On Monday and Tuesday, the EU energy ministers will convene for an informal meeting in Brussels. In the run-up to the meeting, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, have spoken out: the EU has finally succeeded in freeing itself from its dependence on gas from Russia, they write in an article for Table.Briefings: “Europe has its energy destiny back in its own hands.”
Von der Leyen and Birol expect gas prices to fall further. The storage facilities were still almost 60 percent full at the end of the heating period, a record figure. In addition, the supply of LNG will increase by around 50 percent over the next few years, thanks to new export capacities, particularly in the USA and Qatar. “As a result, we are on the cusp of a world of gas scarcity becoming a world of gas abundance“, wrote the Commission President and IEA CEO. “This could lead to significantly lower gas prices.”
Their contribution can also be seen as a warning to the energy ministers. According to von der Leyen and Birol, Europe had emerged from the gas crisis because it had acted together and used the strengths of the internal market.
A remarkable sentence from the discussion paper that the Belgian Council Presidency sent to the ministers in advance reminds us that this solidarity cannot be taken for granted: Investments worth billions in cross-border power lines presuppose trust in the free flow of energy across borders, the Belgians write. Topics for energy policy will therefore not only be cost sharing for these billions in expenditure, but also the participation of all electricity customers in the most favorable generation opportunities within the EU.
The governments of the major EU economies are hoping that the Capital Markets Union will makethe European economy more dynamic. One point that has gained attention in the catalog of possible measures in recent weeks is the centralization of capital market supervision.
In February of this year, Bruno Le Maire called for progress in capital market supervision and that, in an emergency, a coalition of the willing without the EU as a whole should go ahead. In March, the ECB then called for greater integration of market supervision in a sharply worded communication.
Central supervision as a catalyst for the Capital Markets Union
Nicolas Véron, Senior Fellow at the Brussels think tank Bruegel and the Peterson Institute in Washington DC, believes that the centralization of market supervision is a sensible step. In contrast to other demands, such as the harmonization of tax law, this is also politically feasible.
Although financial market regulations are the same across the EU in theory, this is not the case in practicebecause national authorities interpret the rules differently. “The bottlenecks today are to be found in the interpretation of the rules, not in the rules themselves”, says Véron. For example, there are uniform accounting standards, but as these are enforced differently by the national authorities, the marketremainsde facto fragmented.
For Véron, the centralization of market supervision is not a miracle cure. Instead, he sees this structural adjustment as a catalyst that could drive the rest of the capital market union agenda forward. A strong central player would have an interest in identifying and removing the remaining market hurdles. He also sees the experience of the banking sector, where the ECB was entrusted with ultimate supervision after the financial crisis, as a positive example.
The heads of government forge ahead
The EU Commission had already attempted to centralize market supervision in 2017, but failed due to national resistance. Even when the EU finance ministers finalized their list of demands for the Capital Markets Union in March of this year, the point on market supervision remained vague. The finance ministers from France, the Netherlands and Italy campaigned in vain for centralized supervision.
Many observers are therefore surprised that the heads of government, who will be discussing this issue next week, seem to be moving faster. The draft conclusions state that market supervision should be improved, “for example by allowing the European Supervisory Authorities to monitorthe most systemically relevant cross-border capital and financial market players“.
It is above all Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron who are driving the issue forward. They want to better link the capital markets in order to get the sluggish private investment moving. The Chancellery is also behind the ambitious timetable of achieving results by the summit in June and then discussing further steps to deepen the Capital Markets Union. In addition to supervisory structures, the negotiations between Paris and Berlin will also focus on the securitization market and a European savings product.
Skepticism with Lindner
However, the Federal Ministry of Finance fears that the heads of government are pushing ahead too quickly, especially when it comes to centralized supervision. At the meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, Christian Lindner said that it should be about cooperation, not centralization: “Because the regional structures are very different and therefore there must also be a differentiated approach. The smaller players in particular must not incur higher costs and more bureaucratic burdens, and certainly not duplicate structures.”
Véron also warns that centralized market supervision must be careful not to loselocal market expertise. However, he emphasizes that there are also often companies that benefit from a special relationship with “their” national regulator. These concerns are also shared to some extent in the financial industry.
ESMA needs to be reformed
For Véron, however, it is also clear that ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) needs to be reinvented anyway if it is to take on a more important role. In his opinion, for example, the decision-making bodies need to become smaller and politically independent.
An EU official emphasized to Table.Briefings that the establishment of centralized market supervision could not happen overnight, but would require a lot of time, personnel and money.
In order to tackle the problem for smaller market players, the EU official believes that an opt-in model is also conceivable. In this model, large cross-border capital market players could voluntarily opt for European supervision instead of national supervision.
Trend-setting EU summit
Nevertheless, the German Ministry for Financial Affairs does not see uniform supervision in Europe as a key factor. From the government experts’ point of view, the comparison often made with banks is also misleading. Asset managers can already set up funds in other member states with a license from their home country, for example, without having to set up their own branch, via so-called passporting. They are therefore still only subject to domestic supervision. According to the argument, Europe-wide supervision would therefore bring few efficiency gains.
