Industrial electricity price + CBAM + Hy • Table.Briefings

Dear reader,

Robert Habeck is on the road again as energy ambassador. This week, he is going to Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan. One key topic is set to be renewable energies, but once again, it is also about the supply of natural gas. Israel has a deposit that is easy to explore. However, to be able to supply the raw material to Europe in the foreseeable future, the country would have to cooperate with neighboring states.

Meanwhile in Berlin, Habeck’s officials have recently already been sounding out the feasibility of a far-reaching proposal behind the scenes – a guaranteed industrial electricity price. Over the weekend, the ministry published the call for tenders for a detailed expert opinion. I’ve written about which industrial sectors are to be involved in our News section.

Important votes on the Fit for 55 package are coming up in the EU Parliament this week, including the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Our digital and climate experts Falk Steiner and Lukas Scheid analyze how the rules for the CBAM could be aligned with Europe’s data policy.

Climate policy will also be one of the most important work areas for the new Chief Executive of the BDI. Tanja Gönner is to succeed Joachim Lang in the summer. Read our Profile of the former Minister for Social Affairs and the Environment in Baden-Württemberg.

Your
Manuel Berkel

Europe’s data policy: model for CBAM?

The fact that the European Union can introduce and establish global standards can be considered proven. The best example of this is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Anyone who wants to process personal data in EU countries is subject to it anyway. Anyone who wants to do this from outside and process data in a third country is also bound by these rules. This is because it is not the country of origin principle that applies, but the so-called market location principle.

Companies, regardless of where they are headquartered, must comply with the requirements of the GDPR. The penalties for providers who violate it can basically run into the billions. The supervisory authorities in the member states can impose the fines; they must check compliance with the rules regardless of political guidelines.

In the case of the CBAM, it is not penalties that are intended to encourage companies to reduce CO2 emissions, but a customs duty. This is levied as soon as a product is imported into the EU for sale. Although this duty is also intended to bring money into the EU’s coffers, ideally the CBAM would have another effect: Companies want to avoid the costs of carbon border adjustment in the enormously important EU internal market, so they could make their production climate-neutral, according to the idea. The CBAM is thus intended to act as an incentive for climate-friendly production beyond European borders – in much the same way that the GDPR has ensured fairer data policies internationally.

In Turkey, this has already had an effect before the CBAM was even introduced (Europe.Table reported). The EU is the country’s most important export market, and in order not to jeopardize this, Turkey has introduced a CO2 price for parts of its industry. The model: the EU. And the first steps have already been taken to introduce a CO2 price in the Balkans as well. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and northern Macedonia also export large quantities to the EU and are going down this path because of the planned carbon border adjustment.

Climate clubs: adequacy model based on GDPR model

However, the GDPR is also an interesting governance model for the CBAM in other respects. It also provides for interoperability with regulations in other jurisdictions. The core of the model is the so-called adequacy: The EU Commission can officially determine that the specifications in another state offer an adequate level that does not deviate significantly in its effectiveness from the level of the EU regulations.

The climate clubs could take on a similar function. Members would be granted exemptions from the CO2 limit offset – even if the standards of the partner countries are not fully in line with those of Europe. Europe would nevertheless be a pioneer since only those countries that are making serious efforts to decarbonize industry would be admitted to the climate club. At least, that is the idea, but its effectiveness has yet to be proven. The EU’s data policy was once similar.

While skepticism that the EU would actually be able to enforce its rules prevailed when the GDPR was adopted in 2016, the perspective has changed significantly. The GDPR is now regarded worldwide as the regulatory standard that companies follow.

Actions before the ECJ conceivable

And the attempt to certify as adequate for political reasons what is not comparable has also gone thoroughly wrong: In the summer of 2021, the European Court of Justice overturned the adequacy decision with the United States. Its guarantees for effective data protection were not sufficient, it reasoned: The US has no federal regulation worth mentioning that guarantees non-US citizens protection of their data. The Commission and the Biden administration are currently working intensively on a new regulation – because without one, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft would soon face a major problem.

