IRA: traffic light coalition at odds + Change in CO2 strategy + German chip factory

Dear reader,

Intimidated by the USA? Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doesn’t want to give that impression. On the contrary. At the presentation of the “Green Deal Industrial Plan,” Europe’s answer to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), she stated: “We love competition.” Manuel Berkel and Markus Grabitz write about exactly what she has in mind.

France wants to cut greenhouse gases in the economy. The problem is that the industry has not really gone along with it. Now, France is changing course and adopting a new strategy. Claire Stam reports on how this came about and what the plan now looks like.

It is by all means a symbolic place where the US manufacturer Wolfspeed wants to build the world’s largest production facility for silicon carbide semiconductors. In Saarland, on the site of a former coal-fired power plant. Production of the chips is scheduled to start in 2027. The EU is pleased about this because it wants to break its dependence on Asian manufacturers.

Your
Alina Leimbach

Traffic light coalition divided on response to IRA

It is important to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the EU does not frantically copy the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Europe was early with the Green Deal, earlier than other economic areas – that’s what she said when she presented the program on Wednesday, which is intended to prevent the migration of future technologies to the United States. After all, industries from Europe are now being wooed there with high subsidies. The EU program is called the Green Deal Industrial Plan.

Europe is already well ahead in the net zero industries, she says, thanks in part to the massive aid provided by the EU, which she lists: the credit-financed Next Generation EU economic stimulus package with a volume of €750 billion and the REPowerEU program, with which the Union aims to break free from Russia’s energy dependence. However, the additional volume of REPowerEU so far amounts to only €20 billion.

‘We love competition’

If now Japan, India, the UK and – in the last place she mentions – the US are fueling the transformation with state money, the EU welcomes that: “We love competition.” Only then does she present how the EU intends to respond to the IRA:

The focus is on financial aid for companies that want to invest in future technologies: aid either from the member states, for which the rules for state aid are to be relaxed once again for a limited period until 2025, or from the EU. In the case of EU aid, von der Leyen wants to gain time. She speaks of a “bridging function” that the existing financial pots, InvestEU, the Innovation Fund and REPowerEU, are to fulfill. These pots are to pay out the necessary subsidies until the next financial instrument is in place.

New debts?

This financing instrument is the European Sovereignty Fund. The sovereignty fund, which has yet to be created, is to provide aid for technology projects that are important for all member states, von der Leyen said. The goal is “joint financing of joint projects,” she said. It is fitting that the mid-term review of the Medium Term Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027, is due to take place by the summer.

The proposal for the sovereignty fund will be made after the EU’s finances have been reviewed. Further details – how much money will be distributed, where it will come from and whether new debts will be incurred for it – are not being revealed by von der Leyen: “We will first have to talk to the member states, then we will take care of the financial architecture.”

Legislative proposals by mid-March

And this is the timetable for the EU’s response to the IRA: The communication that the Commission has now decided on will be discussed by the heads of state and government at the special summit on Feb. 9. In mid-March, the Commission plans to present two legislative proposals, which will then be on the table at the regular summit on March 25. There is to be no legislative procedure for the temporary framework. It is to enter into force after consultation with the member states.

The following two bills are in the pipeline: The Net Zero Industry Act is intended to speed up the permitting process for solar plants, battery factories, wind farms and other future technologies. The aim is to cut out superfluous bureaucracy and make the approval process faster and simpler.

EU to push trade agenda

Second, von der Leyen lists the Critical Raw Materials Act. The act is intended to ensure that EU industries can obtain lithium for batteries, rare earths and other rare raw materials, that new supply contracts are concluded and that the collection of raw materials and recycling is perfected.

The EU also wants to push ahead with its trade agenda. Negotiations with Mexico, Chile, New Zealand and Australia are well advanced, she said, and there is positive news from talks with India and Indonesia. Negotiations on Mercosur needed a fresh start, according to her.

TCTF defines net zero technologies

State aid expert Sarah Blazek from the law firm Noerr takes a positive view of the Brussels initiative: “The Commission has presented substantial and unexcited proposals for change. In particular, it is understandable that the Temporary Framework will be further developed into a framework for shaping environmental change.”