The coming week will show whether Lindner’s Ministry of Finance can get through to the Chancellery with these arguments before the summit. Chancellor Scholz is pushing for ambitious reforms internally. In order to facilitate a compromise with France, the German government could therefore possibly also accept a Europeanization of supervision. As an EU diplomat confirmed to Table.Briefings, the German government has so far been satisfied with the current, ambitious wording in the summit conclusions.
EU internal market
Financial market
Wirtschaftspolitik
EPP can hope for backup from Hungary
There have been no Hungarian MEPs in the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2021. Hungarian opposition parties want to change this in the upcoming European elections. “I have good reason to expect that the EPP would accept us“, said Péter Róna, lead candidate of Jobbik Table.Briefings. Róna, who has long been close to the Greens and has made a name for himself in Hungary as a liberal economist, is running in the European elections at the age of 81. Péter Magyar, the new star of Hungarian politics, is also expected in Budapest to join the EPP if he wins the election.
However, Magyar, who is currently leading mass protests against the Orbán government in Hungary, has not yet commented on this. “He is busy maintaining the momentum of the protest movement,” observes Zsuzsanna Szelényi, founding director of the Democracy Institute Leadership Academy at the Central European University in Budapest. In 2021, the Fidesz party left the EPP Group – and thus avoided expulsion. Since then, the EPP Group has had no Hungarian members.
European elections as mood test for Orbán
The aim of the Hungarian opposition in the upcoming European elections is to turn it into a referendum on Orbán, who has now been in power for 14 years. Unlike national or local elections, the European elections are based on proportional representation. The result is therefore likely to reflect the mood in the country much better than the polls based on majority voting, which is otherwise the norm in Hungary. There is only a five percent clause to overcome.
The big question in the European elections will be whether the lawyer Magyar can convert the widespread dissatisfaction with Orbán and his authoritarian regime into votes. Also important: will Magyar draw votes from the Orbán camp or the opposition?
Until recently, Magyar was one of the beneficiaries of the system – with a lucrative job at a state institution. From 2011 to 2015, he worked at the Hungarian Permanent Representation in Brussels. At the time, he stood out for his determination in pushing through Fidesz positions. Now he is leading mass demonstrations with tens of thousands of participants against his former companions.
Magyar: criticism of Orbán and the EU
Magyar was unable to found his own party in time. He wants to run with a party called Tisza, which was founded a year before the parliamentary elections in the city of Eger. He is currently interviewing candidates in order to draw up a list. Hungary currently has 22 MEPs in the European Parliament.
Tisza does not yet have a party program. “We can only deduce what he stands for from his speeches and tweets,” says former MP Szelényi, who left Fidesz in 1994. Magyar wants to forma third political force as an alternative to Fidesz and the opposition, but remains vague in terms of content. He describes the EU as too centralized and bureaucratic and criticizes the Orbán regime as corrupt.
Where does Magyar stand ideologically?
Opponent Róna from Jobbik also criticizes the fact that Magyar has not yet revealed where he stands ideologically. The economist is campaigning for EU funds to flow directly to Hungarian municipalities in the future instead of via the central government. The EU should monitor the distribution directly. Jobbik was an extreme right-wing force, but moved to the center of the political spectrum years ago, which led to the right wing splitting off in 2022 under the name Mi Hazánk Mozgalom.
Just how seriously Fidesz takes the challenger Magyar can be seen from the fact that his likeness was included on a denunciatory poster in which the ruling party portrays opposition politicians as recipients of funds from the USA. A speaker who appeared at the rally in Budapest last Saturday lost his job at a public company.
However, the outcome of the European elections will not change the fact that Orbán can virtually rule with a two-thirds majority in his home parliament. He has had the electoral law changed 25 times during his time in office. Silke Wettach
European election 2024
Hungary
Viktor Orban
EU-Monitoring
April 15-16, 2024 Informal ministerial meeting on energy Topics: Debate on planning, financing and timely delivery of a more integrated energy infrastructure, priorities of the Belgian Presidency, debate on strengthening energy infrastructure and resilience of critical energy infrastructure.Info
April 15-16, 2024 ConferenceHigh-level conference: European Pillar of Social Rights Topics: Adoption of an interinstitutional declaration (La Hulpe Declaration) on the social agenda for the period 2024-2029.Info
April 15, 2024; 3-6:30 p.m. Meeting of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) Topics: Exchanges of views with the Commission on the situation on the agricultural markets, the implementation of EU regulations on the dealcoholization of wines, the situation of organic farming in Europe.Draft agenda
April 16, 2024; 4-5 p.m. Meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) Topics: Exchange of ideas with Milojko Spajić (Prime Minister of Montenegro). Draft agenda
April 17-18, 2024 Extraordinary meeting of the European Council Topics: The heads of state and government meet for consultations. Info
April 17, 2024 Weekly commission meeting Topics: The Commissioners meet for consultations.Draft agenda
April 18-19. 2024 Informal ministerial meeting on consumer protection Topics: Debates on the introduction to the Belgian system for providing information when buying used cars, sustainable online trading, the impact of the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the accessibility of financial services, influencer marketing and the effectiveness of the cooperation network in consumer protection.Info
News
Pieper case: Parliament reprimands Commission
By 382 votes in favor to 144 against, Parliament rebuked the appointment of Markus Pieper (CDU) as the Commission’s SME Envoy. MEPs from the far left to the Greens, Socialists and Liberals to the far right of ID supported the motion, which was voted on as part of the Commission’s budget discharge for 2022. The EPP stood by Pieper and voted against the rebuke.