Following this model, lawsuits before the ECJ against the granting of CBAM exemptions would therefore also be conceivable if a country is exempted from the CO2 border tariff without corresponding decarbonization strategies. Provided that the legal texts on the CBAM are watertight and clearly state that exemptions may only be granted for climate club members if the production of the imports is actually climate-friendly. The difficulty here is that production facilities abroad would have to be certified and verifiable at great expense.

Data policy model for EU legislation

Even without a corresponding legal framework in the country of origin, companies can subject themselves to EU rules. This is made possible by standard contractual clauses and binding corporate rules. With these, a company can indicate its processes and is thus allowed to operate on the market. However, it must also fear high penalties if it violates the rules.

Penalties are also foreseen for CBAM if border customs certificates have been “incorrectly paid or incorrectly used”. But the basic principle is to apply: Every company that produces climate-friendly products should be allowed to export to the European market in a WTO-compatible manner, without disadvantages compared to European manufacturers.

So there are three elements that make the GDPR a potential model for a CBAM governance mechanism. First, effective enforcement of the rules internally and externally. Second, interoperability with regulations of others, subject to strict conditions. And third, the possibility for companies to be subject to European regulation for doing business in the EU, regardless of the quality of the legal framework in the country of origin. These mechanisms all serve the same goal: to create a level playing field, a market that is as undistorted as possible for all players active in the EU.

The GDPR is a model for an effective EU governance model to enforce own interests. Hardly any company is willing to give up doing business throughout Europe. Neither Google nor Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple have ever seriously considered this.

And so, producers of goods are also unlikely to lose interest in the European market as a result of the CBAM. This is a powerful lever, as more and more European politicians, Commissioners, and staff have recognized. And so similar ideas can also be found in more recent EU legislative acts. Most recently, for example, the adequacy decisions in the Data Governance Act or the methods for the best possible coordination and a prevention of member state sabotage by weak regulators in the Digital Services Act. Falk Steiner and Lukas Scheid

Spain opens Europe’s largest hydrogen plant

By

Isabel Cuesta Camacho

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola inaugurated what the company says is Europe’s largest green hydrogen plant for industrial use in the city of Puertollano in the Castilla-La Mancha region in mid-May. The 20-megawatt electrolyzer will produce up to 3,000 tons of green hydrogen per year. It will be fed by a 100-megawatt photovoltaic plant at the same site. The hydrogen will be used in a Fertiberia ammonia plant, enabling the production of fertilizers.

“Iberdrola is committed to the development of green hydrogen and aims to be a world leader in this technology,” a spokesperson for the company told Europe.Table. “Iberdrola currently has a portfolio of green hydrogen projects that require investments of €9 billion by 2030, with the goal of producing up to 400,000 tons of green hydrogen per year,” the company said. This energy carrier is intended to reach those uses where electrification is not possible or is not the most efficient solution, especially in industry and heavy transport, it said.

The first industrial plant for green hydrogen in Spain was already inaugurated in March in Lloseta on Mallorca. The goal of the public-private partnership, supported by Acciona and Enagás, among others, is to produce 300 tons of green hydrogen per year from photovoltaic electricity. The project “Power to Green Hydrogen Mallorca” includes the construction of an electrolysis plant, the development of two photovoltaic systems to operate it, and a green hydrogen refueling station on the island. Possible applications include supplying bus fleets with clean fuel and generating heat and electricity for commercial and public buildings.

Hydrogen for €1.80 per kilogram

The country in the southwest of the continent wants to further expand its role in the production of green hydrogen. “Spain could sell green hydrogen for €1.80 per kilogram in 2030,” Javier Brey, president of the Spanish Hydrogen Association (AeH2), tells Europe.Table. Aurora Energy Research predicts that Spain will have the second-lowest prices for hydrogen production by electrolysis in Europe, after Norway and ahead of wind-powered Britain, starting in 2030.

