There will be no shortage of symbols this Monday when Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the USA in Washington. One of them: contrary to custom, the Republican has also invited leading politicians from abroad to his inauguration. A rendezvous of right-wingers is traveling to Washington: among those expected are French right-wing extremist Éric Zemmour, Brexit initiator Nigel Farage and AfD party leader Tino Chrupalla.
Giorgia Meloni will be the only female EU head of government present. It was already known that the leader of the right-wing nationalist Fratelli d’Italia had received a personal invitation from Trump. The fact that she has now accepted it came as a surprise to some. Her attendance was confirmed on Saturday in a brief statement from Palazzo Chigi, the Italian Prime Minister’s seat of government.
Meloni had only flown in for a spontaneous visit to Trump’s private estate Mar-a-Lago at the beginning of the year. This is now the next visit within two weeks. Meloni’s plan: at least a brief tête-à-tête with Trump after his inauguration. This would make the 48-year-old the first head of government to have a bilateral conversation with the new US president.
Meloni’s role as a bridge-builder between Trump and Europe is not only manifested within the EU. At home in Rome, her trip also shows once again who is in charge. Her coalition partner, Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who had publicly buttered up Trump during his election campaign, remains on the sidelines in Washington.
Have a good start to the week,
European competitiveness needs to be improved. What are the main reforms the European Commission and the European Heads of State should put in place?
I think it is very clear that we are burdened with excessive regulations in Europe, which is hampering the competitiveness of all companies, but in particular small and medium-sized enterprises. We’re looking forward to the proposal by the Commission President for an omnibus legislation that will simplify regulation across the board. It is also very, very clear that we need to do something about energy.
What should be done about energy?
Energy prices in Europe are much higher than those in the United States, but also within Europe we see great discrepancies in energy prices and if we want to make the green transition happen, we need to invest in our grids. The electricity grid should be treated as projects of European common interest. They could require European financing. However, we need to not only bring down electricity prices in Europe in general, but to also make the European electricity market function in order to avoid the great disparities of the electricity price within the European Union.
The EU also promised to cut bureaucratic obligations by up to 35 percent. Is that realistic?
That’s a target the Commission has set, but it is very clear that we’re adding regulations without really thinking about the consequences of those regulations on the cost structure of our businesses. We cannot implement the green transition at the expense of our competitiveness.
How are you doing this in Greece?
We’ve cut taxes without jeopardizing our fiscal position, we have deregulated, we have digitized the state, and this has resulted in growth, that is significantly higher than the eurozone average, while at the same time we’re able to produce primary surpluses and bring down our debt. So, you can actually cut taxes and create fiscal space through growth. This is exactly what Friedrich Merz is proposing, and I can tell you that in the case of Greece it worked.
We have to talk about Greek economy. It has been outpacing the euro area since 2021, I think. Public debt declined. It sounds like a miracle. Are you suggesting a new kind of economic policy or is it supply-side only?
No, it’s not supply-side only. Of course, we have been successful in reasonably cutting taxes, but we also went after tax evasion. We were ruthless in going after tax evasion using digital tools, and this is giving us additional fiscal space to invest and to support our welfare state. Of course, we also need structural reforms, labor market reforms, skills reforms, justice reforms, digitization, which has been a tremendous success in Greece since we took over. All this together has created an environment that fosters and attracts investment. And if you add to that the RRF, which has been a great success in Greece. I think it gives us an opportunity to bridge the investment gap that has always separated Greece from the eurozone average.
Greece was Europe’s problem child years ago and now it’s like a comeback story, and everybody looks up to your country. How does it make you feel?
First of all, it makes me feel good on behalf of my people, on behalf of the country. I think the Greek people have proven incredibly resilient. But the job is not done. There are still significant issues in Greece. We still need to catch up with the rest of Europe, especially when it comes to our GDP per capita. But I think we’re moving in the right direction.
The Draghi report is a sharp warning to the European Union, especially for its lack of economic dynamism. The US and China are funneling billions of dollars to their industry. Don’t we also need more money for European companies, and where should it come from?
Absolutely, and this is going to be the next discussion that we will have at the level of the MFF. We cannot hope to achieve all the goals we have set without the financial means to do so. Part of the money will come from private capital, but part of it will also be public money. The RRF has been a great success. We need to look at what we’ve done and think about the next day.
What do you mean, more specifically?
Defence, which is a great priority for all of us. There is no way we can fund our increased defence expenditures simply from national budgets. We may need a small – compared to the RRF – focused European defence fund funded by joint European borrowing.
