These are chaotic days in Rome. After ongoing tensions within the governing coalition, the Five Star Movement abstained yesterday from voting on a multi-billion euro economic stimulus package. Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi then announced his resignation, but the president rejected it. Isabel Cuesta Camacho reports on the background of the government crisis and analyzes who could now benefit.
“Time is running out,” Peter Handley, head of the unit for raw materials in DG Grow, told the Industry, Research, and Energy Committee yesterday. Europe needs certain raw materials for the energy and mobility transition – and is thus exposed to the risk of being massively dependent on countries like China or Turkey. The Commission wants to take countermeasures with a raw materials law. Handley presented the first elements of the legislative package yesterday at ITRE, and Leonie Düngefeld summarizes the most important points.
Cocktails flambés in Brussels: the coming weeks will be dominated by the gas crisis. On Wednesday, the Commission will present its plan for “winter preparedness,” and on July 26, an extraordinary meeting of the Energy Council will take place. The negotiations are likely to be intense, writes Claire Stam in her weekly column What’s cooking in Brussels.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced his resignation at a Council of Ministers meeting Thursday evening. Draghi then met with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to inform him of his decision. However, Mattarella refused to accept the resignation.
It is unclear how the situation will proceed from here. Mattarella could even convince Draghi for a second term with a different majority. If this were to happen, the Five Star Movement (M5S) – the main player in this government crisis – would be excluded from the executive branch.
“Today’s vote in Parliament is a very important event from a political point of view. The majority of national unity that has supported this government since its creation is no more,” Draghi said, explaining his decision to resign.
Draghi’s decision follows a week of fierce tensions with the M5S. Giuseppe Conte’s party did not participate Thursday in a vote of confidence in the executive branch, which was also to decide on a major aid package for Italians. The Senate nonetheless confirmed confidence in the executive and the aid package by 172 votes to 39, achieving a majority despite the Five Star boycott.
The political crisis comes at an extremely inopportune time for Italy, as the country has had to revise its growth forecast downward several times and is facing an extremely difficult fall with galloping inflation.
Conte argues his rejection of and dissatisfaction with Draghi’s line has to do with a range of issues, from support for anti-inflation measures to citizens’ income to military support for Ukraine. The latter is said to have been the reason that foreign minister and former M5S member Luigi di Maio left his party at the end of June to back Draghi’s policies.
After Di Maio’s departure, Draghi had warned that he was not prepared to continue leading the government unless the M5S was part of the coalition. Faced with possible early elections, which would help almost none of the parties – especially the Five Star Movement – Conte’s party had initially committed to the coalition government under Draghi. Regular parliamentary elections are scheduled for the spring.
However, Conte had announced on Wednesday evening that his party would abstain from the decision on the aid package and the vote of confidence. In response, Lega Nord leader Matteo Salvini announced that he would leave the coalition government if the M5S did not participate in the vote. The Lega would thus withdraw support from Mario Draghi‘s grand coalition government, which would inevitably lead to early elections.
“If the M5S does not participate in the vote, we will end the majority government: stop the wars, threats, and delays. We must let Italians have their say,” Salvini said. It was an attempt to gain visibility given the loss of support in recent months.
In the event of early elections, the far right would benefit. According to an analysis by Italian media, the elections would currently only benefit the far-right Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Friars of Italy. Her party is currently at about 25 percent in the polls. If the electoral law is not reformed and the right-wing coalition (League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia) remains together, the executive would pass into the hands of this ideological spectrum. Salvini would then be only a minority partner in the coalition.
For months now, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has been talking about the “global race to secure resources” in which Europe must not lag behind. Then, in the RePowerEU plan, the Commission announced a proposal for a raw materials law. Yesterday, Peter Handley, head of the unit for raw materials in DG Grow, presented the first building blocks of the planned legislative package to the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee. The Commission intends to present the draft by the end of the year.