The EPP criticizes the fact that the motion was allowed by the Parliamentary Bureau at all: They argue that as the tender and the majority of the selection process took place in 2023, the motion could actually only have been voted on when the Commission was discharged next year.
The motion calls on the Commission to rectify the situation by reversing the appointment and starting a “truly transparent and open process for the selection of the SME Envoy”. The complaint has no legal consequences. Meanwhile, the Commission has yet to respond to questions from a group of parliamentarians on the matter.
Pieper takes up his post as SME representative on April 16. mgr
Electricity and gas package: Parliament gives green light
The EU Parliament approved new rules for the European electricity, gas and hydrogen markets on Thursday. The amendment to the Gas Market Directive stipulates, among other things, that gas customers may have their connections terminated in order to meet the goal of climate neutrality. The gas package also lays the foundations for the development of a hydrogen infrastructure.
The plenary also voted in favor of the electricity market reform, which, for example, limitsthe revenues from newly built renewable energy plants. Both the gas and electricity market packages must now be formally adopted by the Council. ber
Due diligence obligations in supply chains: Heil wants to advocate international rules
Following the agreement on the EU supply chain law (CSDDD), Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil wants to push ahead with negotiations on a UN agreement on business and human rights (“UN Treaty”), which is intended to establish corporate due diligence obligations at a global level. He said this at an event on the topic of raw material supply chains in Berlin.
“As the European Union, we must participate vigorously in the negotiations in the UN treaty process”, he emphasized. “With European law, we now have the opportunity to contribute our expertise to fight for a level playing field internationally.”
In 2014, an intergovernmental working group was established in the UN Human Rights Council to draw up a binding international agreement for the protection of human rights in business activities. Since then, nine meetings of the working group have taken place; the tenth meeting is scheduled for Oct. 21-25.
Schulze: ‘German companies have an advantage’
In a joint statement with German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, Heil emphasized that the EU Supply Chain Directive is “a milestone” in the fight for better working and living conditions for many millions of people in supply chains. Following formal approval by the EU Parliament, which is planned for the end of April, the directive must be transposed into national law within two years.
Schulze also stated that she is committed to ensuring that the directive is adopted by the EU Parliament and implemented swiftly. She also responded to the FDP and BDI’s call for the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) to be relaxed: “It is good for German companies in particular if they already comply with high standards of due diligence,” she explained. “This will give them a real advantage over European competitors as soon as the EU directive comes into force. And they are already investing today in the business model of tomorrow”. leo
Human Rights
Raw materials
Sorgfaltspflichten
Supply Chain Act
United Nations
ECJ further clarifies claims for damages under GDPR
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has provided legal clarity in a further ruling on the right to damages in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In its ruling published on Thursday, the judges conclude that the right to damages, as set out in Article 82 GDPR, does not establish a general right to compensation for immaterial damage.
A few months ago, the ECJ had already ruled that compensationwas only possible in the event ofdamage. The judges have now confirmed in a further referral that this applies regardless of the actual amount. There is therefore no de minimis limit.
The “loss of control” was indeed a loss suffered within the meaning of the law. However, if this had no impact, no compensation was appropriate. The specific case concerned the unlawful use of data for direct advertising – despite objections having been raised. According to the judges, it was not possible to assess the damages in accordance with the provisions of Article 83, which regulates the range of fines for penalties imposed by supervisory authorities.
The case was brought by a recipient of advertising who had expressly objected to it. The whole thing was a referral procedure, i.e. the ECJ answered questions from a court.
Data processor does not protect against own liability
The ECJ also clarified that a data controller cannot avoid liability by citing the misconduct of a third party, such as a data processor. Otherwise, this would “impair the practical effectiveness of the right to compensation enshrined in Art. 82 para. 1 GDPR, which would not be in line with the objective of this Regulation to ensure a high level of protection for natural persons with regard to the processing of their personal data.”
With the current ruling, the ECJ has provided further clarification on questions of interpretation that have long been disputed before national courts. The ECJ’s interpretations of the GDPR are directly binding on national courts.
Opinion on the supervisory authorities’ duty to act
In another case, the Advocate General at the ECJ, Priit Pikamäe, presented his opinion on Thursday: Data protection supervisory authorities are obliged to intervene, said Pikamäe, if they discover a breach of the protection of personal data in the context of a complaint. They must examine and take remedial measures that are suitable, necessary and proportionate.
Specifically, these proceedings relate to the conduct of the Hessian Data Protection Commissioner in a complaint regarding the credit rating agency Schufa. A ruling is expected by the summer. fst
Data protection law
Data protection supervision
DSGVO
ECJ
Fico wants to improve energy and transport links with Ukraine
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is considered pro-Russian, wants to intensify cooperation with neighboring Ukraine in the areas of energy, railroad connections and grain transports. After a joint meeting between the Slovakian and Ukrainian governments, Fico said that Slovakia wanted to be a “good, friendly” neighbor of Ukraine.
Fico reiterated on Thursday that Slovakia would continue to allow commercial transactions for military supplies despite the cessation of state military aid. He said the countries had agreed that an old broad-gauge freight train link from Slovakia’s second-largest city of Košice would start passenger services to Kyiv.