How big should that be?
I don’t know. Even if it were 100 billion, it would send a clear signal that we mean business. I have submitted this proposal together with Donald Tusk. We need to spend more at the national level, Greece is already spending more than 3 percent of its GDP on defence, and we need to spend more on the European level. At the end of the day, it’s our security that is threatened.
Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski once said that he fears Germany’s power less than its weakness. Do you agree?
We cannot envision significant progress in the European Union and strengthening the European economy without a competitive Germany. So, Germany needs to get its act together. There are structural issues related to the German economy, they’ve been well discussed in the German public debate. So, I think this is a time for bold action and more radical reforms.
The conversation has been lightly edited for readability. The conversation can also be listened to in today’s edition of the Table.Today podcast.
The leadership of the European People’s Party is calling for key elements of EU sustainability legislation to be postponed. “The implementation of the CSRD and CSDDD and related legislation, including the Taxonomy Regulation and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), should be suspended for at least two years,” reads the position paper, which was adopted at the EPP conference in Berlin. At the invitation of CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democratic party leaders from around 20 member states took part, as did EPP leader Manfred Weber (CSU) and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU).
According to the EPP, the two years should be used to limit the scope of the legislation to large companies with more than 1,000 employees in a so-called omnibus regulation, to reduce their reporting obligations by at least 50 percent and to eliminate the indirect effects on medium-sized companies. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) obliges the first companies to submit their reports this year. The supply chain directive CSDDD will take effect in 2027. The CBAM will take effect in 2026, but the companies concerned must already report on the greenhouse gas emissions in their products today.
The EPP’s demands go beyond the Commission’s plans. Von der Leyen had postponed the anti-deforestation regulation by a year and announced that she wanted to standardize the reporting obligations from the taxonomy, CSRD and CSDDD to a greater extent in an omnibus procedure. The CDU politician is unlikely to directly endorse the position of her party family, as her Commission is also dependent on the support of the Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens. MEPs from the S&D and the Greens had warned against going too far in reducing reporting obligations. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had previously called for the CSRD to be postponed by two years.
The EPP demands are part of a broader agenda with which the Christian Democrats want to improve the competitiveness of the European economy. “Bureaucracy is now one of the main reasons why the EU’s productivity is falling further behind that of the USA and China,” the paper states. CDU chancellor candidate Merz warned: “We have lost over 300,000 jobs in industry in Germany in the last three years, partly due to excessive regulation.”
The Christian Democrats are also calling for this:
On Friday, the Permanent Representatives Committee agreed on a ranking list of preferred candidates for the post of European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Wojciech Wiewiórowski is at the top of the list, said an EU diplomat. A trio of ambassadors from Denmark, Cyprus and Ireland will now negotiate with the European Parliament to reach an agreement on the next EPDS.
Following the death of his predecessor Giovanni Buttarelli in August 2019, Wiewiórowski had already taken over the duties of the European Data Protection Supervisor on an interim basis. On December 5, 2019, he was then officially appointed to the EDPS for a five-year term. The Polish constitutional lawyer is now applying again.
The Commission had previously drawn up a list of four candidates and sent it to the European Parliament and the Council. The list included:
Parliament heard the candidates last Thursday. The EDPS will then be appointed by a joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council.
In his written answers to his hearing, Wojciech Wiewiórowski emphasized the importance of the rule of law and human dignity in data protection. He is firmly convinced that the EPDS’s task is ultimately to contribute to a just world in which these values are central. It is particularly important to him that it is not data that is protected, but the people to whom this data relates. vis
Mutual understanding was Ingbert Liebing’s most important concern on his first trip to Brussels. “I wanted to convey our philosophy of municipal self-government to Brussels. Apart from Austria, Germany is unique with this in Europe,” says the current Managing Director of the municipal utilities association VKU. As a member of the Bundestag, Liebing was the local government spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group at the time – after nine years as mayor of the municipality of Sylt-Ost.
From a European perspective, representatives of cities and municipalities still operate today in the field of tension between the welfare state’s provision of services of general interest and the efficiency requirements of the internal market – especially the companies in the energy and water supply, waste management and telecommunications sectors, for which the VKU advocates. Conversely, Liebing had already experienced in the Environment Committee how many national regulations originate in Brussels.