With its draft, the Commission will take up many of the demands from the European Parliament’s report, said Peter Handley. In the legislative package, it wants to
Handley once again summed up what everyone agrees on: “Time is running out.” The gas crisis in Europe has finally turned the spotlight on the quasi-monopolies that countries like China have over supply chains of strategically important raw materials – those on which the European energy and mobility transition hangs.
For no mineral is the situation more critical than for rare earth, Handley said, which are needed to make permanent magnets. Europe needs them for wind turbines, e-vehicles, data centers, and defense and aerospace equipment. Europe is also 100 percent dependent on China for magnesium imports – supply disruptions last year briefly led to production stoppages at European companies. Also high on the list of particularly critical raw materials are niobium (Brazil) and borate (Turkey) of which the EU also imports almost 100 percent.
“We need to do everything we can to keep value creation in Europe,” Handley said. Therefore, he said, the proposal should be based on the principles of circular economy, substitution, and innovation: secondary raw materials should be recycled, and primary raw materials should be replaced by other, less critical minerals if possible.
For European mining projects permitting procedures are the biggest obstacle. “The key is to make permitting more efficient without weakening ESG protection in the process,” Handley said. With the help of the relevant authorities, these procedures should be expedited. Mining, refining, and recycling projects of strategic importance to the EU should be given priority in accessing public funds.
To multiply import sources, strategic partnerships are already in place with Canada, Ukraine, and Namibia. The Commission is also currently negotiating with Norway. There is close cooperation with the USA through a working group in the Trade and Technology Council (TTC). In addition, the USA initiated the Minerals Security Partnership (MSC) in June. Together with Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission, the US wants to use this platform to identify projects and ensure that they are aligned with high ESG standards and circular economy principles.
Handley did not say exactly what form the individual building blocks of the legislative package will take. Important questions remain unanswered. In May the heads of state and government had called on the Commission in the Versailles Declaration to explore strategic stockpiling of critical raw materials. The parliamentary report had also included this.
Rapporteur Hildegard Bentele (EPP) stressed the need to pay even more attention to the governance aspect. “The threads must come together in one place in the EU to create synergies,” her spokeswoman said. “The issue needs to be dealt with horizontally by all commissioners because the goals of the Fit for 55 package all have an impact on raw material needs.” Member states also need to be made more aware. Hardly any current rescue plan contains the topic of raw material extraction.
Manuela Ripa (Greens/EFA) called for concrete targets on recycling capacities. “Although we have discussed a great many raw material strategies in recent years, today we find ourselves more dependent on non-European countries than ever before,” she said. “We must therefore historically end the linear economic model and become the first continent to achieve a circular economy in addition to climate neutrality.”
Cocktail flambés in Brussels. The Brussels Bubble will have to be patient for a bit before it can go on vacation and try to forget at least a little bit about the past turbulent months: next Wednesday, the European Commission will present its plan to reduce energy consumption in the EU, a plan with the sweet code name “winter preparedness.” That’s a week before the extraordinary energy council organized by the Czech presidency. And a day before the Nord Stream 1 pipeline comes back online – or not.
Even as the season of vacations and waterfront cocktails approaches, the geopolitical context remains explosive. Next Wednesday, the European Commission will publish the third part of its energy plan, which aims to make the EU independent from Russia. The first part was presented in March and focused on energy diversification, followed by the presentation of RePowerEU in May, which focused on renewable energy development.
Europe.Table, a first version of the plan is available. It shows the different scenarios, methods, and tools that the European Commission has developed to reduce energy consumption. The plan, to be presented next week, will be high on the agenda of the extraordinary Energy Council on July 26 at the meeting of the energy ministers of the 27 member states in Brussels.
It is currently still being drafted, with three Directorates-General or “DGs” in Brussels jargon involved in particular: DG Climate (Climate Action), DG Energy, and DG Industry. Also the negotiations are likely to be intense, as the aim will be to reconcile security of supply, climate protection, and the economy.