Brey highlights three factors that could make Spain a pioneer in the production of green hydrogen compared to its European neighbors: the high share of renewables in the energy mix, Spain’s geographic location with its ports for the import of hydrogen, and its derivatives, and finally, its capacity for innovation. “Spain publishes 3.8 percent of the world’s scientific papers on hydrogen technology. We have companies active in the entire hydrogen value chain,” says Brey.

Electrolysis with German participation

One of the goals of Spain’s hydrogen strategy is to build four gigawatts of production capacity for green hydrogen. That would already be one-tenth of the total 40 gigawatts that the EU has set as a target for 2030. Spanish energy companies already have dozens of projects in their portfolios. Nearly 40 percent of the 5,200 megawatts of renewable hydrogen production capacity announced in Europe since last summer is in Spain, as Bank of America data show.

The country aims to produce around 310,000 tons of green hydrogen by 2030. The Asturias region in northwestern Spain has been selected to initiate the world’s largest renewable hydrogen project. “HyDeal Spain” is the first part of “HyDeal Ambition“, a large-scale initiative in which France and Germany will also participate. The huge project is being driven by 30 companies, including steel giant ArcelorMittal, grid operator Enagás, fertilizer producer Fertiberia and DH2 Energy.

BMWK examines industrial electricity price

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) considers the introduction of a guaranteed industrial electricity price. In consultation with industry representatives from the metals, building materials, and chemicals sectors, experts are to evaluate a proposal by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). However, the focus is not on the current high energy prices but on the medium- to long-term prospects for energy-intensive companies. That’s according to a ministry request for proposals for a consulting contract published Sunday. The availability of green electricity at competitive prices is crucial for companies to invest in climate-neutral production processes, it said.

The DIW model is intended to provide financial security and is based on so-called contracts for difference (CfDs). The state pays participating companies the difference to the exchange electricity price if this is higher than the price agreed with the state. In the opposite case, the companies would have to pay into the public coffers. Compared with other models, electricity costs for participating companies could be reduced by 30 percent, the ministry writes, citing the DIW.

During the election campaign, the current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had still set a target of an industrial electricity price of four cents per kilowatt hour. However, just last Tuesday, at the Economic Council of Germany, Federal Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) was critical of a subsidized industrial electricity price with a price cap like the one in France. The DIW model, on the other hand, is supposed to be budget-neutral, according to the Ministry for Economic Affairs. The concept of double-differential contracts for industrial companies and investors for renewable energies is also similar to a thesis paper of the “Green Business Dialogue”, which is cited in the current call for proposals. ber

Data Governance Act officially announced

With its publication in the Official Journal, the Data Governance Act has now completed its final formal step. The DGA, the text of which was agreed by the Council and Parliament in the trilogue shortly before the end of 2021, primarily defines the framework conditions for the stronger data exchange envisaged by the EU. The most important subject of regulation is the rules for the markets for the exchange of non-personal data, which are then to be opened up by the Data Act, among other things, and the framework conditions for supervision and enforcement of the rules.

The Data Act proposed by the Commission at the end of February 2022 will then contain the specific regulations under which conditions data can and should be shared by which private actors such as companies, for example, from industrial processes or sensor technology. Discussions on the Data Act are not yet far advanced in Parliament, and the debates in the Council have only just begun.

Parts of the DGA now require member states to make adjustments in national law, for example, when it comes to making public data sets accessible, insofar as these go beyond the PSI Directive. But the establishment of data altruistic organizations also requires national legal alignment. The Federal Republic must also have designated an authority responsible for the DGA by the time it enters into force and must have provided it with the necessary resources.

At the same time, the EU Commission itself also has to do some preparatory work, such as implementing legislation, which must provide the necessary details and possible adequacy decisions for international data markets. Only when these steps have been taken can the DGA, as envisaged in the text of the law, actually come into full force in September 2023 – it is still planned that the Data Act will also take effect at this time. fst

BusinessEurope: Persson new president

The business association BusinessEurope will have a new president from July. The Swede Fredrik Persson replaces the Frenchman Pierre Gattaz at the top, as the association announced on Friday. Persson, 54, is president of the International Chamber of Commerce of Sweden and a board member of several companies, including Electrolux. He began his career in the finance sector. His predecessor, engineer Pierre Gattaz, was unable to run again after a four-year term.

