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The EPP Group is spending its study days in Naples from now until Friday. EPP leader Manfred Weber wants to talk to the 187 MEPs about competitiveness and cooperation in the Mediterranean region, both in the economy and in the fight against illegal migration.
However, the thematic focus of the days will clearly be on defense and armaments. A separate resolution on this is being drafted and will be adopted on Thursday. Monday was the editorial deadline for contributions from MEPs. In view of Russia’s aggression and growing global instability, the largest group in the EU Parliament wants to commit to strengthening European defense. Europe must thus ensure fair burden-sharing with transatlantic partners.
The Christian Democrats anticipate a financial requirement of €500 billion by 2035 in order to meet the investments that are due. This would require an adequately equipped EU budget. The resolution supports the EU’s first Commissioner for Defense and Space: As the future head of the Defense Agency, the Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius has the task of ensuring good coordination between the defense instruments of the Commission and the Council.
I wish you a successful day!
The first question that needs to be clarified in the area of automotive regulation is: Who is responsible? The overlaps in the portfolios that Ursula von der Leyen wants to define with the structure of her new Commission are already keeping the lobby departments of companies and associations busy. One example: There is to be a transport commissioner who is to draw up an action plan for the European car industry based on the Draghi report. But above the future Transport Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas has been proposed (see Heads in this issue), there is still the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms – the Italian Raffaele Fitto has been appointed.
Another executive vice-president responsible for the competitiveness of European industry in the international arena is Teresa Ribera, who is also leading the work on the Clean Industrial Act (CIA). The CIA is intended to drive forward the market ramp-up of clean tech and attract investment – also important aspects for the automotive industry. Digitalization, which is important for the automotive industry, is the responsibility of another Executive Vice President: Sovereignty Commissioner Henna Virkkunen.
Given the EU climate target for 2040, the Commission must present a further package of climate legislation. The proposals are due in 2026. A greenhouse gas reduction target of minus 90 percent is being discussed. It is expected that the transport sector and manufacturers will have to further drastically reduce their emissions. It remains to be seen what measures will be imposed on the car population or manufacturers of electric cars, for example. The legislative package is being drawn up by Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, with Ribera in charge.
There is also another Executive Vice President: Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné is to present an Industrial Decarbonization Accelerator Act, which will also deal with the steel and aluminum industrial sectors that are important for car manufacturers. Both Séjourné and Ribera are responsible for the hydrogen projects (IPCEI) that are important for e-fuels.
Trade relations with China will continue to occupy the automotive industry in the coming years. Maroš Šefčovič will be in charge of the dossier and will take over from the current Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. The decision as to whether the proposed countervailing duties will be imposed should still be made by Dombrovskis. The Commission’s deadline for concluding its proceedings is Oct. 30.
Transport Commissioner Tzitzikostas is responsible for the further development of the charging infrastructure, while Energy Commissioner-designate Dan Jørgensen is responsible for the provision of energy from renewable sources and the upgrading of the electricity grids. The diffuse allocation of tasks harbors the potential for conflicts both between the executive vice presidents and among the ordinary Commissioners. In the event of conflicts, von der Leyen herself is likely to have the last word. The thicket of responsibilities is also likely to be a challenge for co-legislators, industry and NGOs.
At a legislative level, the most pressing question for the future of the European car industry must be clarified right at the start: Will the CO2 fleet limits for passenger cars still be shaken up? Or will it remain as it was decided a year and a half ago? Will the revision planned for 2026 be brought forward to 2025 in order to adjust limit values or criteria and possibly avert penalties for 2025?
On the one hand, there is the current debate about fines for car manufacturers that do not meet their 2025 targets. If the fines remain in place, some car manufacturers will lack the money to invest in the transformation. Should the Commission suspend the fines after all, those car manufacturers that comply with the rules would be penalized. VW and Renault in particular are counting on the fact that fines will be waived in the event of an early revision. Whether this calculation will work depends on the Parliament and the Council and cannot yet be predicted.
