the Commission’s original proposal,” Ben McWilliams and Simone Tagliapietra criticized in a joint statement. The hope is that member states will achieve the 15 percent savings voluntarily, the two think tank experts further stated. “Several exemptions might make it difficult to implement a mandatory target.”

Qualified majority required in the Council

Contrary to what information first spread during the Permanent Representatives meeting on Monday afternoon, the Council must now approve the declaration of the Union-wide emergency by a qualified majority, which would make the savings goal mandatory.

The exemption for gas as a feedstock mainly for the industry has been further reinforced by the Permanent Representatives on Monday night. In the “Rev 3” version adopted by ministers, member states are permitted to exclude gas consumption for non-energy purposes from the gas savings calculation. They do not have to request an exemption. The list of individual industries has been removed, as Europe.Table previously reported. However, the new recital 14 b still contains the term “critical industries“, which member states may exclude from the gas savings target.

Another article also calls on members to take long-term potential damage to industrial equipment into account when taking measures to reduce consumption, which is particularly true of glass manufacturing.

Protection for households with district heating

Yesterday, the ministers added a protection for households to the “Room Document”, which is also available to Europe.Table. In the recitals, they clarified that protected consumers should continue to be supplied in the event of a gas shortage even if they are connected to a district heating network. From a purely technical perspective, such networks would be easier to adjust centrally than numerous decentralized gas boilers.

Overall, the energy markets reacted to the agreement with skepticism. Gas prices rose by around 14 percent at times to a four-month high of €202 per megawatt hour. In its wake, the price of Brent crude oil also jumped by up to 2 percent. As a result of the gas shortage, customers have begun to switch to other energy sources such as oil or diesel, said analyst Ricardo Evangelista from the broker firm ActivTrades. Should Russia shut off the gas tap completely, further price hikes have to be expected.

IEA demands a 20 percent reduction

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Europe is already behind schedule, and the 15 percent reduction target is no longer sufficient. “We need to save 20 percent of our gas consumption,” IEA head Fatih Birol told German broadcaster ZDF. “If we don’t take serious action, we could face a major gas supply crisis.”

The industry is already preparing for a lasting and difficult situation. “Germany and Europe are facing a long-term gas shortage,” Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the Executive Board of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said yesterday ahead of the meeting in Brussels. Society, companies, government institutions and private households, would have to save energy wherever possible, he said.

Bruegel previously pointed out that individual states would have to save significantly more gas than 15 percent – for instance, Germany over 20 percent. Following the Federal Network Agency, the German Minister of Economic Affairs Habeck yesterday also indicated for the first time that Germany could exceed the EU target. “In fact, for some countries and I would say for Germany as well, we should try to do better.” with dpa, rtr

Debt in Africa: China’s loans are not the only problem

Chaotic images have come out of Sri Lanka in recent weeks: Angry citizens storming the presidential palace; military forces even opening fire on protestors. The country is in the midst of a severe economic crisis – and one of the reasons for this is the country’s large foreign debt.

The conditions are terrible for the people of Sri Lanka. What is even worse: The situation in the country is – from an economic perspective – not an isolated case. Serious debt crises are currently imminent in many countries in the Global South, warned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently. There was a “real serious risk that the next major debt crisis in the Global South will stem from loans that China has granted around the world and does not have a complete overview of, because there are so many players involved,” Scholz said. This could hurt China and the Global South, and it will also “not leave the rest of the world untouched”.

In the media, this statement took on a life of its own and became a simple narrative. “Scholz: Financial crisis looms over Chinese loans in Africa,” reported the news agency dpa – a headline that several publications, including Zeit Online and SZ.de, copied unchanged. However, this headline is incorrect in several regards. First, studies show that it is by no means only Chinese loans that are causing problems on the African continent. Western creditors also have a part. And second, Scholz was not referring to Africa at all in his statement, but to the “Global South” as a whole. That includes emerging and developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Acute payment problems in seven countries

But since the narrative that Africa faces a debt crisis thanks to China is now out in the world, there is all the more reason to take a closer look at the facts. It is true that many African countries are currently heavily indebted and in some cases even insolvent. This is shown in the AFDB Africa Economic Outlook 2022, which reveals that of the 38 African countries for which data are available, 15 countries exhibited a high debt risk in the spring and 7 countries already have acute payment problems, like Zambia, for example. There, of all places, China does indeed play an important role as a lender. But this is the exception and not the rule.