“It is fundamental that the EU pursues an ambitious competitiveness agenda to deliver wealth for its citizens and to manage the transition towards a sustainable future, building upon a strong EU single market,” Persson said, according to a BusinessEurope release. “Strong and competitive companies are a prerequisite for peace and prosperity, a resilient and sustainable Europe and a strong economy, jobs and welfare.”

New head of BDI with green credentials

Tanja Gönner will be the first woman to head the Federation of German Industries (BDI). The CDU politician and former state minister for Baden-Württemberg is to take over the vacant position at Germany’s most influential industry association starting this summer. Her predecessor Joachim Lang left the post on May 31.

It is to be expected that Gönner will lead the BDI into a greener future. “The transformation to climate neutrality, the challenges in the international context and acceptance in society” is what the 52-year-old sees as her main tasks in her new role. In her current job as spokeswoman for the board of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ), Gönner has already advocated for a green reconstruction of the global economy after the COVID pandemic. She frequently stresses that economic policy must always be climate policy as well.

Gönner has headed the GIZ since 2012. In a press release, she stated that she had found her time at GIZ very enriching, but that she now wanted to pursue new career paths after ten years.

Born in 1969 in Sigmaringen, Tanja Gönner began her career after school with an apprenticeship as a legal officer. She then studied law at the Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen and, after passing her state exam and completing her legal clerkship, worked for a law firm.

Alongside her legal career, she early on also pursued a political one. In 1986, she joined the Junge Union (Young Union of Germany), and has been a member of the CDU since 1987, including serving on the national board from 2000 to 2012. Between 2002 and 2004, she was a member of the German Bundestag.

In 2004, she was appointed Minister of Social Affairs in Baden-Württemberg. From February 2010 to May 2011, Tanja Gönner served as Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Gönner’s appointment to the BDI leadership is to be made at the suggestion of BDI President Siegfried Russwurm at the meeting of the BDI Presidium and Executive Board on June 20.

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,

Robert Habeck is on the road again as energy ambassador. This week, he is going to Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan. One key topic is set to be renewable energies, but once again, it is also about the supply of natural gas. Israel has a deposit that is easy to explore. However, to be able to supply the raw material to Europe in the foreseeable future, the country would have to cooperate with neighboring states.

Meanwhile in Berlin, Habeck’s officials have recently already been sounding out the feasibility of a far-reaching proposal behind the scenes – a guaranteed industrial electricity price. Over the weekend, the ministry published the call for tenders for a detailed expert opinion. I’ve written about which industrial sectors are to be involved in our News section.

Important votes on the Fit for 55 package are coming up in the EU Parliament this week, including the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Our digital and climate experts Falk Steiner and Lukas Scheid analyze how the rules for the CBAM could be aligned with Europe’s data policy.

Climate policy will also be one of the most important work areas for the new Chief Executive of the BDI. Tanja Gönner is to succeed Joachim Lang in the summer. Read our Profile of the former Minister for Social Affairs and the Environment in Baden-Württemberg.

Your
Manuel Berkel

Europe’s data policy: model for CBAM?

The fact that the European Union can introduce and establish global standards can be considered proven. The best example of this is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Anyone who wants to process personal data in EU countries is subject to it anyway. Anyone who wants to do this from outside and process data in a third country is also bound by these rules. This is because it is not the country of origin principle that applies, but the so-called market location principle.

Companies, regardless of where they are headquartered, must comply with the requirements of the GDPR. The penalties for providers who violate it can basically run into the billions. The supervisory authorities in the member states can impose the fines; they must check compliance with the rules regardless of political guidelines.

In the case of the CBAM, it is not penalties that are intended to encourage companies to reduce CO2 emissions, but a customs duty. This is levied as soon as a product is imported into the EU for sale. Although this duty is also intended to bring money into the EU’s coffers, ideally the CBAM would have another effect: Companies want to avoid the costs of carbon border adjustment in the enormously important EU internal market, so they could make their production climate-neutral, according to the idea. The CBAM is thus intended to act as an incentive for climate-friendly production beyond European borders – in much the same way that the GDPR has ensured fairer data policies internationally.