In the coming years, they will also modernizethe most important road border crossing and expand the cross-border electricity transmission grids.
Corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products
Fico said that Slovakia would continue to provide a corridor for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who had traveled to the meeting, explained that they had also agreed to workon lifting restrictions on Ukrainian products that Slovakia and other EU countries had introduced to protect their domestic markets.
“Ukraine needs help and Ukraine needs solidarity“, said Fico after the meeting with Schmyhal in eastern Slovakia.
Since taking office last October, Fico has initiated a change in Slovakian foreign policy by stopping state military aid to Kyiv and opening channels of communication with Moscow, despite the EU’s attempts to isolate the Russian government. Nevertheless, Fico was keen to maintain business relations with Kyiv and continue to allow commercial arms deals. rtr/lei
French Prime Minister: CETA beneficial for farmers
The free trade agreement CETA between the European Union and Canada is a “win-win agreement” for both sides and has so far proven to be particularly beneficial for French farmers. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said this on Thursday during an official visit to Ottawa.
“CETA is a win-win agreement”, Attal said at a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He added that the agreement negotiated at EU level was still valid despite ongoing political differences of opinion in France.
The agreement suffered a setback last month when a large majority of French senators voted against ratifying the free trade agreement. Farmers had previously criticized the EU’s liberal trade policy in weeks of protests. rtr
Agricultural Policy
Opinion
Europe has taken its energy destiny back into its own hands
By Ursula von der Leyen and Fatih Birol
Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission. Fatih Birol is Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
Spring has come, Winter has gone. Like last winter, Europe moved out of its second winter since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without energy shortages, blackouts, cold homes or supply cuts. Quite the opposite, Europe ended winter with a remarkable milestone for its energy sector: EU gas storages were almost 60 per cent full, a record amount.
This didn’t grab the headlines, but it matters. Because it shows that Europe has finally loosened the grip that Russia had over its energy sector. Europe has taken its energy destiny back into its own hands.
Let us explain how. Cast your minds back to 2021, well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Already then, Russia was failing to fill gas storages to their usual levels in advance of winter. This was a clear attempt to play on our gas dependence, to increase Russia’s leverage.
Then came the invasion of Ukraine. And President Putin decided that, faced with European solidarity, he would use this leverage against us, against Europe, by cutting gas supplies and using high fuel prices as his weapon.
Europe’s resilience has improved
We all carry the bruises from Putin’s decisions. Europeans have struggled with the resulting pressures on the cost of living. And as gas storage levels ebbed and flowed, they became a barometer of our vulnerability, of our energy insecurity. But that barometer is now stable, trending in the right direction. Our choices were good ones. Europe has made real progress in improving the resilience of its energy system. Gas prices have come down sharply. Since the beginning of this year, they are consistently below 30 Euros per megawatt hour.
What did we do? Europe acted quickly and we acted together. We used the strengths of our single market. We could call on the strengths of our friends that provided us with alternative supplies. By now, the EU’s main supplier of natural gas is Norway, a trusted ally.
Massive investments in renewable energies
But most importantly, we worked on a structural response to this crisis, by investing massively in renewable energy, by boosting energy efficiency. And the results speak for themselves. Two years ago – and these are figures from the International Energy Agency – one in five units of energy consumed in the European Union came from Russian fossil fuels. Today, it is one in twenty. We get more energy overall from renewables in the European Union than from Russia. Last year, in 2023, for the first time ever, we produced more electricity from wind than from gas.
Europe is bringing down its consumption in line with our climate goals. But that doesn’t mean we need to stop thinking about gas markets. Because we’re now heading towards a different set of issues and challenges. A large wave of new LNG exports projects is coming to market in the second half of the decade, mostly from the United States and from Qatar. These projects are going to increase global supply of LNG by 50 per cent. As a result, we’re moving from a world of shortfalls of gas to the opposite, a world where we could soon see an abundance. This could bring significantly lower gas prices.
We need to tackle all sources of emissions
At the same time, the share of gas imports from Russia fell from 45 per cent before the war in Ukraine to 15 per cent last year. Gone are the days of Europe’s dependency on Russia. With the cuts in Russian pipeline deliveries, LNG has now effectively become Europe’s baseload source of gas supply. It will remain important for our energy costs and our energy security for some time to come, even as we build up a new clean energy economy.
But we also remain focused on the broader picture. We are in a climate emergency. In the economy of the future, competitiveness and sustainability must go hand in hand. Affordable prices for energy are a key factor. But cheaper gas does not relieve Europe and other major economies of the responsibility to reach net-zero emissions as soon as possible, and to help other countries do the same. To do so, we need to tackle all sources of emissions, including emissions from gas.
Insisting on near-zero methane emissions
That means insisting on near-zero methane emissions from the gas that we continue to use, whether produced here or imported. It means drastically scaling up renewables, renewable gases, energy efficiency, clean hydrogen and other clean energy technologies.
It also means working hand in hand with industry, and supporting it to build a business model fit for a decarbonized economy. That was the purpose of the Clean Transition Dialogues the Commission organized between November and last week.
In other words, while Europe came out stronger of the past winters, we also remain laser-focused on the lasting solutions to our energy dilemmas.
Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission. Fatih Birol is Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
On Monday and Tuesday, the EU energy ministers will convene for an informal meeting in Brussels. In the run-up to the meeting, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, have spoken out: the EU has finally succeeded in freeing itself from its dependence on gas from Russia, they write in an article for Table.Briefings: “Europe has its energy destiny back in its own hands.”
Von der Leyen and Birol expect gas prices to fall further. The storage facilities were still almost 60 percent full at the end of the heating period, a record figure. In addition, the supply of LNG will increase by around 50 percent over the next few years, thanks to new export capacities, particularly in the USA and Qatar. “As a result, we are on the cusp of a world of gas scarcity becoming a world of gas abundance“, wrote the Commission President and IEA CEO. “This could lead to significantly lower gas prices.”
Their contribution can also be seen as a warning to the energy ministers. According to von der Leyen and Birol, Europe had emerged from the gas crisis because it had acted together and used the strengths of the internal market.
A remarkable sentence from the discussion paper that the Belgian Council Presidency sent to the ministers in advance reminds us that this solidarity cannot be taken for granted: Investments worth billions in cross-border power lines presuppose trust in the free flow of energy across borders, the Belgians write. Topics for energy policy will therefore not only be cost sharing for these billions in expenditure, but also the participation of all electricity customers in the most favorable generation opportunities within the EU.
The governments of the major EU economies are hoping that the Capital Markets Union will makethe European economy more dynamic. One point that has gained attention in the catalog of possible measures in recent weeks is the centralization of capital market supervision.
In February of this year, Bruno Le Maire called for progress in capital market supervision and that, in an emergency, a coalition of the willing without the EU as a whole should go ahead. In March, the ECB then called for greater integration of market supervision in a sharply worded communication.
Central supervision as a catalyst for the Capital Markets Union
Nicolas Véron, Senior Fellow at the Brussels think tank Bruegel and the Peterson Institute in Washington DC, believes that the centralization of market supervision is a sensible step. In contrast to other demands, such as the harmonization of tax law, this is also politically feasible.
Although financial market regulations are the same across the EU in theory, this is not the case in practicebecause national authorities interpret the rules differently. “The bottlenecks today are to be found in the interpretation of the rules, not in the rules themselves”, says Véron. For example, there are uniform accounting standards, but as these are enforced differently by the national authorities, the marketremainsde facto fragmented.
For Véron, the centralization of market supervision is not a miracle cure. Instead, he sees this structural adjustment as a catalyst that could drive the rest of the capital market union agenda forward. A strong central player would have an interest in identifying and removing the remaining market hurdles. He also sees the experience of the banking sector, where the ECB was entrusted with ultimate supervision after the financial crisis, as a positive example.
The heads of government forge ahead
The EU Commission had already attempted to centralize market supervision in 2017, but failed due to national resistance. Even when the EU finance ministers finalized their list of demands for the Capital Markets Union in March of this year, the point on market supervision remained vague. The finance ministers from France, the Netherlands and Italy campaigned in vain for centralized supervision.
Many observers are therefore surprised that the heads of government, who will be discussing this issue next week, seem to be moving faster. The draft conclusions state that market supervision should be improved, “for example by allowing the European Supervisory Authorities to monitorthe most systemically relevant cross-border capital and financial market players“.
It is above all Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron who are driving the issue forward. They want to better link the capital markets in order to get the sluggish private investment moving. The Chancellery is also behind the ambitious timetable of achieving results by the summit in June and then discussing further steps to deepen the Capital Markets Union. In addition to supervisory structures, the negotiations between Paris and Berlin will also focus on the securitization market and a European savings product.
Skepticism with Lindner
However, the Federal Ministry of Finance fears that the heads of government are pushing ahead too quickly, especially when it comes to centralized supervision. At the meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, Christian Lindner said that it should be about cooperation, not centralization: “Because the regional structures are very different and therefore there must also be a differentiated approach. The smaller players in particular must not incur higher costs and more bureaucratic burdens, and certainly not duplicate structures.”
Véron also warns that centralized market supervision must be careful not to loselocal market expertise. However, he emphasizes that there are also often companies that benefit from a special relationship with “their” national regulator. These concerns are also shared to some extent in the financial industry.
ESMA needs to be reformed
For Véron, however, it is also clear that ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) needs to be reinvented anyway if it is to take on a more important role. In his opinion, for example, the decision-making bodies need to become smaller and politically independent.
An EU official emphasized to Table.Briefings that the establishment of centralized market supervision could not happen overnight, but would require a lot of time, personnel and money.
In order to tackle the problem for smaller market players, the EU official believes that an opt-in model is also conceivable. In this model, large cross-border capital market players could voluntarily opt for European supervision instead of national supervision.
Trend-setting EU summit
Nevertheless, the German Ministry for Financial Affairs does not see uniform supervision in Europe as a key factor. From the government experts’ point of view, the comparison often made with banks is also misleading. Asset managers can already set up funds in other member states with a license from their home country, for example, without having to set up their own branch, via so-called passporting. They are therefore still only subject to domestic supervision. According to the argument, Europe-wide supervision would therefore bring few efficiency gains.