The aid framework previously known by the abbreviation TCF will in the future be called the “Temporary Crisis Management and Transformation Framework“, or TCTF for short. Under it, member states will be able to subsidize production capacities for net zero technologies. This is the core of the package presented yesterday. For the time being, it remains open which industries will be among the preferred net zero technologies.

“Until the Commission presents the new communication on the TCTF, many companies and trade associations will approach the member states and try to accommodate their positions during the consultation now underway,” says state aid expert Robin van der Hout of law firm Kapellmann and Partner.

Federal government does not comment on core issue

In order to consult the member states in advance, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager sent a letter to the member states on Jan. 13. However, the German government did not reply to Vestager on this key point of the industrial strategy. Apart from Germany, only Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta had not responded, a senior Commission official said yesterday.

As Europe.Table learned, the coalition partners in Berlin had been unable to agree on a joint response – another glaring example of the need for improved European policy coordination within the German government. By Manuel Berkel and Markus Grabitz

France changes its strategy for decarbonizing industry

By

Claire Stam

The French government did not succeed with its original plan to decarbonize the industry. By 2030, the sector, which is responsible for around 20 percent of national CO2 emissions, is to reduce its greenhouse gases by around a third. This was to be helped by decarbonization roadmaps for 19 industries, which they technically had to submit by the end of December 2022. However, only four of them followed this obligation – the chemical, mining and metallurgy, cement, and paper and board sectors.

State money for timetables

The French government is therefore changing its strategy: it is no longer focusing on entire industries but on the 50 industrial sites with the highest emissions intensity. This is to be helped by “ecological turnaround contracts” with the companies. With these, the government wants to support investments in new decarbonization technologies if companies commit to an ambitious decarbonization roadmap, according to the Paris press release.

“Industry-specific roadmaps make it possible to identify the technological levers for an entire industry, but they cannot be very precise,” the French cabinet said, explaining its decision. “By opting for a site-specific approach for the 50 largest emitters, which are responsible for more than half of industry emissions, we aim to be more efficient and accelerate movement.”

In March, the General Directorate for Enterprises, based in the Ministry of Finance and Economy, will draw up an initial version of the contracts with the sites concerned. These will then have until June to implement them.

Only certain sectors submitted plans

The four industries that have already submitted their roadmaps intend to stick to them. They look as follows:

The chemical sector, with 25.3 percent of total emissions from manufacturing (2018 figures), committed in a 2021 public document to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2030 compared to 2015. To achieve this goal, the sector is focusing on improved energy efficiency, low-carbon heat generation, and reducing emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (potent greenhouse gases from refrigeration).
The mining and metals industry (24 percent of industry emissions) followed suit in June 2021. It aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent by 2030. Its strategy is based on increasing steel recycling rates, reducing the use of coal in blast furnaces, capturing and storing carbon from blast furnaces, and using hydrogen.
Simultaneously, the cement industry (23 percent of industry emissions) also set a goal to reduce emissions by 24 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. To achieve this goal, cement manufacturers are also focusing on the energy efficiency of production processes, the use of renewable energy and biomass. A recycling chain for concrete is also mentioned.
Then, in March 2022, the paper and board industry published its roadmap: Reduce emissions by 39 percent by 2030 compared to 2015, mainly through energy efficiency and low-carbon heat generation.

Own strategies defined

All other of the 19 committed industries have not submitted decarbonization strategies, but some intend to do so. “We are currently working on the document and it should be ready early this year,” announced a spokesperson for Ania, the food industry lobby group.

The association, which represents more than thirty industries “with very different characteristics,” also said that the three sectors with the highest emissions in the food sector (starch manufacturing, sugar factories, dairy products) will define their own strategies for low CO2 emissions. However, no documents have been published yet.

The same is true for the industry committee “Healthcare Industry and Technology.” The main reason for the delay is the composition of the committee, says Thomas Borel, director of scientific affairs at the Leem organization, which represents drug companies. According to him, it is an industry that includes players from chemistry, distribution, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. “We have started to identify the levers we could activate, such as eco-design of medicines and packaging,” the Leem representative said. “But to make progress at the industry level, the work needs to be done across all the links.”

A strategy is to be presented in the first quarter of 2023. “At the end of the day, it’s a fairly administrative approach,” regrets an expert on the subject at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, who emphasizes the limited political scope of the approach.