In Turkey, this has already had an effect before the CBAM was even introduced (Europe.Table reported). The EU is the country’s most important export market, and in order not to jeopardize this, Turkey has introduced a CO2 price for parts of its industry. The model: the EU. And the first steps have already been taken to introduce a CO2 price in the Balkans as well. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and northern Macedonia also export large quantities to the EU and are going down this path because of the planned carbon border adjustment.

Climate clubs: adequacy model based on GDPR model

However, the GDPR is also an interesting governance model for the CBAM in other respects. It also provides for interoperability with regulations in other jurisdictions. The core of the model is the so-called adequacy: The EU Commission can officially determine that the specifications in another state offer an adequate level that does not deviate significantly in its effectiveness from the level of the EU regulations.

The climate clubs could take on a similar function. Members would be granted exemptions from the CO2 limit offset – even if the standards of the partner countries are not fully in line with those of Europe. Europe would nevertheless be a pioneer since only those countries that are making serious efforts to decarbonize industry would be admitted to the climate club. At least, that is the idea, but its effectiveness has yet to be proven. The EU’s data policy was once similar.

While skepticism that the EU would actually be able to enforce its rules prevailed when the GDPR was adopted in 2016, the perspective has changed significantly. The GDPR is now regarded worldwide as the regulatory standard that companies follow.

Actions before the ECJ conceivable

And the attempt to certify as adequate for political reasons what is not comparable has also gone thoroughly wrong: In the summer of 2021, the European Court of Justice overturned the adequacy decision with the United States. Its guarantees for effective data protection were not sufficient, it reasoned: The US has no federal regulation worth mentioning that guarantees non-US citizens protection of their data. The Commission and the Biden administration are currently working intensively on a new regulation – because without one, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft would soon face a major problem.

Following this model, lawsuits before the ECJ against the granting of CBAM exemptions would therefore also be conceivable if a country is exempted from the CO2 border tariff without corresponding decarbonization strategies. Provided that the legal texts on the CBAM are watertight and clearly state that exemptions may only be granted for climate club members if the production of the imports is actually climate-friendly. The difficulty here is that production facilities abroad would have to be certified and verifiable at great expense.

Data policy model for EU legislation

Even without a corresponding legal framework in the country of origin, companies can subject themselves to EU rules. This is made possible by standard contractual clauses and binding corporate rules. With these, a company can indicate its processes and is thus allowed to operate on the market. However, it must also fear high penalties if it violates the rules.

Penalties are also foreseen for CBAM if border customs certificates have been “incorrectly paid or incorrectly used”. But the basic principle is to apply: Every company that produces climate-friendly products should be allowed to export to the European market in a WTO-compatible manner, without disadvantages compared to European manufacturers.

So there are three elements that make the GDPR a potential model for a CBAM governance mechanism. First, effective enforcement of the rules internally and externally. Second, interoperability with regulations of others, subject to strict conditions. And third, the possibility for companies to be subject to European regulation for doing business in the EU, regardless of the quality of the legal framework in the country of origin. These mechanisms all serve the same goal: to create a level playing field, a market that is as undistorted as possible for all players active in the EU.

The GDPR is a model for an effective EU governance model to enforce own interests. Hardly any company is willing to give up doing business throughout Europe. Neither Google nor Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple have ever seriously considered this.

And so, producers of goods are also unlikely to lose interest in the European market as a result of the CBAM. This is a powerful lever, as more and more European politicians, Commissioners, and staff have recognized. And so similar ideas can also be found in more recent EU legislative acts. Most recently, for example, the adequacy decisions in the Data Governance Act or the methods for the best possible coordination and a prevention of member state sabotage by weak regulators in the Digital Services Act. Falk Steiner and Lukas Scheid

Spain opens Europe’s largest hydrogen plant

By

Isabel Cuesta Camacho

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola inaugurated what the company says is Europe’s largest green hydrogen plant for industrial use in the city of Puertollano in the Castilla-La Mancha region in mid-May. The 20-megawatt electrolyzer will produce up to 3,000 tons of green hydrogen per year. It will be fed by a 100-megawatt photovoltaic plant at the same site. The hydrogen will be used in a Fertiberia ammonia plant, enabling the production of fertilizers.