The coming week will show whether Lindner’s Ministry of Finance can get through to the Chancellery with these arguments before the summit. Chancellor Scholz is pushing for ambitious reforms internally. In order to facilitate a compromise with France, the German government could therefore possibly also accept a Europeanization of supervision. As an EU diplomat confirmed to Table.Briefings, the German government has so far been satisfied with the current, ambitious wording in the summit conclusions.
EU internal market
Financial market
Wirtschaftspolitik
EPP can hope for backup from Hungary
There have been no Hungarian MEPs in the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2021. Hungarian opposition parties want to change this in the upcoming European elections. “I have good reason to expect that the EPP would accept us“, said Péter Róna, lead candidate of Jobbik Table.Briefings. Róna, who has long been close to the Greens and has made a name for himself in Hungary as a liberal economist, is running in the European elections at the age of 81. Péter Magyar, the new star of Hungarian politics, is also expected in Budapest to join the EPP if he wins the election.
However, Magyar, who is currently leading mass protests against the Orbán government in Hungary, has not yet commented on this. “He is busy maintaining the momentum of the protest movement,” observes Zsuzsanna Szelényi, founding director of the Democracy Institute Leadership Academy at the Central European University in Budapest. In 2021, the Fidesz party left the EPP Group – and thus avoided expulsion. Since then, the EPP Group has had no Hungarian members.
European elections as mood test for Orbán
The aim of the Hungarian opposition in the upcoming European elections is to turn it into a referendum on Orbán, who has now been in power for 14 years. Unlike national or local elections, the European elections are based on proportional representation. The result is therefore likely to reflect the mood in the country much better than the polls based on majority voting, which is otherwise the norm in Hungary. There is only a five percent clause to overcome.
The big question in the European elections will be whether the lawyer Magyar can convert the widespread dissatisfaction with Orbán and his authoritarian regime into votes. Also important: will Magyar draw votes from the Orbán camp or the opposition?
Until recently, Magyar was one of the beneficiaries of the system – with a lucrative job at a state institution. From 2011 to 2015, he worked at the Hungarian Permanent Representation in Brussels. At the time, he stood out for his determination in pushing through Fidesz positions. Now he is leading mass demonstrations with tens of thousands of participants against his former companions.
Magyar: criticism of Orbán and the EU
Magyar was unable to found his own party in time. He wants to run with a party called Tisza, which was founded a year before the parliamentary elections in the city of Eger. He is currently interviewing candidates in order to draw up a list. Hungary currently has 22 MEPs in the European Parliament.
Tisza does not yet have a party program. “We can only deduce what he stands for from his speeches and tweets,” says former MP Szelényi, who left Fidesz in 1994. Magyar wants to forma third political force as an alternative to Fidesz and the opposition, but remains vague in terms of content. He describes the EU as too centralized and bureaucratic and criticizes the Orbán regime as corrupt.
Where does Magyar stand ideologically?
Opponent Róna from Jobbik also criticizes the fact that Magyar has not yet revealed where he stands ideologically. The economist is campaigning for EU funds to flow directly to Hungarian municipalities in the future instead of via the central government. The EU should monitor the distribution directly. Jobbik was an extreme right-wing force, but moved to the center of the political spectrum years ago, which led to the right wing splitting off in 2022 under the name Mi Hazánk Mozgalom.
Just how seriously Fidesz takes the challenger Magyar can be seen from the fact that his likeness was included on a denunciatory poster in which the ruling party portrays opposition politicians as recipients of funds from the USA. A speaker who appeared at the rally in Budapest last Saturday lost his job at a public company.
However, the outcome of the European elections will not change the fact that Orbán can virtually rule with a two-thirds majority in his home parliament. He has had the electoral law changed 25 times during his time in office. Silke Wettach
European election 2024
Hungary
Viktor Orban
EU-Monitoring
April 15-16, 2024 Informal ministerial meeting on energy Topics: Debate on planning, financing and timely delivery of a more integrated energy infrastructure, priorities of the Belgian Presidency, debate on strengthening energy infrastructure and resilience of critical energy infrastructure.Info
April 15-16, 2024 ConferenceHigh-level conference: European Pillar of Social Rights Topics: Adoption of an interinstitutional declaration (La Hulpe Declaration) on the social agenda for the period 2024-2029.Info
April 15, 2024; 3-6:30 p.m. Meeting of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) Topics: Exchanges of views with the Commission on the situation on the agricultural markets, the implementation of EU regulations on the dealcoholization of wines, the situation of organic farming in Europe.Draft agenda
April 16, 2024; 4-5 p.m. Meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) Topics: Exchange of ideas with Milojko Spajić (Prime Minister of Montenegro). Draft agenda
April 17-18, 2024 Extraordinary meeting of the European Council Topics: The heads of state and government meet for consultations. Info
April 17, 2024 Weekly commission meeting Topics: The Commissioners meet for consultations.Draft agenda
April 18-19. 2024 Informal ministerial meeting on consumer protection Topics: Debates on the introduction to the Belgian system for providing information when buying used cars, sustainable online trading, the impact of the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the accessibility of financial services, influencer marketing and the effectiveness of the cooperation network in consumer protection.Info
News
Pieper case: Parliament reprimands Commission
By 382 votes in favor to 144 against, Parliament rebuked the appointment of Markus Pieper (CDU) as the Commission’s SME Envoy. MEPs from the far left to the Greens, Socialists and Liberals to the far right of ID supported the motion, which was voted on as part of the Commission’s budget discharge for 2022. The EPP stood by Pieper and voted against the rebuke.
