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The chaos is perfect. This morning, the EU Parliament is not only voting on a later implementation deadline for the EU rules on deforestation-free supply chains – the law on this already came into force in June 2023. The regulation could also be significantly weakened if the EPP’s 15 amendments receive even partial approval.
As the Greens and Social Democrats are clearly opposed to the amendments, the EPP would probably only be able to push them through with votes from right-wing parties such as the AfD. In this case, there is a risk of a blockade: Parliament would have to negotiate the amendments with the Council in a trilogue procedure. However, there would probably not be a majority among the member states.
Greens and Social Democrats warn of the uncertainty that the situation creates for affected companies and trading partners – and accuse the EPP of contradictory behavior. After all, it was fellow EPP member and Commissioner-designate for Agriculture Christophe Hansen who negotiated the regulation as rapporteur. The EPP also appears not to have kept informal agreements with the Liberals and Social Democrats.
There is only a clear perspective in one case: if none of the amendments but only the postponement receives a majority (which is likely), it can enter into force directly. The member states have already agreed to this.
Whichever way you look at it: The big losers will be those companies that relied on the original plan and would have been ready to go by the end of 2024.
The power struggle in the European Parliament over the new Commission came to a head on Wednesday. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen received the leaders of the EPP, S&D and Renew political groups at the Berlaymont yesterday to calm the waters. The one-and-a-half hour meeting with Manfred Weber, Iratxe García Pérez and Valérie Hayer did not produce any concrete results, according to Parliament afterwards, but they wanted to continue talking to each other.
In the evening, Parliament President Roberta Metsola also met with the group leaders. Metsola said that there was still time before the planned vote on the new Commission on Nov. 27 and that Parliament was “fully committed to getting the new Commission in place”. The first few months of a new legislative period are always difficult, “but what is important is that we work together”, said the EPP politician.
Previously, the Social Democrats had barely concealed their threat to refuse to give their consent to the new Commission and to break off cooperation with the EPP. The Christian Democrats under Manfred Weber had broken the agreement of the pro-European groups after the European elections through his “irresponsible behavior”, according to a statement by the S&D Group. “In recent days, we have seen that the EPP leadership is willing to risk the stability of the European institutions in a difficult geopolitical climate.”
The conflict is sparked by the pending vote on the six Vice-Presidents of the EU Commission and the Hungarian candidate Olivér Várhelyi, but the roots go deeper. The Social Democrats say that the pain threshold has been reached. In recent weeks, the EPP has sometimes openly voted with the far-right groups, for example in the Venezuela resolution or in a resolution on the budget at the end of October. The pro-European majority cannot work, according to S&D Group Vice-President Kathleen Van Brempt, “if the EPP continues to cross the line by cooperating with extreme parties”.
From the S&D perspective, the verbal attacks from the ranks of the EPP against the designated Vice-President Teresa Ribera at the hearing on Tuesday evening were the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Spanish PP MEPs accused the Socialist Environment Minister, who is still in office, of being partly responsible for the flood disaster in Valencia. Yesterday, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to withdraw Ribera as a candidate.
In EPP circles, it was said that Ribera should face the hearing in parliament in Madrid next Wednesday and clear the air before she becomes Vice-President. Moreover, the performance of the designated Vice-President did not convince even specialist politicians. Socialists and liberals must now assume their institutional responsibility. Weber continues to insist on voting on all seven open Commission staff positions as a package.
The Socialists and Democrats see the vote on the new Commission as the strongest lever they still have to commit the EPP to working with them and the Liberals. Specifically, they are reportedly demanding that the EPP immediately clears the way for five of the six Vice-Presidents, including Ribera. The S&D’s own approval of the Italian candidate Raffaele Fitto is conditional on him not becoming Vice-President. Health Commissioner-designate Várhelyi is to relinquish certain areas of responsibility, such as reproductive medicine and pandemic management.
The Liberals share many of the S&D’s criticisms of the Christian Democrats, but are trying to mediate. Group leader Valérie Hayer yesterday called for a “coalition agreement between the central groups in this House to put an end to the irresponsible games once and for all”. The actual purpose of the hearings had been damaged by the “political games”.