“I gave my maiden speech on the European chemicals regulation REACH,” says the now 61-year-old, who sat in the Bundestag for the CDU from 2005 to 2017. Another topic for Liebing back then was the Water Framework Directive. Substances entering the groundwater through chemicals and fertilizers are still a challenge for local authorities and their waterworks today.
Between his time in the Bundestag and his move to VKU in 2020, Liebing joined the state parliament in Kiel and became Schleswig-Holstein’s representative to the federal government. As State Secretary in the state government, he worked with several Greens who are now in charge of energy and industrial policy in the Federal Ministry of Economics – Philipp Nimmermann and Udo Philipp, for example. “I sat at the cabinet table with Robert Habeck back then,” says Liebing.
In Brussels, the VKU is involved in environmental, energy and digital issues, and the Germans are strongly represented in the European umbrella organization Cedec. Liebing is also Vice President of SGI Europe, the employers’ association of companies that provide public services. For the coming years, Liebing would like to see continuity in the follow-up initiatives to the Green Deal, but also concessions in state aid law.
“With the Green Deal, everything is connected – climate neutrality, environmental policy and the circular economy. I hope that this will not all be rolled over again. As municipal utilities, we want to get to the implementation stage,” says the VKU Managing Director.
State aid law is sometimes an obstacle to the objectives of the Green Deal – such as the Europe-wide tenders. “The goal of climate neutrality must be given more weight than the finer points of state aid law. Do Portuguese energy companies really care which solar panels are installed on the roofs of German supermarkets?” asks Liebing. “We no longer need micromanagement, we need to set guard rails.”
The issue of state aid is more topical than ever – for example with the Combined Heat and Power Act, for which state aid approval ends in 2026. “This is causing great uncertainty and preventing investment in CHP plants, heating networks and heat storage systems,” says Liebing.
Another ongoing issue for municipal companies is the competitive conditions compared to the private sector. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for example, has promised to reduce bureaucracy for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. However, according to Liebing, all companies with a public shareholding of more than 25 percent are no longer considered SMEs under the EU definition: “Municipal utilities are effectively treated like large corporations, even though they are on a completely different scale to state-owned energy companies such as EDF.”
With so many issues to deal with, there is not much free time. At the weekends, Liebing is happy when he can go to his family on Sylt and watch his first grandchild grow up. Manuel Berkel
There will be no shortage of symbols this Monday when Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the USA in Washington. One of them: contrary to custom, the Republican has also invited leading politicians from abroad to his inauguration. A rendezvous of right-wingers is traveling to Washington: among those expected are French right-wing extremist Éric Zemmour, Brexit initiator Nigel Farage and AfD party leader Tino Chrupalla.
Giorgia Meloni will be the only female EU head of government present. It was already known that the leader of the right-wing nationalist Fratelli d’Italia had received a personal invitation from Trump. The fact that she has now accepted it came as a surprise to some. Her attendance was confirmed on Saturday in a brief statement from Palazzo Chigi, the Italian Prime Minister’s seat of government.
Meloni had only flown in for a spontaneous visit to Trump’s private estate Mar-a-Lago at the beginning of the year. This is now the next visit within two weeks. Meloni’s plan: at least a brief tête-à-tête with Trump after his inauguration. This would make the 48-year-old the first head of government to have a bilateral conversation with the new US president.
Meloni’s role as a bridge-builder between Trump and Europe is not only manifested within the EU. At home in Rome, her trip also shows once again who is in charge. Her coalition partner, Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who had publicly buttered up Trump during his election campaign, remains on the sidelines in Washington.
Have a good start to the week,
European competitiveness needs to be improved. What are the main reforms the European Commission and the European Heads of State should put in place?
I think it is very clear that we are burdened with excessive regulations in Europe, which is hampering the competitiveness of all companies, but in particular small and medium-sized enterprises. We’re looking forward to the proposal by the Commission President for an omnibus legislation that will simplify regulation across the board. It is also very, very clear that we need to do something about energy.
What should be done about energy?
Energy prices in Europe are much higher than those in the United States, but also within Europe we see great discrepancies in energy prices and if we want to make the green transition happen, we need to invest in our grids. The electricity grid should be treated as projects of European common interest. They could require European financing. However, we need to not only bring down electricity prices in Europe in general, but to also make the European electricity market function in order to avoid the great disparities of the electricity price within the European Union.
The EU also promised to cut bureaucratic obligations by up to 35 percent. Is that realistic?
That’s a target the Commission has set, but it is very clear that we’re adding regulations without really thinking about the consequences of those regulations on the cost structure of our businesses. We cannot implement the green transition at the expense of our competitiveness.