Wolfspeed to build billion-dollar chip factory in Saarland

Europe is taking another step forward in the location of important technologies: The US group Wolfspeed wants to build a chip factory in Saarland for the equivalent of €2.75 billion. The automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen is involved with a contribution of around €170 million. According to Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe, a large part of the investment will be financed through subsidies. German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) called it “an important signal that Germany remains an attractive location in a difficult situation, also for high technology.”

The factory is to be built on the site of a former coal-fired power plant. The federal and state governments are prepared to provide substantial subsidies through the EU’s IPCEI funding framework and have already requested approval in Brussels, said a person familiar with the matter. “The green light from the EU Commission is still pending.” However, the approval is certain, they said.

Largest silicon carbide semiconductor factory in the world

Silicon carbide semiconductors, which could be used to increase the range of electric cars, are to be produced from 2027 on. They are also used in energy and industrial plants. It will be the world’s most modern and largest production facility for these components, the companies said. Wolfspeed and ZF also plan to build a research center to further develop the high-performance chips. Like the entire industry, Germany’s second-largest automotive supplier and traditional transmission manufacturer is in the midst of the transition to electromobility.

The EU wants to reduce Europe’s dependence on Asia for semiconductors. The chip shortage during the Covid pandemic showed the industry the vulnerability of global supply chains. The auto industry struggled with massive production losses, and car sales in Europe fell to their lowest level in almost 30 years despite high demand.

With a European Chips Act worth a total of €45 billion in public and private investment, the production share of semiconductors in Europe is to be doubled to 20 percent of global capacity within ten years. The chip factory in Saarland is part of this. rtr

Gas package: Geier wants to speed up Council decision

Following the ITRE agreement on the Internal Gas Market Directive, rapporteur Jens Geier (SPD) is urging the Council to take a position before the end of the first half of the year. “I expect the Swedish Council Presidency to prioritize the negotiations on the gas package and adopt the General Approach before the summer,” Geier said.

So far, the Swedish Council Presidency has only declared its intention to conclude the trilogues on the Renewables Directive and the Efficiency Directive. The electricity market reform is also a high priority. It is therefore possible that there will not be enough time for other dossiers from Fit for 55: EU elections are already taking place in spring 2024. And in Spain, which takes over the Council presidency in July, national elections are scheduled for this December.

ITRE to adopt negotiating mandate directly

On Feb. 9, ITRE is to formally adopt the position on the Gas Market Directive. In addition, a negotiating mandate for the directive and regulation is already to be decided. This could eliminate the need for a vote in plenary as long as the committee’s decision is not contested in plenary.

In terms of content, the agreement on the directive now “allows investment in hydrogen infrastructure based on the existing natural gas network, rather than being a barrier to investment,” Geier said. ber

Bullmann to head Human Rights Committee

SPD MEP Udo Bullmann is to head the Human Rights Committee (DROI) in the European Parliament. S&D group leader Iratxe García Peréz announced at the group conference on Monday that the 66-year-old MEP from Hesse is the Socialists’ candidate in the election for the leadership of the subcommittee. The election is necessary after the resignation of the previous chair Maria Arena (S&D). Arena had to resign in connection with the corruption affair around Eva Kaili, because she had participated in a human rights conference in Doha and had the costs paid by the Gulf state.

Under the D’Hondt proportional representation system, the Socialists are entitled to chair the subcommittee. It is therefore likely that Bullmann will be elected. Bullmann has not been a member of the Committee so far. In the last legislative period, he headed the S&D parliamentary group. mgr

Von der Leyen confidante moves to head Directorate-General for Budget

It is official now: Frenchwoman Stéphanie Riso is moving from the cabinet of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to head the Directorate-General for Budget in the EU agency. As the EU Commission stated in a press release, the deputy Head of Cabinet and von der Leyen confidante will start her new job on Feb. 16. The Directorate-General for Budget (DG BUDG) is responsible for managing the EU’s multi-billion euro budget, including raising money on the international capital markets for the NextGenerationEU program.