However, Weber and von der Leyen do not want to be tied to the S&D, Liberals and Greens alone. The Christian Democrats are in a strong position because no majorities are possible in parliament without them. The option of cooperating with the right-wing groups gives them a strong lever to gain concessions from the Social Democrats and Liberals.
In the EPP, it is said that S&D has not yet realized the new majorities. In the last legislature, the Christian Democrats were in a position where the centre-left was able to organize its own majorities. Today it is the other way around.
Expectations are high for the first European Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen. After all, according to a post-election survey, the rising cost of housing and living mobilized many voters in this summer’s European elections. “European funding can’t solve everything,” Jørgensen said in his hearing, trying to capture some of the hopes. After all, the EU has almost no powers of its own in this area.
One of the levers the Union has when it comes to housing: money. Green budget politician Rasmus Andresen is therefore calling for more resources to be mobilized for the creation of social and affordable housing in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework in the form of a fund: “Especially when we talk about the issue of social cohesion, housing is an issue where the EU must prove itself and also take money into its own hands,” Andresen told Table.Briefings.
Whether this will succeed is another question, as the money for the upcoming EU budget is already highly controversial. Finnish ex-President Sauli Niinistö’s call for up to 20 percent of the EU budget to be allocated to crisis preparedness has recently been prominent. Jørgensen did not express himself clearly in this respect at the hearing. What he promised instead: to double the resources in the Cohesion Fund for housing to around €14 billion.
However, the current Cohesion Fund has already been worked out and the funds have already been allocated. But Andresen believes that these could certainly be reallocated, as not everything is always called up. “If there is room for maneuver, we should make it possible,” he believes. The advantage: this measure could be implemented quite quickly.
Of course, the money still has to be drawn down. And: 14 billion is just a drop in the ocean compared to the high costs of social and affordable housing. In 2018, the High-Level Task Force put the investment gap in affordable housing at around €57 billion per year in a highly regarded study. Since then, experts believe that little has changed in terms of the blatant underfunding, if the need for this has not become even greater.
Jørgensen knows this too. In his hearing, he emphasized: “We will not be able to solve the problem with state funds alone.” We need money from private investors. “In the best-case scenario, we collect three, four or five private euros for every state euro,” said the Commissioner-designate for Energy and Housing.
But how can this be achieved? The pan-European investment platform that Jørgensen wants to set up with the European Investment Bank (EIB) is central to this. Work on this is already underway, with EIB circles stating that the basic outline of such a platform should be ready by the first quarter of 2025.
The EIB is already granting loans to enable affordable housing and energy-efficient renovations. For the pan-European investment platform, national development banks and other stakeholders should ideally also be brought on board to finance even more projects, according to the mission letter to Jørgensen.
The advantage of financing via the EIB is that the loans are quite cheap. Thanks to its triple AAA rating, the EIB has easy access to money and also has a long-term repayment horizon. However, the EIB has never provided the total amount to date; borrowers must provide co-financing.
However, the financial bar for EIB projects is currently so high that many investors cannot even be considered, criticizes Andreas Ibel, President of Build Europe, which represents private property developers at European level: “Currently, it is mainly neighbourhood planning projects and large corporations that are being supported. Small and medium-sized enterprises are not included.” He calls for access to be opened up to smaller developers.
Barbara Steenbergen also thinks this is important. She heads the Brussels office of the International Union of Tenants (IUT). However, when it comes to the question of who should be prioritized for funding, the tenant protector has very different ideas to Ibel. She told Table.Briefings: “Funding must primarily go to charitable and non-profit organizations.” They would also like to do more in this area and would be delighted to receive help from the EIB. She believes: “We have left far too much of the housing sector to the private sector in recent years. We can see what that has led to: There is hardly any affordable housing left.”
Budget politician Andresen believes that another possible way to boost European funding is to change the co-financing rules. At least for non-profit housing. “It’s particularly difficult for cash-strapped municipalities to mobilize the necessary own funds. Willing actors who would like to create affordable housing are currently being thwarted by the requirements for own funds.”