Minister Robert Habeck now supports the move to bring forward a revision, but does not necessarily want to adjust the fleet limits for 2025. He explained that he is concerned with the path to achieving the goal of only bringing climate-neutral new cars onto the market by 2035.
It is still unclear what role e-fuels can play in achieving the fleet targets. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has given her designated Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra the task of taking e-fuels into account in the revision. For the future of EU manufacturers, some of whom continue to rely on combustion engines, the implementation of the recital in fleet legislation will be one of the decisive questions for the new Commission. The aim is to create the legal basis for new registrations of combustion engines that can only be fueled with e-fuels, even beyond 2035 and the planned phase-out of combustion engines.
In addition to the CO2 fleet limits, a revision of the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) is also pending. By the end of this year, the Commission will assess the extent to which heavy goods transport should be taken into account in the charging infrastructure. By 2026 at the latest, the AFIR will be reviewed for both cars and trucks and adapted if necessary.
For the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the current targets for charging infrastructure are not ambitious enough. “By 2030, a Europe-wide fast-charging network with at least 35,000 publicly accessible fast charging points for heavy trucks and buses should be in operation on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)”, says Mitja Schulz, Head of the VDA office in Brussels. The infrastructure must be built up continuously, taking into account the market ramp-up and usage behavior.
Another legislative gap for the VDA is autonomous driving. Although the digitalization of road traffic is mentioned in von der Leyen’s distribution of tasks, autonomous driving is not. “Fast and unbureaucratic approval processes for vehicles and routes in the member states are a prerequisite for the rapid development of technologies”, said Schulz. He calls for the EU legal framework for automated and autonomous driving for small-scale production to be extended to large-scale production as well and to be driven forward in order to develop viable business models. With János Allenbach-Ammann
For Apostolos Tzitzikostas, who will be responsible for transport and tourism in the EU Commission, politics runs in the family. His father Georgios was a minister in the early 1990s.
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has now opted for Tzitzikostas junior as EU Commissioner because he – like his father before him – holds staunchly right-wing positions. In the past, for example, Tzitzikostas rejected the Prespa Agreement, which normalized relations between Greece and North Macedonia. In doing so, Tztitzikostas was targeting a nationalist audience.
With this nomination, Prime Minister Mitsotakis is hoping to pacify the right wing of the NeaDimokratia party and capture Tztitzikostas. He was suspected of wanting to found a new party to the right of the ruling conservatives. At Mitsotakis’ request, Tztitzikostas has recently refrained from raising the issue of North Macedonia.
Incidentally, Tztitzikostas is not the only one with political ancestors. The father of the current Greek prime minister, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, was also in politics. And the father of the now-designated transport commissioner worked under him. A political connection across the generations.
It came in handy for Mitsotakis that Tztzikostas, previously governor of the Central Macedonia region, has experience in Brussels. From 2017, Tzitzikostas was Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions and headed it from 2020 to 2022. Many photos from this period show the 46-year-old demonstrating his proximity to decision-makers in Brussels.
Greece is very interested in the transport dossier because of its large fleet of ships. In the traffic and transportation portfolio, the clearly right-wing, nationalistic positions of the trained political scientist should play a subordinate role.
However, Tztitzikostas will now also have to take care of the high-speed rail network in Europe, which EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to connect the EU capitals in the future, including night trains. The Greek rail network is dilapidated to non-existent. Last year, a train accident on the line between Athens and the second largest city, Thessaloniki, revealed the catastrophic conditions. Almost 60 people died in the accident because an inexperienced, underqualified train dispatcher caused two trains to collide on a single-track line.
As Transport Commissioner, Tzitzikostas will also be responsible for making mobility in Europe more sustainable in the future. So far, there is nothing to suggest that he will be very ambitious in this area. According to the mission letter, he will oversee the development of the charging infrastructure and develop a proposal for clean company cars. He is also to draw up an industrial action plan for the automotive sector based on the Draghi report. Similarly, he is to develop a strategy for shipping, a topic he is likely to be much more interested in. He is also likely to be interested in the European port strategy that he is to develop. With his experience as governor of a region, Tztitzikostas is familiar with regional policy and the Cohesion Fund.