“Iberdrola is committed to the development of green hydrogen and aims to be a world leader in this technology,” a spokesperson for the company told Europe.Table. “Iberdrola currently has a portfolio of green hydrogen projects that require investments of €9 billion by 2030, with the goal of producing up to 400,000 tons of green hydrogen per year,” the company said. This energy carrier is intended to reach those uses where electrification is not possible or is not the most efficient solution, especially in industry and heavy transport, it said.

The first industrial plant for green hydrogen in Spain was already inaugurated in March in Lloseta on Mallorca. The goal of the public-private partnership, supported by Acciona and Enagás, among others, is to produce 300 tons of green hydrogen per year from photovoltaic electricity. The project “Power to Green Hydrogen Mallorca” includes the construction of an electrolysis plant, the development of two photovoltaic systems to operate it, and a green hydrogen refueling station on the island. Possible applications include supplying bus fleets with clean fuel and generating heat and electricity for commercial and public buildings.

Hydrogen for €1.80 per kilogram

The country in the southwest of the continent wants to further expand its role in the production of green hydrogen. “Spain could sell green hydrogen for €1.80 per kilogram in 2030,” Javier Brey, president of the Spanish Hydrogen Association (AeH2), tells Europe.Table. Aurora Energy Research predicts that Spain will have the second-lowest prices for hydrogen production by electrolysis in Europe, after Norway and ahead of wind-powered Britain, starting in 2030.

Brey highlights three factors that could make Spain a pioneer in the production of green hydrogen compared to its European neighbors: the high share of renewables in the energy mix, Spain’s geographic location with its ports for the import of hydrogen, and its derivatives, and finally, its capacity for innovation. “Spain publishes 3.8 percent of the world’s scientific papers on hydrogen technology. We have companies active in the entire hydrogen value chain,” says Brey.

Electrolysis with German participation

One of the goals of Spain’s hydrogen strategy is to build four gigawatts of production capacity for green hydrogen. That would already be one-tenth of the total 40 gigawatts that the EU has set as a target for 2030. Spanish energy companies already have dozens of projects in their portfolios. Nearly 40 percent of the 5,200 megawatts of renewable hydrogen production capacity announced in Europe since last summer is in Spain, as Bank of America data show.

The country aims to produce around 310,000 tons of green hydrogen by 2030. The Asturias region in northwestern Spain has been selected to initiate the world’s largest renewable hydrogen project. “HyDeal Spain” is the first part of “HyDeal Ambition“, a large-scale initiative in which France and Germany will also participate. The huge project is being driven by 30 companies, including steel giant ArcelorMittal, grid operator Enagás, fertilizer producer Fertiberia and DH2 Energy.

BMWK examines industrial electricity price

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) considers the introduction of a guaranteed industrial electricity price. In consultation with industry representatives from the metals, building materials, and chemicals sectors, experts are to evaluate a proposal by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). However, the focus is not on the current high energy prices but on the medium- to long-term prospects for energy-intensive companies. That’s according to a ministry request for proposals for a consulting contract published Sunday. The availability of green electricity at competitive prices is crucial for companies to invest in climate-neutral production processes, it said.

The DIW model is intended to provide financial security and is based on so-called contracts for difference (CfDs). The state pays participating companies the difference to the exchange electricity price if this is higher than the price agreed with the state. In the opposite case, the companies would have to pay into the public coffers. Compared with other models, electricity costs for participating companies could be reduced by 30 percent, the ministry writes, citing the DIW.