But how much can the pan-European investment platform actually achieve? Opinions differ on this. Steenbergen thinks: “It could achieve a great deal, especially if charitable and social organizations are given preferential support.” Ibel, on the other hand, says: “Funding is not the most important thing. What would bring us more would be fewer burdens, especially no new guidelines and fewer taxes.”
The EU does not have legislative powers when it comes to taxes. However, Ibel welcomes the fact that Jørgensen also wants to improve the dialog between the states. Above all, he hopes that the examples from Spain, Luxembourg and Canada will set a precedent – where VAT on rental housing was recently either reduced or abolished altogether. “Engaging in an exchange would be a key building block,” says Ibel.
Housing Commissioner-designate Jørgensen wants to start talking soon. He has announced that he will enter into a dialog with all relevant stakeholders in the housing sector during his first 100 days in office. The results will then be incorporated into the first European Affordable Housing Plan and the European Housing Strategy.
The extension of the Eucap mission comes at a favorable time for Europe: In Mali, the first signs of a certain disillusionment with Russian military cooperation are emerging. While the mercenaries of the Wagner force were still celebrated as saviors when they arrived in December 2021, the halo is gone. Dozens of Russians and Malian soldiers died in July in a battle with Tuareg rebels and jihadists in the far north. This was practically the first time that Wagner had to fight a real opponent, man against man. A sandstorm in the desert prevented the Russians from flying their drones – their main weapon against often poorly armed jihadists.
It is too early to talk about tensions between Wagner and the Malian government, which pays dearly for the mercenary services. But there are already a few long faces, especially as there was little to be seen of Wagner during an attack by jihadists at Bamako airport in September. The Russians have a base there, but did not show up for hours when fighters were on the airport grounds. Another example: A convoy of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers has been traveling north for weeks to make up for the defeat in July. But there has been no attack, instead there are reports of logistical problems. Obviously, the mercenaries are no longer as willing to take risks as before. Malian expectations were unrealistic from the outset: What could around 1,000 to 1,200 Wagner mercenaries do better than more than 5,000 French soldiers in the Sahel?
Dealing with Mali’s military government and its pan-African power trip has been difficult in recent years. France in particular has reduced relations to almost zero. But there is too much at stake for Europe to break off contact now. The best example is migration: Around 200,000 Malians have fled from the center of the country, where the conflict with jihadists is raging, to the neighboring country of Mauritania. The flight is a direct result of the Wagner operation, because the Russians are fighting there with the Malian army against jihadists and often do not distinguish between civilians and fighters. In March 2022, they killed more than 500 people in the jihadist-controlled village of Moura. According to the United Nations, most of the victims were civilians.
Many refugees then try to reach the Canary Islands by boat from Mauritania. Malians are among the top 3 arrivals there for the first time this year. The re-election of Donald Trump is likely to exacerbate this trend, as the United States is likely to close the equally booming flight route from Mauritania to Nicaragua with Turkish Airlines and more migrants will then switch to the boats to Spain.
Extending the mandate is a way for the EU to stay in contact with Mali and offer itself as an alternative to Russia. Wagner will fail at some point, that is clear. Then it will be good for Europe to maintain its presence in the Sahel country. The new mandate is also an important step for another reason: Europe has finally broken away a little from the unpopular former colonial power France, which did not really want to continue Eucap. France withdrew its trainers from the mission in 2022 when the dispute with the junta escalated. At that time, the French army also withdrew from northern Mali and later had to leave neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Since then, Paris has exerted pressure on the EU to reduce relations with the Juntas and has also brought down the EU training mission for the Malian military, EUTM. Spain had actually wanted to continue this, but did not dare to confront France. The fact that the other EU members now want to extend Eucap is a first welcome emancipation from Paris in the Sahel.
Ulf Laessing is head of the Sahel regional program of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali.
The chaos is perfect. This morning, the EU Parliament is not only voting on a later implementation deadline for the EU rules on deforestation-free supply chains – the law on this already came into force in June 2023. The regulation could also be significantly weakened if the EPP’s 15 amendments receive even partial approval.