Like many Greeks from wealthy families, Tzitzikostas completed his studies at foreign universities. He first studied international relations at the renowned Georgetown University and completed a Master’s degree in European Public Policy in London. Together with his brother, he then ran a company that produced organic milk and yogurt in chic white and black packaging.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas likes to talk about being close to the people. Critics, on the other hand, criticize his paternal habitus as being very conservative. The influence of his parents’ home is clearly noticeable. The ex-King of Greece attended his father’s funeral. Silke Wettach
Olaf Scholz is an avowed fan of the European banking union. “We need a common market for banking services”, emphasized the Federal Chancellor at the German Banking Day in April. He wants to make the capital market union and the banking union a “top priority”.
Now one could argue that a cross-border merger is in the spirit of this banking union. However, now that the major Italian bank Unicredit is preparing to take over the German Commerzbank, Scholz is reacting strongly: it is not an appropriate approach in Europe to “attempt to aggressively acquire stakes in companies using unfriendly methods without any feedback“. At the same time, Hessian Minister President Boris Rhein railed against a “sell-off of our flagships”.
Scholz may feel caught off guard and worry about the financing of domestic SMEs. But at the same time, his reaction debunks the previous lip service: “So much for German support for the banking union”, comments DGAP financial expert Shahin Vallée. “I don’t want to hear any more cheap talk about the capital markets union”, adds Lucas Guttenberg from the Bertelsmann Foundation. Obviously, there is so little trust in the other side that such mergers are being blocked.
A battered, insecure Germany is hunkering down. The attack in Solingen had already triggered nationalist reflexes: CDU leader Friedrich Merz called for asylum seekers to be turned back at Germany’s borders. The migrants should be taken care of by Austrians, Poles or Greeks. Not even Viktor Orbán thinks so stubbornly: The Hungarian wants to close the EU’s external borders instead of the national ones. Nevertheless, Scholz has not yet given in to Merz’s insistence. Till Hoppe
The EPP Group is spending its study days in Naples from now until Friday. EPP leader Manfred Weber wants to talk to the 187 MEPs about competitiveness and cooperation in the Mediterranean region, both in the economy and in the fight against illegal migration.
However, the thematic focus of the days will clearly be on defense and armaments. A separate resolution on this is being drafted and will be adopted on Thursday. Monday was the editorial deadline for contributions from MEPs. In view of Russia’s aggression and growing global instability, the largest group in the EU Parliament wants to commit to strengthening European defense. Europe must thus ensure fair burden-sharing with transatlantic partners.
The Christian Democrats anticipate a financial requirement of €500 billion by 2035 in order to meet the investments that are due. This would require an adequately equipped EU budget. The resolution supports the EU’s first Commissioner for Defense and Space: As the future head of the Defense Agency, the Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius has the task of ensuring good coordination between the defense instruments of the Commission and the Council.
I wish you a successful day!
The first question that needs to be clarified in the area of automotive regulation is: Who is responsible? The overlaps in the portfolios that Ursula von der Leyen wants to define with the structure of her new Commission are already keeping the lobby departments of companies and associations busy. One example: There is to be a transport commissioner who is to draw up an action plan for the European car industry based on the Draghi report. But above the future Transport Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas has been proposed (see Heads in this issue), there is still the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms – the Italian Raffaele Fitto has been appointed.
Another executive vice-president responsible for the competitiveness of European industry in the international arena is Teresa Ribera, who is also leading the work on the Clean Industrial Act (CIA). The CIA is intended to drive forward the market ramp-up of clean tech and attract investment – also important aspects for the automotive industry. Digitalization, which is important for the automotive industry, is the responsibility of another Executive Vice President: Sovereignty Commissioner Henna Virkkunen.
Given the EU climate target for 2040, the Commission must present a further package of climate legislation. The proposals are due in 2026. A greenhouse gas reduction target of minus 90 percent is being discussed. It is expected that the transport sector and manufacturers will have to further drastically reduce their emissions. It remains to be seen what measures will be imposed on the car population or manufacturers of electric cars, for example. The legislative package is being drawn up by Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, with Ribera in charge.
