LNG terminals + EP vice presidents + Bae • Table.Briefings

Dear reader,

Given the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the new Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, is traveling on to Moscow today after yesterday’s visit to Kiev. Against the backdrop of the Russian threat and the resulting ongoing sanctions debate, she expects a difficult conversation with her counterpart Sergey Lavrov there, as Falk Steiner points out in the news.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will certainly also play a role in the talks. Yesterday, Lavrov’s ministry warned against politicizing the certification process. By contrast, RWE CEO Markus Krebber expressed renewed doubts about the project on Monday. Instead, he promoted a German LNG terminal. This could serve as insurance in times of crisis, as Manuel Berkel reports.

Yesterday, the EU Parliament commemorated the late President of the Parliament, David Maria Sassoli. Today, the election of his successor Roberta Metsola is on the agenda, who may have opponents, but has little cause for concern. With Metsola, the second EU institution besides the Commission will be led by a conservative EPP politician, as Eric Bonse explains. He has also taken a look at the 14 designated deputies and noticed that the picture is somewhat more diverse.

Your
Lukas Knigge

Energy prices: LNG terminal as insurance

According to utility RWE, the current geopolitical situation will continue to cause uncertainty on the energy markets for some time. “It will take longer for prices to stabilize,” CEO Markus Krebber said at the Handelsblatt Energy Summit in Berlin on Monday.

In the power market, the day-ahead price for baseload stood at €235.87 at midday; on the EEX, calendar year 2023 traded at €115.10. Gas futures for February on the Dutch trading point TTF started at €91 per megawatt-hour on Monday morning, after closing at €86.97 on Friday. Over the weekend, the Reuters news agency had reported on talks between the US State Department and European utilities on contingency plans. According to the report, in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the US is preparing gas supplies to Europe in case Russia stops gas deliveries to the West in response to possible sanctions.

Against this background, the RWE CEO campaigned for a dedicated German terminal for importing liquefied natural gas. “An LNG terminal for Germany belongs on the energy policy agenda,” Krebber said. The Essen-based company has secured import capacity for the planned LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel, which is to be built by a joint venture led by Gasunie but is under considerable pressure from environmental groups. RWE also says it is investigating the possibility of importing hydrogen through the terminal. Plans for another German LNG terminal in Stade are being pursued by Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH.

According to Krebber, there needs to be political will for a German LNG terminal. From a purely economic point of view, a German terminal would probably not be built, he said in Berlin. If the current crisis dissipates, such a facility would probably not be used at all. Rather, a dedicated German terminal would represent an insurance policy.

Diversification of gas imports

Krebber also cast further doubt on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, in which the German groups Uniper and Wintershall Dea have a financial stake. In terms of volume, the existing infrastructure is sufficient, said the RWE boss. The issue was rather the diversification of imports.

In Krebber’s view, the current high energy costs in Europe should not be solved by energy economics. High prices are actually just the right incentive to invest in the climate-neutral transformation of industry and energy supply. However, according to Krebber, high prices could also lead to creeping deindustrialization. First, the demand for energy in industrial production would decline.

In the dispute over the sustainability of new gas-fired power plants, Krebber advocated pragmatism. “If we wait to promote green hydrogen, the investment will not be able to take place in Germany,” said the RWE CEO, who also called for coordinated planning of hydrogen pipelines. Power plant investors need to know when hydrogen will be available at which locations. Manuel Berkel

14 vice presidents for the EU Parliament

By

Eric Bonse

The changing of the guard goes back to an agreement reached by the EPP, S&D, and Renew in 2019. After the European elections, the three largest groups had agreed to change the president halfway through the legislative term. This was to preserve the balance of power in the EU institutions. However, with Metsola’s election, the EPP will lead two of the three major institutions (European Parliament, Commission, and Council).