Economist Riso can look back on a career of more than 20 years in the EU Commission. She was, among other things, a member of the cabinet of EU Currency Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, deputy Head of Cabinet for his successor Olli Rehn, and a close advisor to EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, who led the Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom. Since December 2019, the Frenchwoman has been deputy Head of Cabinet in Ursula von der Leyen’s team. cr

Wolf protection: environment ministers against EU Parliament

German Minister for the Environment Steffi Lemke (Greens) and eleven of her EU colleagues have rejected calls from the European Parliament for less protection for grey wolves. In a letter to the European Commission published on Wednesday, they made it clear that existing exemptions, such as for the shooting of animals, should not be relaxed. Previously, the EU Parliament had called on the EU Commission in November to weaken the protective status of wolves and bears. The background was complaints from farmers that the animals prey on farm livestock such as sheep.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) is also personally affected. A grey wolf had killed her 30-year-old pony Dolly last September. An application for a shooting permission for the wolf has been presented to the responsible authorities in Lower Saxony. The wolf supposedly killed at least 13 animals according to earlier data, among them mostly sheep. dpa

Florian Hassler – Kretschmann’s understanding of Europe

Florian Hassler (Greens) is Baden-Württemberg’s Secretary of State for Europe.

In 2011, Florian Hassler could have entered the Bundestag as a successor for the Greens. But the then 34-year-old decided against it. Many others would have preferred to start a career as a member of parliament on their own account instead of continuing in the second tier of politics. Hassler, however, felt obligated to the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann. He had offered him to become his office manager. Hassler has stayed true to his line. In 2017, Kretschmann made him head of the policy department at Villa Reitzenstein, responsible for planning and European policies.

In 2021, Kretschmann brought him into his now third cabinet as Secretary of State. The title has become more important, but Hassler’s role has remained similar: He is responsible there for political coordination at the government headquarters Villa Reitzenstein and for European policy. On the one hand, he does the troubleshooting for Kretschmann, and on the other hand, he is his European understanding.

The EU is part of his political DNA

Unlike his predecessor Guido Wolf of the CDU, who was given Brussels powers to upgrade the ministry, Hassler has the EU in his political DNA. After studying politics and economics in Freiburg and Aix-en-Provence, he went to Brussels. There he was the office manager of the Green Party MEP Heide Rühle. From that time he also knows the current MEP and head of the Internal Market Committee, Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who also worked for a Green in Brussels and Strasbourg at that time.

Today, he lives in Stuttgart with his wife and two children and likes to go to the soccer field in his spare time. Hassler spends half of his working time as state secretary representing the MEP and watching her back, while he devotes the other half to European policy. The fact that Kretschmann has brought the coordination of European policy back to the Ministry of State shows the importance he attaches to EU legislation. Kretschmann travels to Brussels with his cabinet at least once a year and then attends meetings at the state representation in Rue Bellard. Since the federal states have no competence in EU legislation, they have to skillfully represent their interests.

Focus on the automotive industry and suppliers

Florian Hassler observes legislation in Brussels and talks to MEPs and commissioners. For example, when both hospitals in the country and the industry complained massively about the EU’s Medical Device Directive and the first vital surgeries were to be moved to children’s hospitals. Another important issue is the transformation of the automotive industry. In the home country of manufacturers Mercedes and Porsche, as well as suppliers Bosch, Mahle and others, people are looking highly attentively at issues such as the phasing out of internal combustion engines and the future regulation of pollutants. The amendment to the Clean Air Directive, which could result in new driving bans, is also being followed very closely in Stuttgart (“Neckartor measuring station”) and some other cities in the southwest.

The positions that Kretschmann is pursuing on Euro 7, for example, hardly differ from those that a Christian Democrat MEP would have advocated. This is much to the annoyance of many a Green member of the European Parliament from the southwest, for whom the switch to electric cars cannot happen fast enough. Hassler makes no secret of the fact that he understands the needs of the industry. In Böblingen, Hassler’s bus travel company has been around for more than 100 years and is owned by family members. Hassler doesn’t need to be told that there is still a long way to go before long-distance travel by bus can be CO2 neutral.