There is also another Executive Vice President: Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné is to present an Industrial Decarbonization Accelerator Act, which will also deal with the steel and aluminum industrial sectors that are important for car manufacturers. Both Séjourné and Ribera are responsible for the hydrogen projects (IPCEI) that are important for e-fuels.
Trade relations with China will continue to occupy the automotive industry in the coming years. Maroš Šefčovič will be in charge of the dossier and will take over from the current Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. The decision as to whether the proposed countervailing duties will be imposed should still be made by Dombrovskis. The Commission’s deadline for concluding its proceedings is Oct. 30.
Transport Commissioner Tzitzikostas is responsible for the further development of the charging infrastructure, while Energy Commissioner-designate Dan Jørgensen is responsible for the provision of energy from renewable sources and the upgrading of the electricity grids. The diffuse allocation of tasks harbors the potential for conflicts both between the executive vice presidents and among the ordinary Commissioners. In the event of conflicts, von der Leyen herself is likely to have the last word. The thicket of responsibilities is also likely to be a challenge for co-legislators, industry and NGOs.
At a legislative level, the most pressing question for the future of the European car industry must be clarified right at the start: Will the CO2 fleet limits for passenger cars still be shaken up? Or will it remain as it was decided a year and a half ago? Will the revision planned for 2026 be brought forward to 2025 in order to adjust limit values or criteria and possibly avert penalties for 2025?
On the one hand, there is the current debate about fines for car manufacturers that do not meet their 2025 targets. If the fines remain in place, some car manufacturers will lack the money to invest in the transformation. Should the Commission suspend the fines after all, those car manufacturers that comply with the rules would be penalized. VW and Renault in particular are counting on the fact that fines will be waived in the event of an early revision. Whether this calculation will work depends on the Parliament and the Council and cannot yet be predicted.
Minister Robert Habeck now supports the move to bring forward a revision, but does not necessarily want to adjust the fleet limits for 2025. He explained that he is concerned with the path to achieving the goal of only bringing climate-neutral new cars onto the market by 2035.
It is still unclear what role e-fuels can play in achieving the fleet targets. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has given her designated Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra the task of taking e-fuels into account in the revision. For the future of EU manufacturers, some of whom continue to rely on combustion engines, the implementation of the recital in fleet legislation will be one of the decisive questions for the new Commission. The aim is to create the legal basis for new registrations of combustion engines that can only be fueled with e-fuels, even beyond 2035 and the planned phase-out of combustion engines.
In addition to the CO2 fleet limits, a revision of the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) is also pending. By the end of this year, the Commission will assess the extent to which heavy goods transport should be taken into account in the charging infrastructure. By 2026 at the latest, the AFIR will be reviewed for both cars and trucks and adapted if necessary.
For the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the current targets for charging infrastructure are not ambitious enough. “By 2030, a Europe-wide fast-charging network with at least 35,000 publicly accessible fast charging points for heavy trucks and buses should be in operation on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)”, says Mitja Schulz, Head of the VDA office in Brussels. The infrastructure must be built up continuously, taking into account the market ramp-up and usage behavior.
Another legislative gap for the VDA is autonomous driving. Although the digitalization of road traffic is mentioned in von der Leyen’s distribution of tasks, autonomous driving is not. “Fast and unbureaucratic approval processes for vehicles and routes in the member states are a prerequisite for the rapid development of technologies”, said Schulz. He calls for the EU legal framework for automated and autonomous driving for small-scale production to be extended to large-scale production as well and to be driven forward in order to develop viable business models. With János Allenbach-Ammann
For Apostolos Tzitzikostas, who will be responsible for transport and tourism in the EU Commission, politics runs in the family. His father Georgios was a minister in the early 1990s.
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has now opted for Tzitzikostas junior as EU Commissioner because he – like his father before him – holds staunchly right-wing positions. In the past, for example, Tzitzikostas rejected the Prespa Agreement, which normalized relations between Greece and North Macedonia. In doing so, Tztitzikostas was targeting a nationalist audience.