Alongside Metsola, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) also comes from the conservative party family. According to the EPP, both want to work as a team in the future and give the EU a new, female face. The fact that Metsola speaks out against abortion and cultivates a conservative family image does not stand in the way of this, say representatives of the EPP and Renew. She has committed herself to representing the majority opinion of the parliament on the abortion issue.

A very different, less conservative picture emerges for the vice presidents of parliament. According to a “package” agreed upon between the parliamentary groups, which could, however, be unraveled once again, the Social Democrats are to provide five vice presidents. These would be Katarina Barley, Eva Kaili, Pedro Silva Pereira, Pina Picierno, and Evelyn Regner. For the EPP, Othmar Karas, Ewa Kopacz, and Rainer Wieland have been nominated. The latter had recently come under criticism because he is accused of having renovated his offices in the EP building for over €600,000 from taxpayers’ money. Wieland himself rejects the accusations.

On the Renew list, Nicola Beer from Germany, Dita Charanzová (Czech Republic), and Michal Šimečka (Slovakia) are running. The Greens are to receive two deputies, the Left one. A total of 14 vice presidents are planned. Klaus Welle (EPP/CDU) is expected to remain secretary-general of the parliament.

Close cooperation and reforms announced

Accompanying the personnel package is a program in which the three groups set priorities for the second part of the legislative period. “Our pro-European groups will work even more closely together,” says a draft Monday, which is available to Europe.Table. The aim, it says, is to accelerate reforms in all citizens’ interests and renew the European project.

In detail, however, the ten-point paper does not contain much that is new. EPP, S&D, and Renew commit themselves to the rule of law and call for the new conditionality mechanism to be implemented “without delay”. In climate policy, they stipulate a “climate social fund,” but without naming an order of magnitude.

In addition, the three major groups are calling for a right of initiative for the European Parliament. Von der Leyen promised this at the beginning of her term in office but has not yet put her promise into practice. With Stephan Israel

Russia-Ukraine conflict: new talks and threats of sanctions

Germany is pushing for a revival of the so-called Normandy Format in the Ukraine conflict. In this circle, consisting of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany, peaceful solutions should be sought, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) on Monday during a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kiev. “Diplomacy is the only way,” she stressed. In Kiev, Baerbock again countered demands by the Ukrainian leadership for arms deliveries by pointing out that the Federal Republic of Germany has a history of restraint in arms exports.

She also wants to discuss new Normandy talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during her visit to Moscow on Tuesday. Baerbock has been in office for five weeks, her interlocutor and counterpart today, Lavrov, for almost 18 years. Ahead of the talks, the Russian foreign minister once again accused the West of “undermining the architecture of international relations and replacing international law with its own rules“.

The announcement of the Russian foreign ministry states that they are “disappointed with the current state of Russian-German relations”. In addition to the current crises, the Russian foreign ministry said that they also want to talk about the economy, trade, culture, and the preservation of historical monuments. It added: “Special attention will be paid to promoting cooperation in the fields of renewable energy and hydrogen, climate protection, and the environment.”

Blinken in Berlin this week

Meanwhile, during a visit to Madrid, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz again stressed that further aggression on the Russian side would result in political and economic consequences. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected to hold further talks in Berlin on Thursday. These talks are likely to focus not least on European and, in particular, German gas supplies in the event of further tensions.

A first attempt to introduce new US sanctions against Russia, which would have included the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, failed in the US Senate on Thursday. However, another more promising sanctions bill, welcomed by US President Biden, is still pending: This “mother of all sanctions”, as US Senator Bob Menendez, who introduced the text, calls it, would go “far beyond what sanctions are known to do”. Among other things, the extractive industries and sovereign debt opportunities would be sanctioned, said Menendez, chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an interview with MSNBC.