The EPP criticizes the fact that the motion was allowed by the Parliamentary Bureau at all: They argue that as the tender and the majority of the selection process took place in 2023, the motion could actually only have been voted on when the Commission was discharged next year.
The motion calls on the Commission to rectify the situation by reversing the appointment and starting a “truly transparent and open process for the selection of the SME Envoy”. The complaint has no legal consequences. Meanwhile, the Commission has yet to respond to questions from a group of parliamentarians on the matter.
Pieper takes up his post as SME representative on April 16. mgr
Electricity and gas package: Parliament gives green light
The EU Parliament approved new rules for the European electricity, gas and hydrogen markets on Thursday. The amendment to the Gas Market Directive stipulates, among other things, that gas customers may have their connections terminated in order to meet the goal of climate neutrality. The gas package also lays the foundations for the development of a hydrogen infrastructure.
The plenary also voted in favor of the electricity market reform, which, for example, limitsthe revenues from newly built renewable energy plants. Both the gas and electricity market packages must now be formally adopted by the Council. ber
Due diligence obligations in supply chains: Heil wants to advocate international rules
Following the agreement on the EU supply chain law (CSDDD), Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil wants to push ahead with negotiations on a UN agreement on business and human rights (“UN Treaty”), which is intended to establish corporate due diligence obligations at a global level. He said this at an event on the topic of raw material supply chains in Berlin.
“As the European Union, we must participate vigorously in the negotiations in the UN treaty process”, he emphasized. “With European law, we now have the opportunity to contribute our expertise to fight for a level playing field internationally.”
In 2014, an intergovernmental working group was established in the UN Human Rights Council to draw up a binding international agreement for the protection of human rights in business activities. Since then, nine meetings of the working group have taken place; the tenth meeting is scheduled for Oct. 21-25.
Schulze: ‘German companies have an advantage’
In a joint statement with German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, Heil emphasized that the EU Supply Chain Directive is “a milestone” in the fight for better working and living conditions for many millions of people in supply chains. Following formal approval by the EU Parliament, which is planned for the end of April, the directive must be transposed into national law within two years.
Schulze also stated that she is committed to ensuring that the directive is adopted by the EU Parliament and implemented swiftly. She also responded to the FDP and BDI’s call for the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) to be relaxed: “It is good for German companies in particular if they already comply with high standards of due diligence,” she explained. “This will give them a real advantage over European competitors as soon as the EU directive comes into force. And they are already investing today in the business model of tomorrow”. leo
Human Rights
Raw materials
Sorgfaltspflichten
Supply Chain Act
United Nations
ECJ further clarifies claims for damages under GDPR
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has provided legal clarity in a further ruling on the right to damages in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In its ruling published on Thursday, the judges conclude that the right to damages, as set out in Article 82 GDPR, does not establish a general right to compensation for immaterial damage.
A few months ago, the ECJ had already ruled that compensationwas only possible in the event ofdamage. The judges have now confirmed in a further referral that this applies regardless of the actual amount. There is therefore no de minimis limit.
The “loss of control” was indeed a loss suffered within the meaning of the law. However, if this had no impact, no compensation was appropriate. The specific case concerned the unlawful use of data for direct advertising – despite objections having been raised. According to the judges, it was not possible to assess the damages in accordance with the provisions of Article 83, which regulates the range of fines for penalties imposed by supervisory authorities.
The case was brought by a recipient of advertising who had expressly objected to it. The whole thing was a referral procedure, i.e. the ECJ answered questions from a court.
Data processor does not protect against own liability
The ECJ also clarified that a data controller cannot avoid liability by citing the misconduct of a third party, such as a data processor. Otherwise, this would “impair the practical effectiveness of the right to compensation enshrined in Art. 82 para. 1 GDPR, which would not be in line with the objective of this Regulation to ensure a high level of protection for natural persons with regard to the processing of their personal data.”
With the current ruling, the ECJ has provided further clarification on questions of interpretation that have long been disputed before national courts. The ECJ’s interpretations of the GDPR are directly binding on national courts.
Opinion on the supervisory authorities’ duty to act
In another case, the Advocate General at the ECJ, Priit Pikamäe, presented his opinion on Thursday: Data protection supervisory authorities are obliged to intervene, said Pikamäe, if they discover a breach of the protection of personal data in the context of a complaint. They must examine and take remedial measures that are suitable, necessary and proportionate.
Specifically, these proceedings relate to the conduct of the Hessian Data Protection Commissioner in a complaint regarding the credit rating agency Schufa. A ruling is expected by the summer. fst
Data protection law
Data protection supervision
DSGVO
ECJ
Fico wants to improve energy and transport links with Ukraine
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is considered pro-Russian, wants to intensify cooperation with neighboring Ukraine in the areas of energy, railroad connections and grain transports. After a joint meeting between the Slovakian and Ukrainian governments, Fico said that Slovakia wanted to be a “good, friendly” neighbor of Ukraine.
Fico reiterated on Thursday that Slovakia would continue to allow commercial transactions for military supplies despite the cessation of state military aid. He said the countries had agreed that an old broad-gauge freight train link from Slovakia’s second-largest city of Košice would start passenger services to Kyiv.