With this nomination, Prime Minister Mitsotakis is hoping to pacify the right wing of the NeaDimokratia party and capture Tztitzikostas. He was suspected of wanting to found a new party to the right of the ruling conservatives. At Mitsotakis’ request, Tztitzikostas has recently refrained from raising the issue of North Macedonia.
Incidentally, Tztitzikostas is not the only one with political ancestors. The father of the current Greek prime minister, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, was also in politics. And the father of the now-designated transport commissioner worked under him. A political connection across the generations.
It came in handy for Mitsotakis that Tztzikostas, previously governor of the Central Macedonia region, has experience in Brussels. From 2017, Tzitzikostas was Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions and headed it from 2020 to 2022. Many photos from this period show the 46-year-old demonstrating his proximity to decision-makers in Brussels.
Greece is very interested in the transport dossier because of its large fleet of ships. In the traffic and transportation portfolio, the clearly right-wing, nationalistic positions of the trained political scientist should play a subordinate role.
However, Tztitzikostas will now also have to take care of the high-speed rail network in Europe, which EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to connect the EU capitals in the future, including night trains. The Greek rail network is dilapidated to non-existent. Last year, a train accident on the line between Athens and the second largest city, Thessaloniki, revealed the catastrophic conditions. Almost 60 people died in the accident because an inexperienced, underqualified train dispatcher caused two trains to collide on a single-track line.
As Transport Commissioner, Tzitzikostas will also be responsible for making mobility in Europe more sustainable in the future. So far, there is nothing to suggest that he will be very ambitious in this area. According to the mission letter, he will oversee the development of the charging infrastructure and develop a proposal for clean company cars. He is also to draw up an industrial action plan for the automotive sector based on the Draghi report. Similarly, he is to develop a strategy for shipping, a topic he is likely to be much more interested in. He is also likely to be interested in the European port strategy that he is to develop. With his experience as governor of a region, Tztitzikostas is familiar with regional policy and the Cohesion Fund.
Like many Greeks from wealthy families, Tzitzikostas completed his studies at foreign universities. He first studied international relations at the renowned Georgetown University and completed a Master’s degree in European Public Policy in London. Together with his brother, he then ran a company that produced organic milk and yogurt in chic white and black packaging.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas likes to talk about being close to the people. Critics, on the other hand, criticize his paternal habitus as being very conservative. The influence of his parents’ home is clearly noticeable. The ex-King of Greece attended his father’s funeral. Silke Wettach
Olaf Scholz is an avowed fan of the European banking union. “We need a common market for banking services”, emphasized the Federal Chancellor at the German Banking Day in April. He wants to make the capital market union and the banking union a “top priority”.
Now one could argue that a cross-border merger is in the spirit of this banking union. However, now that the major Italian bank Unicredit is preparing to take over the German Commerzbank, Scholz is reacting strongly: it is not an appropriate approach in Europe to “attempt to aggressively acquire stakes in companies using unfriendly methods without any feedback“. At the same time, Hessian Minister President Boris Rhein railed against a “sell-off of our flagships”.
Scholz may feel caught off guard and worry about the financing of domestic SMEs. But at the same time, his reaction debunks the previous lip service: “So much for German support for the banking union”, comments DGAP financial expert Shahin Vallée. “I don’t want to hear any more cheap talk about the capital markets union”, adds Lucas Guttenberg from the Bertelsmann Foundation. Obviously, there is so little trust in the other side that such mergers are being blocked.
A battered, insecure Germany is hunkering down. The attack in Solingen had already triggered nationalist reflexes: CDU leader Friedrich Merz called for asylum seekers to be turned back at Germany’s borders. The migrants should be taken care of by Austrians, Poles or Greeks. Not even Viktor Orbán thinks so stubbornly: The Hungarian wants to close the EU’s external borders instead of the national ones. Nevertheless, Scholz has not yet given in to Merz’s insistence. Till Hoppe