The debates are intense. On one side is Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, who favors rationing industrial production so as not to jeopardize the EU’s efforts to become CO2 neutral by 2050. On the other side is Thierry Breton, her counterpart for the internal market and industry, who fears the impact of such an option and advocates a scenario in which diversification of supply would play a greater role. One thing is certain: a number of EU officials will be working this weekend to ensure that the negotiations ultimately lead to a framework that allows gas reserves to be replenished.
In reality, the EU-wide reservoir level was 62.6 percent as of Wednesday. “But no one knows what can happen in the coming months. That’s why I’m urging member states to step up their preparations, update existing contingency plans and finalize any outstanding bilateral solidarity agreements,” Kadri Simson told MEPs on the Industry Committee earlier this month.
On Monday, Russia’s Gazprom began maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which was presented as a routine measure. However, there is a concern in Brussels and European capitals that the Russian giant may use problems as an excuse to cut off supplies completely after the maintenance work is completed on July 21.
It is a political powder keg for member states to take energy-saving measures to replenish gas reserves and best prepare for winter, as the economic and social consequences could be severe. Indeed, governments will have to make tough choices: Who will be obligated to save energy: Households or businesses? And what categories of businesses? What about schools? What about speed limits on highways? And, and, and…
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday called for a “mobilisation générale” (general mobilization) to reduce energy consumption, announcing that the government will present a plan for energy conservation and relief in the summer. “From now on, I will ask public administrations and all companies that are able to do so to put themselves in a position to consume less,” Macron said. One such measure would be for the administration to try to save on lighting at night.
Last Tuesday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also called on his countrymen to take energy-saving measures. “I will not gloss over the complex situation in which Europe and Spain find themselves, nor will I fall into unfounded catastrophism,” Sánchez said. “We must take energy-saving measures such as expanding telecommuting, promoting public transportation, lowering the temperature of a heating or increasing the temperature in air conditioning systems.”
The question now is how these energy-saving measures will be implemented. No matter how much the European Commission may call for solidarity in the context of the energy, climate, and economic emergency – the handling of masks and vaccines at the beginning of the pandemic showed that this solidarity is anything but self-evident, but it is the only way.
These are chaotic days in Rome. After ongoing tensions within the governing coalition, the Five Star Movement abstained yesterday from voting on a multi-billion euro economic stimulus package. Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi then announced his resignation, but the president rejected it. Isabel Cuesta Camacho reports on the background of the government crisis and analyzes who could now benefit.
“Time is running out,” Peter Handley, head of the unit for raw materials in DG Grow, told the Industry, Research, and Energy Committee yesterday. Europe needs certain raw materials for the energy and mobility transition – and is thus exposed to the risk of being massively dependent on countries like China or Turkey. The Commission wants to take countermeasures with a raw materials law. Handley presented the first elements of the legislative package yesterday at ITRE, and Leonie Düngefeld summarizes the most important points.
Cocktails flambés in Brussels: the coming weeks will be dominated by the gas crisis. On Wednesday, the Commission will present its plan for “winter preparedness,” and on July 26, an extraordinary meeting of the Energy Council will take place. The negotiations are likely to be intense, writes Claire Stam in her weekly column What’s cooking in Brussels.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced his resignation at a Council of Ministers meeting Thursday evening. Draghi then met with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to inform him of his decision. However, Mattarella refused to accept the resignation.
It is unclear how the situation will proceed from here. Mattarella could even convince Draghi for a second term with a different majority. If this were to happen, the Five Star Movement (M5S) – the main player in this government crisis – would be excluded from the executive branch.
“Today’s vote in Parliament is a very important event from a political point of view. The majority of national unity that has supported this government since its creation is no more,” Draghi said, explaining his decision to resign.
Draghi’s decision follows a week of fierce tensions with the M5S. Giuseppe Conte’s party did not participate Thursday in a vote of confidence in the executive branch, which was also to decide on a major aid package for Italians. The Senate nonetheless confirmed confidence in the executive and the aid package by 172 votes to 39, achieving a majority despite the Five Star boycott.
The political crisis comes at an extremely inopportune time for Italy, as the country has had to revise its growth forecast downward several times and is facing an extremely difficult fall with galloping inflation.