Data from the prestigious China Africa Research Initiative at the US Johns Hopkins University show: Chinese loans account for less than 33 percent in more than half of African countries with debt problems. “That means the problems are more likely to be caused by lenders other than China,” says South African debt expert Jim Matsemela. He heads the Asset & Liability Management Division at the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI). It is a pan-African organization that provides a platform for peer learning and exchange for African finance, budget and planning ministries.

Nicolas Lippolis from the Department of International Politics at Oxford University comes to the same conclusion. Together with his research colleague Harry Verhoeven, he has examined the role of China in Africa’s debt landscape. His conclusion: “External debt to Eurobond holders increased more than external debt to Chinese creditors between 2011 and 2019.” (China.Table reported) Eurobonds are special bonds traded on international financial markets. African countries can use them to raise debt in international currencies, such as US dollars. Creditors are often asset managers or banks.

Many debts due in the next ten years

The debt of African countries from Eurobonds reached a particularly high level in 2018 and 2019. This can also be read in the book “Where Credit is Due” by investor and emerging markets expert Gregory Smith. At the time, interest rates around the world were low, growth prospects in many African countries were promising – and that global crises such as the Covid pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine would hit any time soon was hardly expected by anyone. “The problem is that now, of all times, when financing conditions have deteriorated significantly, a lot of African countries’ external debt is maturing over the next decade,” says Jim Matsemela. That is likely to render refinancing problematic.

All developing and emerging countries with high foreign debts are currently facing this problem. This also applies to countries in Asia and Latin America. However, the situation on the African continent should be differentiated, says policy expert Nicolas Lippolis. The debt landscape on the continent is diverse; some countries are more heavily indebted to multilateral organizations, others to individual states, and yet others to private creditors.

He assumes that payment defaults in Africa do not automatically entail systemic risks – unlike, for example, in Latin America in the 1980s. “Latin American economies were very large back then,” he says. Most loans to governments had been granted by commercial banks.

So not all experts consider a widespread debt crisis in the global South, as Olaf Scholz predicts, to be equally probable. Nevertheless, it is clear that the problem of high debt must be addressed. To this end, the international community launched the Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI (Common Framework for short) in 2020. It gives countries the option of negotiating debt reductions with creditors on a case-by-case basis. However, this process still lags behind due to disagreements between creditors.

Common Framework little used so far

Political scientist Nicolas Lippolis believes that the West is more to blame than China in this respect. The fact that the Common Framework strongly follows the procedures laid down by the Paris Club – i.e. primarily Western lenders – is a source of potential conflict. In addition, the West does not recognize the Chinese notion that commercial banks are considered private creditors in China. “These banks are very autonomous and profit-driven in their day-to-day lending business, even though the government theoretically has a say.” Lippolis believes the EU and US should do more to keep systemic competition between China and the West out of the Common Framework. “Everyone would benefit from that.”

So far, only Ethiopia, Chad and Zambia have used the Common Framework. Many experts are urgently calling for faster implementation of the initiative. Jim Matsemela of CABRI thinks that African governments also have a responsibility. “They need to accelerate voluntary structural reforms and improve the transparency of their fiscal and debt policies so that international investors continue to have confidence,” he says.

CABRI provides a platform for sovereign debt managers in Africa to address such issues. Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and Mauritius are on a good path, Matsemela says. Kenya, for example, recently had a $235 million loan approved by the International Monetary Fund as a result. Katja Scherer, WirtschaftinAfrika.de

EU extends sanctions against Russia, UK imposes new ones

The European Union will extend its sanctions against Russia’s economy by another six months until the end of January 2023, energy ministers decided at their meeting in Brussels on Tuesday. The sanctions were first imposed in 2014 in the wake of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean and were significantly expanded after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. They include restrictions on finance, energy, transport, technology as well as dual-use and luxury goods.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom issued new sanctions on Tuesday against 29 Russian governors as well as Minister of Justice Konstantin Chukchenko. “We will continue to impose harsh sanctions on those who are trying to legitimize Putin’s illegal invasion until Ukraine prevails,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday.