How are you doing this in Greece?
We’ve cut taxes without jeopardizing our fiscal position, we have deregulated, we have digitized the state, and this has resulted in growth, that is significantly higher than the eurozone average, while at the same time we’re able to produce primary surpluses and bring down our debt. So, you can actually cut taxes and create fiscal space through growth. This is exactly what Friedrich Merz is proposing, and I can tell you that in the case of Greece it worked.
We have to talk about Greek economy. It has been outpacing the euro area since 2021, I think. Public debt declined. It sounds like a miracle. Are you suggesting a new kind of economic policy or is it supply-side only?
No, it’s not supply-side only. Of course, we have been successful in reasonably cutting taxes, but we also went after tax evasion. We were ruthless in going after tax evasion using digital tools, and this is giving us additional fiscal space to invest and to support our welfare state. Of course, we also need structural reforms, labor market reforms, skills reforms, justice reforms, digitization, which has been a tremendous success in Greece since we took over. All this together has created an environment that fosters and attracts investment. And if you add to that the RRF, which has been a great success in Greece. I think it gives us an opportunity to bridge the investment gap that has always separated Greece from the eurozone average.
Greece was Europe’s problem child years ago and now it’s like a comeback story, and everybody looks up to your country. How does it make you feel?
First of all, it makes me feel good on behalf of my people, on behalf of the country. I think the Greek people have proven incredibly resilient. But the job is not done. There are still significant issues in Greece. We still need to catch up with the rest of Europe, especially when it comes to our GDP per capita. But I think we’re moving in the right direction.
The Draghi report is a sharp warning to the European Union, especially for its lack of economic dynamism. The US and China are funneling billions of dollars to their industry. Don’t we also need more money for European companies, and where should it come from?
Absolutely, and this is going to be the next discussion that we will have at the level of the MFF. We cannot hope to achieve all the goals we have set without the financial means to do so. Part of the money will come from private capital, but part of it will also be public money. The RRF has been a great success. We need to look at what we’ve done and think about the next day.
What do you mean, more specifically?
Defence, which is a great priority for all of us. There is no way we can fund our increased defence expenditures simply from national budgets. We may need a small – compared to the RRF – focused European defence fund funded by joint European borrowing.
How big should that be?
I don’t know. Even if it were 100 billion, it would send a clear signal that we mean business. I have submitted this proposal together with Donald Tusk. We need to spend more at the national level, Greece is already spending more than 3 percent of its GDP on defence, and we need to spend more on the European level. At the end of the day, it’s our security that is threatened.
Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski once said that he fears Germany’s power less than its weakness. Do you agree?
We cannot envision significant progress in the European Union and strengthening the European economy without a competitive Germany. So, Germany needs to get its act together. There are structural issues related to the German economy, they’ve been well discussed in the German public debate. So, I think this is a time for bold action and more radical reforms.
The conversation has been lightly edited for readability. The conversation can also be listened to in today’s edition of the Table.Today podcast.
The leadership of the European People’s Party is calling for key elements of EU sustainability legislation to be postponed. “The implementation of the CSRD and CSDDD and related legislation, including the Taxonomy Regulation and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), should be suspended for at least two years,” reads the position paper, which was adopted at the EPP conference in Berlin. At the invitation of CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democratic party leaders from around 20 member states took part, as did EPP leader Manfred Weber (CSU) and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU).
According to the EPP, the two years should be used to limit the scope of the legislation to large companies with more than 1,000 employees in a so-called omnibus regulation, to reduce their reporting obligations by at least 50 percent and to eliminate the indirect effects on medium-sized companies. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) obliges the first companies to submit their reports this year. The supply chain directive CSDDD will take effect in 2027. The CBAM will take effect in 2026, but the companies concerned must already report on the greenhouse gas emissions in their products today.
The EPP’s demands go beyond the Commission’s plans. Von der Leyen had postponed the anti-deforestation regulation by a year and announced that she wanted to standardize the reporting obligations from the taxonomy, CSRD and CSDDD to a greater extent in an omnibus procedure. The CDU politician is unlikely to directly endorse the position of her party family, as her Commission is also dependent on the support of the Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens. MEPs from the S&D and the Greens had warned against going too far in reducing reporting obligations. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had previously called for the CSRD to be postponed by two years.