Conte argues his rejection of and dissatisfaction with Draghi’s line has to do with a range of issues, from support for anti-inflation measures to citizens’ income to military support for Ukraine. The latter is said to have been the reason that foreign minister and former M5S member Luigi di Maio left his party at the end of June to back Draghi’s policies.
After Di Maio’s departure, Draghi had warned that he was not prepared to continue leading the government unless the M5S was part of the coalition. Faced with possible early elections, which would help almost none of the parties – especially the Five Star Movement – Conte’s party had initially committed to the coalition government under Draghi. Regular parliamentary elections are scheduled for the spring.
However, Conte had announced on Wednesday evening that his party would abstain from the decision on the aid package and the vote of confidence. In response, Lega Nord leader Matteo Salvini announced that he would leave the coalition government if the M5S did not participate in the vote. The Lega would thus withdraw support from Mario Draghi‘s grand coalition government, which would inevitably lead to early elections.
“If the M5S does not participate in the vote, we will end the majority government: stop the wars, threats, and delays. We must let Italians have their say,” Salvini said. It was an attempt to gain visibility given the loss of support in recent months.
In the event of early elections, the far right would benefit. According to an analysis by Italian media, the elections would currently only benefit the far-right Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Friars of Italy. Her party is currently at about 25 percent in the polls. If the electoral law is not reformed and the right-wing coalition (League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia) remains together, the executive would pass into the hands of this ideological spectrum. Salvini would then be only a minority partner in the coalition.
For months now, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has been talking about the “global race to secure resources” in which Europe must not lag behind. Then, in the RePowerEU plan, the Commission announced a proposal for a raw materials law. Yesterday, Peter Handley, head of the unit for raw materials in DG Grow, presented the first building blocks of the planned legislative package to the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee. The Commission intends to present the draft by the end of the year.
With its draft, the Commission will take up many of the demands from the European Parliament’s report, said Peter Handley. In the legislative package, it wants to
Handley once again summed up what everyone agrees on: “Time is running out.” The gas crisis in Europe has finally turned the spotlight on the quasi-monopolies that countries like China have over supply chains of strategically important raw materials – those on which the European energy and mobility transition hangs.
For no mineral is the situation more critical than for rare earth, Handley said, which are needed to make permanent magnets. Europe needs them for wind turbines, e-vehicles, data centers, and defense and aerospace equipment. Europe is also 100 percent dependent on China for magnesium imports – supply disruptions last year briefly led to production stoppages at European companies. Also high on the list of particularly critical raw materials are niobium (Brazil) and borate (Turkey) of which the EU also imports almost 100 percent.
“We need to do everything we can to keep value creation in Europe,” Handley said. Therefore, he said, the proposal should be based on the principles of circular economy, substitution, and innovation: secondary raw materials should be recycled, and primary raw materials should be replaced by other, less critical minerals if possible.
For European mining projects permitting procedures are the biggest obstacle. “The key is to make permitting more efficient without weakening ESG protection in the process,” Handley said. With the help of the relevant authorities, these procedures should be expedited. Mining, refining, and recycling projects of strategic importance to the EU should be given priority in accessing public funds.
To multiply import sources, strategic partnerships are already in place with Canada, Ukraine, and Namibia. The Commission is also currently negotiating with Norway. There is close cooperation with the USA through a working group in the Trade and Technology Council (TTC). In addition, the USA initiated the Minerals Security Partnership (MSC) in June. Together with Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission, the US wants to use this platform to identify projects and ensure that they are aligned with high ESG standards and circular economy principles.
Handley did not say exactly what form the individual building blocks of the legislative package will take. Important questions remain unanswered. In May the heads of state and government had called on the Commission in the Versailles Declaration to explore strategic stockpiling of critical raw materials. The parliamentary report had also included this.