Chukchenko and his deputy Oleg Sviridenko are being punished for oppressing their own people by cracking down on free speech, the Foreign Office said in London. The governors of various territories allegedly transferred money to the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine under pressure from President Vladimir Putin, facilitating the Russian occupation. Punitive measures were also decided against two senior politicians from the separatist areas.

The British government also placed two nephews of the Russian oligarch, Alisher Usmanov, on the sanctions list, who is said to maintain close ties with Putin. The brothers, Sarvar and Sandzhar Ismailov, are believed to own real estate in upscale London neighborhoods. Sarvar Ismailov also once held a leading role at English first division soccer club FC Everton. rtr/dpa/luk

Tank ‘ring exchange’ with the Czech Republic in final stages

Negotiations between Germany and the Czech Republic on a “tank ring exchange” to support Ukraine are nearing completion, according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. One is “in the finalization phase of the joint contract,” Baerbock said at a press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. In the view of the Foreign Minister, the agreement could serve as a blueprint for agreements with other countries.

Back in May, Germany already agreed with the government in Prague to provide the Czech armed forces with 15 German Leopard 2 tanks in return for the supply of 20 Soviet-designed T-72 tanks to Ukraine. Negotiations on the details, however, are still ongoing. Baerbock stated that the tanks were to be supplied from industrial stocks.

The idea of the so-called ring exchange was born shortly after the start of the Ukraine war in order to supply the country with heavy weapons as quickly as possible. Negotiations were conducted with Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Greece. Baerbock admitted over the weekend that progress was not as swift as originally expected.

Rocket launchers supplied to Ukraine

Lipavský called the ring exchange “an important symbol,” but also said that Soviet-type weapons were running out and were also not of particularly good quality. Thus, it would be appropriate to think about the direct delivery of Western-type weapons to Ukraine. In the meantime, German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has declared that the promised Mars II multiple rocket launchers have been delivered to Ukraine. In addition, another three self-propelled howitzers are also reported to have been delivered.

CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) will also embark on a two-day visit to the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Wednesday. In light of the discontent in Poland over Germany’s role in arms support for Ukraine, Merz intends to seek close contact with the leadership in Warsaw, according to the parliamentary group.

From Poland’s perspective, Berlin is too reluctant to supply weapons. Warsaw also expresses disappointment about another planned ring exchange: It has handed over more than 200 tanks to Ukraine, but is unhappy with the German offer of compensation. dpa

Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz declares default on payments

Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz has declared default on servicing several Eurobonds. The company has not received permission from the Cabinet of Ministers to repay the debts, Naftogaz said in a statement Tuesday. However, the company said it had enough money in its accounts.

More specifically, it concerns the repayment of Eurobonds (and their interest) due this year, as well as interest payments for Eurobonds with a maturity date of 2024. Reportedly, payments of a three-digit million euro amount have been missed. Two weeks ago, the Financial Times reported that Naftogaz requested the holders of bonds worth the equivalent of almost €1.4 billion to defer payments.

Last Thursday, the Ukrainian government ordered Naftogaz managers “due to unsatisfactory work” to obtain approval from the Cabinet of Ministers for all operations. Naftogaz, one of Ukraine’s largest companies, is involved in the production, processing and transportation of natural gas and oil. It is the first default by a Ukrainian state-owned company since the Russian attack five months ago.

In addition, two more state-owned companies, Ukravtodor, a road construction company, and Ukrenerho, an electricity grid operator, have requested deferral of payments for two years each. “The state is now consolidating all existing resources to priority needs,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram. These would include financing the army, preparing for the heating season, paying pensions and rebuilding critical infrastructure. Schmyhal estimated the sums due for payment at the equivalent of just over €1.5 billion. dpa

Gazprom increases pressure on pipeline

Russian gas giant Gazprom has sharply increased pressure in the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline, which supplies Russian gas to Europe, without prior notice. The Ukrainian state pipeline operator made the announcement on Tuesday. Such pressure spikes could lead to emergencies such as pipeline ruptures, and pipeline operators are required to inform each other in advance, the Ukrainian company said.

“Failing to inform the operator in a timely manner carries potential risks to the normal operation of the pipeline,” it said. Details on whether this operation is currently at risk were not provided. Gazprom could not be reached for comment by press time.