During the election campaign, the current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had still set a target of an industrial electricity price of four cents per kilowatt hour. However, just last Tuesday, at the Economic Council of Germany, Federal Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) was critical of a subsidized industrial electricity price with a price cap like the one in France. The DIW model, on the other hand, is supposed to be budget-neutral, according to the Ministry for Economic Affairs. The concept of double-differential contracts for industrial companies and investors for renewable energies is also similar to a thesis paper of the “Green Business Dialogue”, which is cited in the current call for proposals. ber

Data Governance Act officially announced

With its publication in the Official Journal, the Data Governance Act has now completed its final formal step. The DGA, the text of which was agreed by the Council and Parliament in the trilogue shortly before the end of 2021, primarily defines the framework conditions for the stronger data exchange envisaged by the EU. The most important subject of regulation is the rules for the markets for the exchange of non-personal data, which are then to be opened up by the Data Act, among other things, and the framework conditions for supervision and enforcement of the rules.

The Data Act proposed by the Commission at the end of February 2022 will then contain the specific regulations under which conditions data can and should be shared by which private actors such as companies, for example, from industrial processes or sensor technology. Discussions on the Data Act are not yet far advanced in Parliament, and the debates in the Council have only just begun.

Parts of the DGA now require member states to make adjustments in national law, for example, when it comes to making public data sets accessible, insofar as these go beyond the PSI Directive. But the establishment of data altruistic organizations also requires national legal alignment. The Federal Republic must also have designated an authority responsible for the DGA by the time it enters into force and must have provided it with the necessary resources.

At the same time, the EU Commission itself also has to do some preparatory work, such as implementing legislation, which must provide the necessary details and possible adequacy decisions for international data markets. Only when these steps have been taken can the DGA, as envisaged in the text of the law, actually come into full force in September 2023 – it is still planned that the Data Act will also take effect at this time. fst

BusinessEurope: Persson new president

The business association BusinessEurope will have a new president from July. The Swede Fredrik Persson replaces the Frenchman Pierre Gattaz at the top, as the association announced on Friday. Persson, 54, is president of the International Chamber of Commerce of Sweden and a board member of several companies, including Electrolux. He began his career in the finance sector. His predecessor, engineer Pierre Gattaz, was unable to run again after a four-year term.

“It is fundamental that the EU pursues an ambitious competitiveness agenda to deliver wealth for its citizens and to manage the transition towards a sustainable future, building upon a strong EU single market,” Persson said, according to a BusinessEurope release. “Strong and competitive companies are a prerequisite for peace and prosperity, a resilient and sustainable Europe and a strong economy, jobs and welfare.”

New head of BDI with green credentials

Tanja Gönner will be the first woman to head the Federation of German Industries (BDI). The CDU politician and former state minister for Baden-Württemberg is to take over the vacant position at Germany’s most influential industry association starting this summer. Her predecessor Joachim Lang left the post on May 31.

It is to be expected that Gönner will lead the BDI into a greener future. “The transformation to climate neutrality, the challenges in the international context and acceptance in society” is what the 52-year-old sees as her main tasks in her new role. In her current job as spokeswoman for the board of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ), Gönner has already advocated for a green reconstruction of the global economy after the COVID pandemic. She frequently stresses that economic policy must always be climate policy as well.

Gönner has headed the GIZ since 2012. In a press release, she stated that she had found her time at GIZ very enriching, but that she now wanted to pursue new career paths after ten years.

Born in 1969 in Sigmaringen, Tanja Gönner began her career after school with an apprenticeship as a legal officer. She then studied law at the Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen and, after passing her state exam and completing her legal clerkship, worked for a law firm.

Alongside her legal career, she early on also pursued a political one. In 1986, she joined the Junge Union (Young Union of Germany), and has been a member of the CDU since 1987, including serving on the national board from 2000 to 2012. Between 2002 and 2004, she was a member of the German Bundestag.

In 2004, she was appointed Minister of Social Affairs in Baden-Württemberg. From February 2010 to May 2011, Tanja Gönner served as Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Gönner’s appointment to the BDI leadership is to be made at the suggestion of BDI President Siegfried Russwurm at the meeting of the BDI Presidium and Executive Board on June 20.