And when Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton soon launches a discussion group in which manufacturers and suppliers, academia, trade unions and politicians sit around the table to jointly tackle the problems of transformation, this is a borrowing from the strategy dialog that Kretschmann and Hassler have been practicing for years in the southwest and receiving high marks for it. Markus Grabitz

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,

Intimidated by the USA? Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doesn’t want to give that impression. On the contrary. At the presentation of the “Green Deal Industrial Plan,” Europe’s answer to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), she stated: “We love competition.” Manuel Berkel and Markus Grabitz write about exactly what she has in mind.

France wants to cut greenhouse gases in the economy. The problem is that the industry has not really gone along with it. Now, France is changing course and adopting a new strategy. Claire Stam reports on how this came about and what the plan now looks like.

It is by all means a symbolic place where the US manufacturer Wolfspeed wants to build the world’s largest production facility for silicon carbide semiconductors. In Saarland, on the site of a former coal-fired power plant. Production of the chips is scheduled to start in 2027. The EU is pleased about this because it wants to break its dependence on Asian manufacturers.

Your
Alina Leimbach

Traffic light coalition divided on response to IRA

It is important to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the EU does not frantically copy the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Europe was early with the Green Deal, earlier than other economic areas – that’s what she said when she presented the program on Wednesday, which is intended to prevent the migration of future technologies to the United States. After all, industries from Europe are now being wooed there with high subsidies. The EU program is called the Green Deal Industrial Plan.

Europe is already well ahead in the net zero industries, she says, thanks in part to the massive aid provided by the EU, which she lists: the credit-financed Next Generation EU economic stimulus package with a volume of €750 billion and the REPowerEU program, with which the Union aims to break free from Russia’s energy dependence. However, the additional volume of REPowerEU so far amounts to only €20 billion.

‘We love competition’

If now Japan, India, the UK and – in the last place she mentions – the US are fueling the transformation with state money, the EU welcomes that: “We love competition.” Only then does she present how the EU intends to respond to the IRA:

The focus is on financial aid for companies that want to invest in future technologies: aid either from the member states, for which the rules for state aid are to be relaxed once again for a limited period until 2025, or from the EU. In the case of EU aid, von der Leyen wants to gain time. She speaks of a “bridging function” that the existing financial pots, InvestEU, the Innovation Fund and REPowerEU, are to fulfill. These pots are to pay out the necessary subsidies until the next financial instrument is in place.

New debts?

This financing instrument is the European Sovereignty Fund. The sovereignty fund, which has yet to be created, is to provide aid for technology projects that are important for all member states, von der Leyen said. The goal is “joint financing of joint projects,” she said. It is fitting that the mid-term review of the Medium Term Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027, is due to take place by the summer.

The proposal for the sovereignty fund will be made after the EU’s finances have been reviewed. Further details – how much money will be distributed, where it will come from and whether new debts will be incurred for it – are not being revealed by von der Leyen: “We will first have to talk to the member states, then we will take care of the financial architecture.”

Legislative proposals by mid-March

And this is the timetable for the EU’s response to the IRA: The communication that the Commission has now decided on will be discussed by the heads of state and government at the special summit on Feb. 9. In mid-March, the Commission plans to present two legislative proposals, which will then be on the table at the regular summit on March 25. There is to be no legislative procedure for the temporary framework. It is to enter into force after consultation with the member states.

The following two bills are in the pipeline: The Net Zero Industry Act is intended to speed up the permitting process for solar plants, battery factories, wind farms and other future technologies. The aim is to cut out superfluous bureaucracy and make the approval process faster and simpler.

EU to push trade agenda

Second, von der Leyen lists the Critical Raw Materials Act. The act is intended to ensure that EU industries can obtain lithium for batteries, rare earths and other rare raw materials, that new supply contracts are concluded and that the collection of raw materials and recycling is perfected.

The EU also wants to push ahead with its trade agenda. Negotiations with Mexico, Chile, New Zealand and Australia are well advanced, she said, and there is positive news from talks with India and Indonesia. Negotiations on Mercosur needed a fresh start, according to her.

TCTF defines net zero technologies

State aid expert Sarah Blazek from the law firm Noerr takes a positive view of the Brussels initiative: “The Commission has presented substantial and unexcited proposals for change. In particular, it is understandable that the Temporary Framework will be further developed into a framework for shaping environmental change.”