In the coming years, they will also modernizethe most important road border crossing and expand the cross-border electricity transmission grids.
Corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products
Fico said that Slovakia would continue to provide a corridor for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who had traveled to the meeting, explained that they had also agreed to workon lifting restrictions on Ukrainian products that Slovakia and other EU countries had introduced to protect their domestic markets.
“Ukraine needs help and Ukraine needs solidarity“, said Fico after the meeting with Schmyhal in eastern Slovakia.
Since taking office last October, Fico has initiated a change in Slovakian foreign policy by stopping state military aid to Kyiv and opening channels of communication with Moscow, despite the EU’s attempts to isolate the Russian government. Nevertheless, Fico was keen to maintain business relations with Kyiv and continue to allow commercial arms deals. rtr/lei
French Prime Minister: CETA beneficial for farmers
The free trade agreement CETA between the European Union and Canada is a “win-win agreement” for both sides and has so far proven to be particularly beneficial for French farmers. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said this on Thursday during an official visit to Ottawa.
“CETA is a win-win agreement”, Attal said at a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He added that the agreement negotiated at EU level was still valid despite ongoing political differences of opinion in France.
The agreement suffered a setback last month when a large majority of French senators voted against ratifying the free trade agreement. Farmers had previously criticized the EU’s liberal trade policy in weeks of protests. rtr
Agricultural Policy
Opinion
Europe has taken its energy destiny back into its own hands
By Ursula von der Leyen and Fatih Birol
Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission. Fatih Birol is Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
Spring has come, Winter has gone. Like last winter, Europe moved out of its second winter since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without energy shortages, blackouts, cold homes or supply cuts. Quite the opposite, Europe ended winter with a remarkable milestone for its energy sector: EU gas storages were almost 60 per cent full, a record amount.
This didn’t grab the headlines, but it matters. Because it shows that Europe has finally loosened the grip that Russia had over its energy sector. Europe has taken its energy destiny back into its own hands.
Let us explain how. Cast your minds back to 2021, well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Already then, Russia was failing to fill gas storages to their usual levels in advance of winter. This was a clear attempt to play on our gas dependence, to increase Russia’s leverage.
Then came the invasion of Ukraine. And President Putin decided that, faced with European solidarity, he would use this leverage against us, against Europe, by cutting gas supplies and using high fuel prices as his weapon.
Europe’s resilience has improved
We all carry the bruises from Putin’s decisions. Europeans have struggled with the resulting pressures on the cost of living. And as gas storage levels ebbed and flowed, they became a barometer of our vulnerability, of our energy insecurity. But that barometer is now stable, trending in the right direction. Our choices were good ones. Europe has made real progress in improving the resilience of its energy system. Gas prices have come down sharply. Since the beginning of this year, they are consistently below 30 Euros per megawatt hour.
What did we do? Europe acted quickly and we acted together. We used the strengths of our single market. We could call on the strengths of our friends that provided us with alternative supplies. By now, the EU’s main supplier of natural gas is Norway, a trusted ally.
Massive investments in renewable energies
But most importantly, we worked on a structural response to this crisis, by investing massively in renewable energy, by boosting energy efficiency. And the results speak for themselves. Two years ago – and these are figures from the International Energy Agency – one in five units of energy consumed in the European Union came from Russian fossil fuels. Today, it is one in twenty. We get more energy overall from renewables in the European Union than from Russia. Last year, in 2023, for the first time ever, we produced more electricity from wind than from gas.
Europe is bringing down its consumption in line with our climate goals. But that doesn’t mean we need to stop thinking about gas markets. Because we’re now heading towards a different set of issues and challenges. A large wave of new LNG exports projects is coming to market in the second half of the decade, mostly from the United States and from Qatar. These projects are going to increase global supply of LNG by 50 per cent. As a result, we’re moving from a world of shortfalls of gas to the opposite, a world where we could soon see an abundance. This could bring significantly lower gas prices.
We need to tackle all sources of emissions
At the same time, the share of gas imports from Russia fell from 45 per cent before the war in Ukraine to 15 per cent last year. Gone are the days of Europe’s dependency on Russia. With the cuts in Russian pipeline deliveries, LNG has now effectively become Europe’s baseload source of gas supply. It will remain important for our energy costs and our energy security for some time to come, even as we build up a new clean energy economy.
But we also remain focused on the broader picture. We are in a climate emergency. In the economy of the future, competitiveness and sustainability must go hand in hand. Affordable prices for energy are a key factor. But cheaper gas does not relieve Europe and other major economies of the responsibility to reach net-zero emissions as soon as possible, and to help other countries do the same. To do so, we need to tackle all sources of emissions, including emissions from gas.
Insisting on near-zero methane emissions
That means insisting on near-zero methane emissions from the gas that we continue to use, whether produced here or imported. It means drastically scaling up renewables, renewable gases, energy efficiency, clean hydrogen and other clean energy technologies.
It also means working hand in hand with industry, and supporting it to build a business model fit for a decarbonized economy. That was the purpose of the Clean Transition Dialogues the Commission organized between November and last week.
In other words, while Europe came out stronger of the past winters, we also remain laser-focused on the lasting solutions to our energy dilemmas.
Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission. Fatih Birol is Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