While German media reported that a SWIFT exclusion of the Russian Federation is off the table, for the time being, Menendez continues to hold on to this option. However, Menendez’s sanctions are to come into force only in the event of an attack by Russia on the currently independent part of Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign ministry stressed in its statement on Monday that it is monitoring the currently suspended certification process on Nord Stream 2. The “certification by the German regulators and the European Commission must not be artificially delayed and politicized” and must be carried out in strict compliance with the applicable regulations, the ministry said. fst/rtr

EU investment in corporate energy efficiency only marginally effective

More than €2 billion in EU funds intended to help companies improve their energy efficiency did little to meet climate protection targets. In some cases, they financed investments that would have been made anyway. That’s according to the European Court of Auditors in a special report published Monday. The auditors called for more clarity in verifying how EU funding actually affects companies’ energy efficiency.

The EU regards curbing energy use as essential to meeting goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and record-high gas and power prices in recent months have increased the focus on measures to save energy.

The EU spent a total of €2.4 billion from its budget in the period from 2014 to 2020 to promote energy efficiency in companies. This sum includes energy audits and measures to reduce energy consumption or intensity in industry, services, or the public sector. Auditors estimated that projects supported with these funds achieved only 0.3 percent of the annual savings needed to meet the EU’s goal of reducing final energy consumption by 32.5 percent by 2030 compared to projected levels.

“European Union funding is insufficiently linked to the needs of companies – there was no proper analysis of what is really needed by the enterprises,” Samo Jereb, a member of the European Court of Auditors, told Reuters. The Commission should better assess countries’ energy efficiency financing needs and determine what type of instrument is most appropriate before providing future funding, the auditors said. rtr/luk

Airline slot rules: Wissing supports Lufthansa

In the dispute over EU rules on take-off and landing rights in aviation, German Minister for Transport Volker Wissing (FDP) supports Lufthansa’s position. A ministry spokeswoman said that Wissing had written to EU Transport Commissioner Adina Valean to ask for short-term relief on the regulations due to the re-emerging COVID-19 crisis in air traffic. The reason is the climate-damaging effects of the slot rules currently in place. On Tuesday, Wissing will exchange views with Valean on the matter in person.

Lufthansa had to cancel more than 30,000 flights at the beginning of the year due to a slump in demand. The background to this was the tightening of travel restrictions worldwide due to the situation in the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline group had stated that 18,000 flights had taken place only to retain slots. This was contrary to the EU’s climate protection policy.

A spokesman for the EU Commission had said last week that there were no indications of empty flights, not even from Lufthansa. According to data from the European aviation authority Eurocontrol, flight operations in the winter season had reached 73 to 78 percent of the pre-crisis level of 2019.

EU Commission sees recovery in booking figures

Normally, airlines must use 80 percent of their rights all the time to avoid having to release them to competitors. The quota was lowered due to the COVID crisis and remains at 50 percent until the end of March. Then it is to rise to 64 percent because a recovery in booking figures is assumed.

The Commission said there is also the “justified non-use” rule. According to this, airlines can be granted exemptions from slot quotas in the event of travel restrictions, such as those caused by the Omicron wave. Currently, such exceptions exist for flights to and from Austria, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, China, and Turkey, among others.

Last week, Lufthansa lobbyist Kay Lindemann told the “Tagesspiegel” that flights are not empty but only poorly utilized. Exceptions to the quota often failed because the authorities of the country of departure and arrival had to agree, and that did not work.

Low-cost airlines Ryanair and Wizz are pushing to reinstate the original slot rule. The airlines want to expand their flight offerings quickly. Ryanair accused Lufthansa of trying to restrict competition to the detriment of consumers with its push. rtr/luk

Özdemir for more CO2 storage through agriculture

At the meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on Monday, the German Minister of Food and Agriculture, Cem Özdemir, spoke out in favor of more sustainable carbon cycles. The EU Commission had presented its communication on carbon cycles at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council. In it are proposals for measures to help farmers remove carbon from the atmosphere and thus facilitate the economic use of natural carbon sinks.

“It is an opportunity for our farmers as a reliable pillar of income and can contribute to combating the climate crisis,” Özdemir said and called for cooperation with the environment ministers. Without each other, they would not be successful.