The aid framework previously known by the abbreviation TCF will in the future be called the “Temporary Crisis Management and Transformation Framework“, or TCTF for short. Under it, member states will be able to subsidize production capacities for net zero technologies. This is the core of the package presented yesterday. For the time being, it remains open which industries will be among the preferred net zero technologies.

“Until the Commission presents the new communication on the TCTF, many companies and trade associations will approach the member states and try to accommodate their positions during the consultation now underway,” says state aid expert Robin van der Hout of law firm Kapellmann and Partner.

Federal government does not comment on core issue

In order to consult the member states in advance, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager sent a letter to the member states on Jan. 13. However, the German government did not reply to Vestager on this key point of the industrial strategy. Apart from Germany, only Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta had not responded, a senior Commission official said yesterday.

As Europe.Table learned, the coalition partners in Berlin had been unable to agree on a joint response – another glaring example of the need for improved European policy coordination within the German government. By Manuel Berkel and Markus Grabitz

France changes its strategy for decarbonizing industry

By

Claire Stam

The French government did not succeed with its original plan to decarbonize the industry. By 2030, the sector, which is responsible for around 20 percent of national CO2 emissions, is to reduce its greenhouse gases by around a third. This was to be helped by decarbonization roadmaps for 19 industries, which they technically had to submit by the end of December 2022. However, only four of them followed this obligation – the chemical, mining and metallurgy, cement, and paper and board sectors.

State money for timetables

The French government is therefore changing its strategy: it is no longer focusing on entire industries but on the 50 industrial sites with the highest emissions intensity. This is to be helped by “ecological turnaround contracts” with the companies. With these, the government wants to support investments in new decarbonization technologies if companies commit to an ambitious decarbonization roadmap, according to the Paris press release.

“Industry-specific roadmaps make it possible to identify the technological levers for an entire industry, but they cannot be very precise,” the French cabinet said, explaining its decision. “By opting for a site-specific approach for the 50 largest emitters, which are responsible for more than half of industry emissions, we aim to be more efficient and accelerate movement.”

In March, the General Directorate for Enterprises, based in the Ministry of Finance and Economy, will draw up an initial version of the contracts with the sites concerned. These will then have until June to implement them.

Only certain sectors submitted plans

The four industries that have already submitted their roadmaps intend to stick to them. They look as follows:

The chemical sector, with 25.3 percent of total emissions from manufacturing (2018 figures), committed in a 2021 public document to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2030 compared to 2015. To achieve this goal, the sector is focusing on improved energy efficiency, low-carbon heat generation, and reducing emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (potent greenhouse gases from refrigeration).
The mining and metals industry (24 percent of industry emissions) followed suit in June 2021. It aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent by 2030. Its strategy is based on increasing steel recycling rates, reducing the use of coal in blast furnaces, capturing and storing carbon from blast furnaces, and using hydrogen.
Simultaneously, the cement industry (23 percent of industry emissions) also set a goal to reduce emissions by 24 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. To achieve this goal, cement manufacturers are also focusing on the energy efficiency of production processes, the use of renewable energy and biomass. A recycling chain for concrete is also mentioned.
Then, in March 2022, the paper and board industry published its roadmap: Reduce emissions by 39 percent by 2030 compared to 2015, mainly through energy efficiency and low-carbon heat generation.

Own strategies defined

All other of the 19 committed industries have not submitted decarbonization strategies, but some intend to do so. “We are currently working on the document and it should be ready early this year,” announced a spokesperson for Ania, the food industry lobby group.

The association, which represents more than thirty industries “with very different characteristics,” also said that the three sectors with the highest emissions in the food sector (starch manufacturing, sugar factories, dairy products) will define their own strategies for low CO2 emissions. However, no documents have been published yet.

The same is true for the industry committee “Healthcare Industry and Technology.” The main reason for the delay is the composition of the committee, says Thomas Borel, director of scientific affairs at the Leem organization, which represents drug companies. According to him, it is an industry that includes players from chemistry, distribution, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. “We have started to identify the levers we could activate, such as eco-design of medicines and packaging,” the Leem representative said. “But to make progress at the industry level, the work needs to be done across all the links.”

A strategy is to be presented in the first quarter of 2023. “At the end of the day, it’s a fairly administrative approach,” regrets an expert on the subject at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, who emphasizes the limited political scope of the approach.