Russia continues to pump gas through Ukraine even though the two countries are at war. On Monday, Gazprom stated that its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine amounted to 41.7 million cubic meters (mcm), up from 41.2 mcm the previous day. rtr

Wintershall Dea holds on to Russia business

Oil and gas producer Wintershall Dea does not intend to withdraw from its investments in Russia despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. “Our view on Russian activities has not changed,” said CEO Mario Mehren on Tuesday at the presentation of the company’s half-year figures. He said Wintershall Dea would continue its joint ventures in Russia with Russian gas group Gazprom. The board was committed to protecting Wintershall Dea’s assets in the country and its employees there, Mehren stressed. Walking out of Russia would be a big gift for the government in Moscow, said Mehren.

The Kassel-based company, in which the chemical group BASF holds 72.7 percent and the Letter One investor group of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman 27.3 percent, decided in March to no longer pursue new oil and gas production projects in Russia and to stop payments to the country. Wintershall Dea generated around 51 percent of its total production there in the first half of the year and has stakes in three production projects at the Yuzhno Russkoye natural gas field and the Achimov formation of the Urengoy field in Siberia. The company is also a co-owner of Nord Stream AG, which owns the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea gas pipeline, with a 15.5 percent stake.

Trust in Russia destroyed

Commenting on the controversial reduction of gas supply volume via Nord Stream 1, Mehren said he is not speculating on the reasons for the reduction in shipment volumes. “I have no insight, even as a shareholder of Nord Stream AG, what the real reasons for this reduction are.” Wintershall Dea does not plan to sell shares in the pipeline project, even though Gazprom has destroyed confidence in Russia as a reliable supplier for Europe.

If Europe wants to reduce its dependency on imports, production within the EU is a must, said Mehren. “We need more domestic funding again.” Wintershall Dea is therefore examining all options to increase production from its German fields as quickly as possible. The company is currently producing from 16 oil and around 40 gas fields in Germany and has concentrated its activities on the three most important natural gas and oil production sites in northern Germany. rtr

Romania: Judges’ associations sharply criticize judicial changes

Three associations of judges and prosecutors in Romania have sharply criticized the Justice Ministry’s latest draft court reforms. The proposed regulations were contrary to European Union standards and requirements to which the country has committed itself, said the statement released in Bucharest on Tuesday. “Despite commitments made to the European Commission, almost all of the harmful changes criticized by international bodies over the last few years remain in place,” the judges and prosecutors wrote.

Romania has been embroiled in a dispute for years over the independence of courts and prosecutors’ offices in the fight against corruption. Socialist Prime Minister Liviu Dragnea, who held office from 2015 to 2019, massively restricted the scope of action of the special prosecution offices DIICOT (against organized crime) and DNA (anti-corruption), which had been operating successfully until then. A separate government-appointed disciplinary chamber was also created for judges and prosecutors.

Subsequently, Dragnea himself served a prison sentence for corruption. The following bourgeois-socialist coalition made a commitment to the EU to fully restore the independence of the judiciary. This pledge is also a prerequisite for Romania to receive money from the EU’s Covid recovery funds.

However, the draft laws presented last Thursday did not point in this direction, the judges’ associations noted. Among other things, important judges’ and prosecutors’ offices would continue to be filled by political appointees. In addition, the government-appointed chief public prosecutor would in the future be able to order the special prosecutor’s offices to drop all proceedings. dpa

ECB report warns about climate risks for the financial sector

The European Central Bank (ECB) has warned of the dangers of climate shocks for the stability of the financial system. Sudden price corrections on stock markets resulting from a reassessment of climate risks could hit investment funds and insurers, put companies in distress and lead to credit losses at banks, according to a survey published Tuesday. Based on measurements, the report gave euro-area banks a rather poor mark in terms of reducing their credit exposures to climate-damaging companies.

“These measures suggest that no meaningful reduction in emission intensity in the loan portfolios of euro area banks has taken place in recent years,” the report says. Also, the risks of climate-related credit losses remained clustered in the banking sector. More than 20 percent of potential losses would lie with only five percent of banks in the currency area. The ECB, which has been responsible for supervising the major banks in the euro area since the fall of 2014, has repeatedly urged institutions in the past to address climate risks and improve their risk management.