The use of natural carbon sinks in agriculture is part of the Farm to Fork Strategy. The Commission intends to present a legal framework for CO2 storage by the end of the year. luk

Traffic light coalition argues over EV target

The first discord is brewing in the traffic light coalition between Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) and the Greens. On Monday, Wissing would not commit to a coalition target of 15 million all-electric cars in Germany by 2030. “We want electrically powered vehicles, of course, hybrids are also a contribution to this,” the FDP politician said at the “Handelsblatt” energy conference in Berlin. He referred to the coalition agreement, according to which there is only talk of EVs.

Green Party transport expert Stefan Gelbhaar immediately disagreed, pointing to the necessary transport turnaround: “To achieve this, we have agreed in the coalition agreement on a clear target of at least 15 million fully electric passenger cars by 2030,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Wissing’s reference to the passage on EVs in the coalition agreement contrasts with the fact that elsewhere in the agreement, the figure is specified as “fully electric”. The difference could be significant, as only about half of the electric cars registered in 2021 were purely electric. The so-called plug-in hybrids have come under criticism because their electric range is limited, and they are often fueled almost exclusively with conventional gasoline. In a recent “Tagesspiegel” interview, Wissing had spoken of “all-electric” vehicles, while in the Bundestag, he again spoke generally of electric ones.

Wissing also did not want to commit himself to the role of e-fuels in passenger cars, with which combustion engines could continue to be operated. For him, “openness to technology” is important in climate protection. “Of course, e-fuels are also an important contribution.” However, he indicated that there would not be sufficient quantities available for passenger cars for the time being and that the fuel could therefore be used more in heavy-duty or air transport. Car buyers should now look for ways to drive CO2-free immediately. rtr

Macron’s whisperers

Clément Beaune is the French Minister of State for European Affairs and a confidant of Emmanuel Macron.

When Clément Beaune became Minister of State for European Affairs in July 2020, he was known only to insiders in France. Since then, however, the 40-year-old has earned a reputation as an experienced European politician and is one of the best-known faces of the French EU Council presidency. He is France’s “Monsieur Europe“.

Beaming, he presented the program of the French presidency together with Emmanuel Macron at a press conference in the Elysée Palace in December. A great honor. But those present also sensed that there was “great pressure” on Beaune, as he himself admitted.

He has been completing one appointment after another for months, always appearing jovial, no matter how great the stress. Beaune has a reputation among his staff for being a workhorse, and that’s serving him well at the moment. That’s because hundreds of meetings on a wide variety of European issues are scheduled throughout France, especially in the first three months, before the French presidential elections. Then there are councils of ministers and summits.

Macron’s plans are extensive and ambitious. Beaune’s role is to conduct the government’s orchestra. How virtuosically he succeeds in this will also have an impact on the presidential elections in April. Macron has not yet officially declared his candidacy, but everyone assumes that he will run a second time. With the presidency of the Council, he is also the focus of interest, including abroad.

Beaune, the son of a professor of medicine and a nurse, is well prepared for the task. The former student of Sciences Po, the elite ENA school and the Collège d’Europe in Bruges is a close confidant of Macron. He was Macron’s European advisor at the Ministry of Economy from 2014 to 2016, and then followed him to the Elysée Palace, where he advised him on EU issues from 2017 to 2020. His influence exceeded that of many a minister.

Macron’s Sorbonne speech was penned by Beaune

Beaune, who used to be a socialist, belongs to the left-wing spectrum of Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) movement. He wrote many of Macron’s speeches, including the famous speech on Europe at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 2017.

During the presidential election, however, it could also be difficult for Beaune to dance at so many weddings. “He represents France in Europe and Europe in France and Macron to the French. That’s quite a lot,” Yves Bertoncini, President of the Mouvement Européen – France, a pro-European association, told L’Express. Bertoncini knows Beaune well because he was his professor at Sciences Po. It was there that Beaune also met the Green Party’s Franziska Brantner, now Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Economics. The two have maintained a good relationship ever since.