Wolfspeed to build billion-dollar chip factory in Saarland

Europe is taking another step forward in the location of important technologies: The US group Wolfspeed wants to build a chip factory in Saarland for the equivalent of €2.75 billion. The automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen is involved with a contribution of around €170 million. According to Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe, a large part of the investment will be financed through subsidies. German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) called it “an important signal that Germany remains an attractive location in a difficult situation, also for high technology.”

The factory is to be built on the site of a former coal-fired power plant. The federal and state governments are prepared to provide substantial subsidies through the EU’s IPCEI funding framework and have already requested approval in Brussels, said a person familiar with the matter. “The green light from the EU Commission is still pending.” However, the approval is certain, they said.

Largest silicon carbide semiconductor factory in the world

Silicon carbide semiconductors, which could be used to increase the range of electric cars, are to be produced from 2027 on. They are also used in energy and industrial plants. It will be the world’s most modern and largest production facility for these components, the companies said. Wolfspeed and ZF also plan to build a research center to further develop the high-performance chips. Like the entire industry, Germany’s second-largest automotive supplier and traditional transmission manufacturer is in the midst of the transition to electromobility.

The EU wants to reduce Europe’s dependence on Asia for semiconductors. The chip shortage during the Covid pandemic showed the industry the vulnerability of global supply chains. The auto industry struggled with massive production losses, and car sales in Europe fell to their lowest level in almost 30 years despite high demand.

With a European Chips Act worth a total of €45 billion in public and private investment, the production share of semiconductors in Europe is to be doubled to 20 percent of global capacity within ten years. The chip factory in Saarland is part of this. rtr

Gas package: Geier wants to speed up Council decision

Following the ITRE agreement on the Internal Gas Market Directive, rapporteur Jens Geier (SPD) is urging the Council to take a position before the end of the first half of the year. “I expect the Swedish Council Presidency to prioritize the negotiations on the gas package and adopt the General Approach before the summer,” Geier said.

So far, the Swedish Council Presidency has only declared its intention to conclude the trilogues on the Renewables Directive and the Efficiency Directive. The electricity market reform is also a high priority. It is therefore possible that there will not be enough time for other dossiers from Fit for 55: EU elections are already taking place in spring 2024. And in Spain, which takes over the Council presidency in July, national elections are scheduled for this December.

ITRE to adopt negotiating mandate directly

On Feb. 9, ITRE is to formally adopt the position on the Gas Market Directive. In addition, a negotiating mandate for the directive and regulation is already to be decided. This could eliminate the need for a vote in plenary as long as the committee’s decision is not contested in plenary.

In terms of content, the agreement on the directive now “allows investment in hydrogen infrastructure based on the existing natural gas network, rather than being a barrier to investment,” Geier said. ber

Bullmann to head Human Rights Committee

SPD MEP Udo Bullmann is to head the Human Rights Committee (DROI) in the European Parliament. S&D group leader Iratxe García Peréz announced at the group conference on Monday that the 66-year-old MEP from Hesse is the Socialists’ candidate in the election for the leadership of the subcommittee. The election is necessary after the resignation of the previous chair Maria Arena (S&D). Arena had to resign in connection with the corruption affair around Eva Kaili, because she had participated in a human rights conference in Doha and had the costs paid by the Gulf state.

Under the D’Hondt proportional representation system, the Socialists are entitled to chair the subcommittee. It is therefore likely that Bullmann will be elected. Bullmann has not been a member of the Committee so far. In the last legislative period, he headed the S&D parliamentary group. mgr

Von der Leyen confidante moves to head Directorate-General for Budget

It is official now: Frenchwoman Stéphanie Riso is moving from the cabinet of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to head the Directorate-General for Budget in the EU agency. As the EU Commission stated in a press release, the deputy Head of Cabinet and von der Leyen confidante will start her new job on Feb. 16. The Directorate-General for Budget (DG BUDG) is responsible for managing the EU’s multi-billion euro budget, including raising money on the international capital markets for the NextGenerationEU program.