The EPP demands are part of a broader agenda with which the Christian Democrats want to improve the competitiveness of the European economy. “Bureaucracy is now one of the main reasons why the EU’s productivity is falling further behind that of the USA and China,” the paper states. CDU chancellor candidate Merz warned: “We have lost over 300,000 jobs in industry in Germany in the last three years, partly due to excessive regulation.”
The Christian Democrats are also calling for this:
On Friday, the Permanent Representatives Committee agreed on a ranking list of preferred candidates for the post of European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Wojciech Wiewiórowski is at the top of the list, said an EU diplomat. A trio of ambassadors from Denmark, Cyprus and Ireland will now negotiate with the European Parliament to reach an agreement on the next EPDS.
Following the death of his predecessor Giovanni Buttarelli in August 2019, Wiewiórowski had already taken over the duties of the European Data Protection Supervisor on an interim basis. On December 5, 2019, he was then officially appointed to the EDPS for a five-year term. The Polish constitutional lawyer is now applying again.
The Commission had previously drawn up a list of four candidates and sent it to the European Parliament and the Council. The list included:
Parliament heard the candidates last Thursday. The EDPS will then be appointed by a joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council.
In his written answers to his hearing, Wojciech Wiewiórowski emphasized the importance of the rule of law and human dignity in data protection. He is firmly convinced that the EPDS’s task is ultimately to contribute to a just world in which these values are central. It is particularly important to him that it is not data that is protected, but the people to whom this data relates. vis
Mutual understanding was Ingbert Liebing’s most important concern on his first trip to Brussels. “I wanted to convey our philosophy of municipal self-government to Brussels. Apart from Austria, Germany is unique with this in Europe,” says the current Managing Director of the municipal utilities association VKU. As a member of the Bundestag, Liebing was the local government spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group at the time – after nine years as mayor of the municipality of Sylt-Ost.
From a European perspective, representatives of cities and municipalities still operate today in the field of tension between the welfare state’s provision of services of general interest and the efficiency requirements of the internal market – especially the companies in the energy and water supply, waste management and telecommunications sectors, for which the VKU advocates. Conversely, Liebing had already experienced in the Environment Committee how many national regulations originate in Brussels.
“I gave my maiden speech on the European chemicals regulation REACH,” says the now 61-year-old, who sat in the Bundestag for the CDU from 2005 to 2017. Another topic for Liebing back then was the Water Framework Directive. Substances entering the groundwater through chemicals and fertilizers are still a challenge for local authorities and their waterworks today.
Between his time in the Bundestag and his move to VKU in 2020, Liebing joined the state parliament in Kiel and became Schleswig-Holstein’s representative to the federal government. As State Secretary in the state government, he worked with several Greens who are now in charge of energy and industrial policy in the Federal Ministry of Economics – Philipp Nimmermann and Udo Philipp, for example. “I sat at the cabinet table with Robert Habeck back then,” says Liebing.
In Brussels, the VKU is involved in environmental, energy and digital issues, and the Germans are strongly represented in the European umbrella organization Cedec. Liebing is also Vice President of SGI Europe, the employers’ association of companies that provide public services. For the coming years, Liebing would like to see continuity in the follow-up initiatives to the Green Deal, but also concessions in state aid law.
“With the Green Deal, everything is connected – climate neutrality, environmental policy and the circular economy. I hope that this will not all be rolled over again. As municipal utilities, we want to get to the implementation stage,” says the VKU Managing Director.
State aid law is sometimes an obstacle to the objectives of the Green Deal – such as the Europe-wide tenders. “The goal of climate neutrality must be given more weight than the finer points of state aid law. Do Portuguese energy companies really care which solar panels are installed on the roofs of German supermarkets?” asks Liebing. “We no longer need micromanagement, we need to set guard rails.”
The issue of state aid is more topical than ever – for example with the Combined Heat and Power Act, for which state aid approval ends in 2026. “This is causing great uncertainty and preventing investment in CHP plants, heating networks and heat storage systems,” says Liebing.
Another ongoing issue for municipal companies is the competitive conditions compared to the private sector. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for example, has promised to reduce bureaucracy for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. However, according to Liebing, all companies with a public shareholding of more than 25 percent are no longer considered SMEs under the EU definition: “Municipal utilities are effectively treated like large corporations, even though they are on a completely different scale to state-owned energy companies such as EDF.”
With so many issues to deal with, there is not much free time. At the weekends, Liebing is happy when he can go to his family on Sylt and watch his first grandchild grow up. Manuel Berkel