After years in the shadows as Macron’s advisor, Beaune was thrust into the spotlight: He became Secretary of State for European Affairs. He quickly got used to the public role. In the National Assembly, he vehemently represents Macron’s European ideas, appearing friendly and fearless. He is not put off by criticism: “Talking about Europe in the media is a constant battle,” he said. “Yet the EU is part of the everyday life of the French.”

Beaune is highly respected among European think tanks. Macron has finally appointed a secretary of state who matches European ambitions, they say. He knows his subjects and can negotiate well. Beaune is the best in the position since 20 years, some political scientists even emphasized.

Beaune himself has ambitious plans. He sees himself as a deputy in the French National Assembly or a minister in Bercy, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, should Macron be reelected. His well-cultivated network can help him with this.

Alexandre Adam – the man in the background

Beaune prepared the European Council presidency with Macron’s European advisor Alexandre Adam, who has been a good friend for 20 years. The two know each other from the Collège d’Europe. Adam, 41, succeeded Beaune as European adviser at the Elysée Palace in November 2020.

Adam comes from Strasbourg and knows Germany inside out. Like many strategic advisors, he has had a classic diplomatic career. He studied political science at the Institut d’études politiques (Sciences Po) in Strasbourg and then law at the University of Strasbourg.

Even then, he was interested in European affairs. After spending time at the Collège d’Europe, the hotbed of young talent for EU operations, Adam worked in various areas of the French Foreign Ministry and at the French EU representation in Brussels. The German Embassy in Berlin followed before he was appointed advisor for Franco-German affairs at the Elysée Palace at the beginning of Macron’s presidency. He worked under Beaune and therefore knew exactly his new job. He is appreciated in his environment for his calm, patient manner.

During the presidency, Adam has more of a background role. He is supposed to define what the priorities are and what should be worked on. Once a week, there is an informal meeting on the French Council Presidency, where the important issues are explained. With great patience, Adam repeatedly explains France’s ideas for Europe at briefings with journalists. So also the topics for Macron’s European speech on Wednesday before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Tanja Kuchenbecker

“Now you’re really taking me quite far into a technical, detailed discussion,” says Christian Lindner. The FDP politician is currently completing his first “doorstep” in Brussels, and the journalists are bombarding him with questions in several languages. They want to know: What does this man, who appeared as a godsend to several EU capitals before the German elections and has now traveled to the Eurogroup and Ecofin as Germany’s finance minister, stand for?

Yes, what does Lindner stand for anyway? In recent weeks, the FDP leader has kept his cards close to his chest on the changes to European fiscal rules that he deems necessary. This is probably also because Lindner is in a coalition and his new partners are somewhat more open to the wishes of the governments in Paris or Rome.

In any case, what the minister is currently presenting in Brussels no longer sounds like the pure doctrine of the FDP’s election program. Lindner says he agrees with his French colleague Bruno Le Maire that the macroeconomic environment has changed. In other words, the pandemic has driven public debt to new heights. What is needed, therefore, is a “smart balance” of fiscal stability and better investment opportunities.

Lindner seems to have his own supplementary budget in mind as a model, with which the finance minister parked €60 billion in a climate fund so as not to have to touch the debt brake. On the one hand, this means creating opportunities for targeted investment, but on the other hand, fiscal rules in the regular state budget prevent the crowding out of investment by consumer spending.

Lindner does not say how he intends to transfer the pattern to the Stability and Growth Pact. The real debate will not take place until summer, he says, when the EU Commission has presented its reform proposals. By then, his new colleague from the Netherlands, who is also taking part in the round of EU finance ministers for the first time, should also have found her voice. She now wants to talk and listen to all countries, says Sigrid Kaag at her doorstep. Compared to that, Lindner was already quite specific. Till Hoppe

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