Rapporteur Hildegard Bentele (EPP) stressed the need to pay even more attention to the governance aspect. “The threads must come together in one place in the EU to create synergies,” her spokeswoman said. “The issue needs to be dealt with horizontally by all commissioners because the goals of the Fit for 55 package all have an impact on raw material needs.” Member states also need to be made more aware. Hardly any current rescue plan contains the topic of raw material extraction.
Manuela Ripa (Greens/EFA) called for concrete targets on recycling capacities. “Although we have discussed a great many raw material strategies in recent years, today we find ourselves more dependent on non-European countries than ever before,” she said. “We must therefore historically end the linear economic model and become the first continent to achieve a circular economy in addition to climate neutrality.”
Cocktail flambés in Brussels. The Brussels Bubble will have to be patient for a bit before it can go on vacation and try to forget at least a little bit about the past turbulent months: next Wednesday, the European Commission will present its plan to reduce energy consumption in the EU, a plan with the sweet code name “winter preparedness.” That’s a week before the extraordinary energy council organized by the Czech presidency. And a day before the Nord Stream 1 pipeline comes back online – or not.
Even as the season of vacations and waterfront cocktails approaches, the geopolitical context remains explosive. Next Wednesday, the European Commission will publish the third part of its energy plan, which aims to make the EU independent from Russia. The first part was presented in March and focused on energy diversification, followed by the presentation of RePowerEU in May, which focused on renewable energy development.
Europe.Table, a first version of the plan is available. It shows the different scenarios, methods, and tools that the European Commission has developed to reduce energy consumption. The plan, to be presented next week, will be high on the agenda of the extraordinary Energy Council on July 26 at the meeting of the energy ministers of the 27 member states in Brussels.
It is currently still being drafted, with three Directorates-General or “DGs” in Brussels jargon involved in particular: DG Climate (Climate Action), DG Energy, and DG Industry. Also the negotiations are likely to be intense, as the aim will be to reconcile security of supply, climate protection, and the economy.
The debates are intense. On one side is Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, who favors rationing industrial production so as not to jeopardize the EU’s efforts to become CO2 neutral by 2050. On the other side is Thierry Breton, her counterpart for the internal market and industry, who fears the impact of such an option and advocates a scenario in which diversification of supply would play a greater role. One thing is certain: a number of EU officials will be working this weekend to ensure that the negotiations ultimately lead to a framework that allows gas reserves to be replenished.
In reality, the EU-wide reservoir level was 62.6 percent as of Wednesday. “But no one knows what can happen in the coming months. That’s why I’m urging member states to step up their preparations, update existing contingency plans and finalize any outstanding bilateral solidarity agreements,” Kadri Simson told MEPs on the Industry Committee earlier this month.
On Monday, Russia’s Gazprom began maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which was presented as a routine measure. However, there is a concern in Brussels and European capitals that the Russian giant may use problems as an excuse to cut off supplies completely after the maintenance work is completed on July 21.
It is a political powder keg for member states to take energy-saving measures to replenish gas reserves and best prepare for winter, as the economic and social consequences could be severe. Indeed, governments will have to make tough choices: Who will be obligated to save energy: Households or businesses? And what categories of businesses? What about schools? What about speed limits on highways? And, and, and…
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday called for a “mobilisation générale” (general mobilization) to reduce energy consumption, announcing that the government will present a plan for energy conservation and relief in the summer. “From now on, I will ask public administrations and all companies that are able to do so to put themselves in a position to consume less,” Macron said. One such measure would be for the administration to try to save on lighting at night.
Last Tuesday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also called on his countrymen to take energy-saving measures. “I will not gloss over the complex situation in which Europe and Spain find themselves, nor will I fall into unfounded catastrophism,” Sánchez said. “We must take energy-saving measures such as expanding telecommuting, promoting public transportation, lowering the temperature of a heating or increasing the temperature in air conditioning systems.”
The question now is how these energy-saving measures will be implemented. No matter how much the European Commission may call for solidarity in the context of the energy, climate, and economic emergency – the handling of masks and vaccines at the beginning of the pandemic showed that this solidarity is anything but self-evident, but it is the only way.