A disorderly transition to a greener economy, for example, if the carbon price were to rise suddenly and significantly, could see stock market losses for insurers and mutual funds of 3 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of their stress-tested assets in the short term, according to the report. Such market dynamics spiral upward. If sudden climate shocks were to occur, assets could fall quickly and distress selling could also be triggered. According to simulations, “a gradual greening of bank balance sheets, particularly among the most exposed banks, could eliminate the vast majority of transition risk losses”. rtr

Online platform Wish commits to more price transparency

The US company Wish has agreed to become more transparent about its pricing in order to comply with relevant EU consumer regulations. This was announced by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). ACM cooperates closely with the European Commission and the European network of national consumer protection authorities.

Consumers can order fashion, home textiles and electronics on the Wish online platform. The platform is now active in more than 60 countries – including the EU. As part of their regular monitoring of business practices of online platforms, the EU consumer protection authorities identified several problems with EU consumer law at Wish. Consumer watchdogs also raised concerns in connection with the coordinated screening of COVID-related product advertising in 2020.

Wish: no more misleading discounts

After initiating a dialog in April 2021, Wish has now committed to stopping misleading practices. This involves, on the one hand, advertising with fake discounts that are not based, for example, on original prices. And secondly, the use of undisclosed personalized prices based on the behavior and location of customers.

Commissioner for Justice and Consumer Affairs Didier Reynders remarked that “consumers need to be informed upfront about how much they have to pay for a product, including all taxes,” and their decisions must not be based on pretended price reductions. “Price transparency is a key asset for a well-functioning and competitive Single Market, for consumers and businesses alike.” While Reynders welcomed the changes pledged by the company, he expects “continuous efforts on ensuring product safety, in line with their commitments under the Product Safety Pledge“.

Strict requirements for personalized pricing

In this context, ACM pointed out that companies may only use personalized prices under strict transparency conditions. For example, they should clearly indicate the use of such practices before purchase, and consumers must also understand how their personal data influences prices. As a result, Wish decided to stop using these technologies. vis

Nina Scheer – climate protection is social democratic

“We don’t have to be greener than the Greens.” Nina Scheer has often heard this remark in her own party. And it has always annoyed her. Her father, the social democrat Hermann Scheer, was committed to renewable energies. Her mother Irm Pontenagel was the Managing Director of Eurosolar. And she joined the SPD when she was 16 years old out of ecological interest. “I didn’t have to separate myself politically from my parents when I was a teenager, because my family background reflected my own convictions on important issues,” says the politician.

As a teenager, Nina Scheer interviewed the Green environmental activist Petra Kelly for the school newspaper. As a student, she worked for the German journal Zeitschrift für Neues Energierecht (ZNER), and dedicated her political scientific dissertation to the topic of “Welthandelsfreiheit vor Umweltschutz?” (World Trade Freedom over Environmental Protection?) After her father’s death, she and her mother founded the Hermann Scheer Foundation, where she still serves as an honorary member of the board.

Later, the now 50-year-old served for more than six years as Managing Director of the German green business association UnternehmensGrün (now the Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft). To this day, the single mother of an 18-year-old considers environmental and energy policy to be a social democratic task at its core. Only recently, the Bundestag passed further legislation on the energy transition with the so-called Easter Package, for which she has fought hard: By 2030, at least 80 percent of electricity is to be generated from renewable energies.

Initiator of the energy transition appeal

When asked about the highlights of her career, Nina Scheer mentions the Sozialdemokratischer Energiewende-Appell (Social Democratic Energy Transition Appeal), which she launched in 2018. On the portal energiewende-appell.de, like-minded individuals can profess that they consider the rapid and comprehensive introduction of renewable energies to be an urgent task. “The appeal now has 1,700 signatories,” says Scheer. “It has strengthened the justice-, freedom- and solidarity-based interpretation of an energy transition at the party’s base.” Many of her comrades shared the view that areas such as resource protection, energy security and the prevention of energy poverty were social democratic tasks.

Besides politics, Nina Scheer has a second passion that has been with her since childhood: music. She first studied the violin, was a member of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra for three years, and freelanced for several years after earning her music degree, while studying law. Ultimately, her life’s path led her away from the concert halls to politics and a seat in the Bundestag. And this leaves little time for other interests. Janna Degener-Storr