Economist Riso can look back on a career of more than 20 years in the EU Commission. She was, among other things, a member of the cabinet of EU Currency Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, deputy Head of Cabinet for his successor Olli Rehn, and a close advisor to EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, who led the Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom. Since December 2019, the Frenchwoman has been deputy Head of Cabinet in Ursula von der Leyen’s team. cr

Wolf protection: environment ministers against EU Parliament

German Minister for the Environment Steffi Lemke (Greens) and eleven of her EU colleagues have rejected calls from the European Parliament for less protection for grey wolves. In a letter to the European Commission published on Wednesday, they made it clear that existing exemptions, such as for the shooting of animals, should not be relaxed. Previously, the EU Parliament had called on the EU Commission in November to weaken the protective status of wolves and bears. The background was complaints from farmers that the animals prey on farm livestock such as sheep.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) is also personally affected. A grey wolf had killed her 30-year-old pony Dolly last September. An application for a shooting permission for the wolf has been presented to the responsible authorities in Lower Saxony. The wolf supposedly killed at least 13 animals according to earlier data, among them mostly sheep. dpa

Florian Hassler – Kretschmann’s understanding of Europe

In 2011, Florian Hassler could have entered the Bundestag as a successor for the Greens. But the then 34-year-old decided against it. Many others would have preferred to start a career as a member of parliament on their own account instead of continuing in the second tier of politics. Hassler, however, felt obligated to the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann. He had offered him to become his office manager. Hassler has stayed true to his line. In 2017, Kretschmann made him head of the policy department at Villa Reitzenstein, responsible for planning and European policies.

In 2021, Kretschmann brought him into his now third cabinet as Secretary of State. The title has become more important, but Hassler’s role has remained similar: He is responsible there for political coordination at the government headquarters Villa Reitzenstein and for European policy. On the one hand, he does the troubleshooting for Kretschmann, and on the other hand, he is his European understanding.

The EU is part of his political DNA

Unlike his predecessor Guido Wolf of the CDU, who was given Brussels powers to upgrade the ministry, Hassler has the EU in his political DNA. After studying politics and economics in Freiburg and Aix-en-Provence, he went to Brussels. There he was the office manager of the Green Party MEP Heide Rühle. From that time he also knows the current MEP and head of the Internal Market Committee, Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who also worked for a Green in Brussels and Strasbourg at that time.

Today, he lives in Stuttgart with his wife and two children and likes to go to the soccer field in his spare time. Hassler spends half of his working time as state secretary representing the MEP and watching her back, while he devotes the other half to European policy. The fact that Kretschmann has brought the coordination of European policy back to the Ministry of State shows the importance he attaches to EU legislation. Kretschmann travels to Brussels with his cabinet at least once a year and then attends meetings at the state representation in Rue Bellard. Since the federal states have no competence in EU legislation, they have to skillfully represent their interests.

Focus on the automotive industry and suppliers

Florian Hassler observes legislation in Brussels and talks to MEPs and commissioners. For example, when both hospitals in the country and the industry complained massively about the EU’s Medical Device Directive and the first vital surgeries were to be moved to children’s hospitals. Another important issue is the transformation of the automotive industry. In the home country of manufacturers Mercedes and Porsche, as well as suppliers Bosch, Mahle and others, people are looking highly attentively at issues such as the phasing out of internal combustion engines and the future regulation of pollutants. The amendment to the Clean Air Directive, which could result in new driving bans, is also being followed very closely in Stuttgart (“Neckartor measuring station”) and some other cities in the southwest.

The positions that Kretschmann is pursuing on Euro 7, for example, hardly differ from those that a Christian Democrat MEP would have advocated. This is much to the annoyance of many a Green member of the European Parliament from the southwest, for whom the switch to electric cars cannot happen fast enough. Hassler makes no secret of the fact that he understands the needs of the industry. In Böblingen, Hassler’s bus travel company has been around for more than 100 years and is owned by family members. Hassler doesn’t need to be told that there is still a long way to go before long-distance travel by bus can be CO2 neutral.

And when Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton soon launches a discussion group in which manufacturers and suppliers, academia, trade unions and politicians sit around the table to jointly tackle the problems of transformation, this is a borrowing from the strategy dialog that Kretschmann and Hassler have been practicing for years in the southwest and receiving high marks for it. Markus Grabitz