As the Greens and Social Democrats are clearly opposed to the amendments, the EPP would probably only be able to push them through with votes from right-wing parties such as the AfD. In this case, there is a risk of a blockade: Parliament would have to negotiate the amendments with the Council in a trilogue procedure. However, there would probably not be a majority among the member states.
Greens and Social Democrats warn of the uncertainty that the situation creates for affected companies and trading partners – and accuse the EPP of contradictory behavior. After all, it was fellow EPP member and Commissioner-designate for Agriculture Christophe Hansen who negotiated the regulation as rapporteur. The EPP also appears not to have kept informal agreements with the Liberals and Social Democrats.
There is only a clear perspective in one case: if none of the amendments but only the postponement receives a majority (which is likely), it can enter into force directly. The member states have already agreed to this.
Whichever way you look at it: The big losers will be those companies that relied on the original plan and would have been ready to go by the end of 2024.
The power struggle in the European Parliament over the new Commission came to a head on Wednesday. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen received the leaders of the EPP, S&D and Renew political groups at the Berlaymont yesterday to calm the waters. The one-and-a-half hour meeting with Manfred Weber, Iratxe García Pérez and Valérie Hayer did not produce any concrete results, according to Parliament afterwards, but they wanted to continue talking to each other.
In the evening, Parliament President Roberta Metsola also met with the group leaders. Metsola said that there was still time before the planned vote on the new Commission on Nov. 27 and that Parliament was “fully committed to getting the new Commission in place”. The first few months of a new legislative period are always difficult, “but what is important is that we work together”, said the EPP politician.
Previously, the Social Democrats had barely concealed their threat to refuse to give their consent to the new Commission and to break off cooperation with the EPP. The Christian Democrats under Manfred Weber had broken the agreement of the pro-European groups after the European elections through his “irresponsible behavior”, according to a statement by the S&D Group. “In recent days, we have seen that the EPP leadership is willing to risk the stability of the European institutions in a difficult geopolitical climate.”
The conflict is sparked by the pending vote on the six Vice-Presidents of the EU Commission and the Hungarian candidate Olivér Várhelyi, but the roots go deeper. The Social Democrats say that the pain threshold has been reached. In recent weeks, the EPP has sometimes openly voted with the far-right groups, for example in the Venezuela resolution or in a resolution on the budget at the end of October. The pro-European majority cannot work, according to S&D Group Vice-President Kathleen Van Brempt, “if the EPP continues to cross the line by cooperating with extreme parties”.
From the S&D perspective, the verbal attacks from the ranks of the EPP against the designated Vice-President Teresa Ribera at the hearing on Tuesday evening were the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Spanish PP MEPs accused the Socialist Environment Minister, who is still in office, of being partly responsible for the flood disaster in Valencia. Yesterday, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to withdraw Ribera as a candidate.
In EPP circles, it was said that Ribera should face the hearing in parliament in Madrid next Wednesday and clear the air before she becomes Vice-President. Moreover, the performance of the designated Vice-President did not convince even specialist politicians. Socialists and liberals must now assume their institutional responsibility. Weber continues to insist on voting on all seven open Commission staff positions as a package.
The Socialists and Democrats see the vote on the new Commission as the strongest lever they still have to commit the EPP to working with them and the Liberals. Specifically, they are reportedly demanding that the EPP immediately clears the way for five of the six Vice-Presidents, including Ribera. The S&D’s own approval of the Italian candidate Raffaele Fitto is conditional on him not becoming Vice-President. Health Commissioner-designate Várhelyi is to relinquish certain areas of responsibility, such as reproductive medicine and pandemic management.
The Liberals share many of the S&D’s criticisms of the Christian Democrats, but are trying to mediate. Group leader Valérie Hayer yesterday called for a “coalition agreement between the central groups in this House to put an end to the irresponsible games once and for all”. The actual purpose of the hearings had been damaged by the “political games”.
However, Weber and von der Leyen do not want to be tied to the S&D, Liberals and Greens alone. The Christian Democrats are in a strong position because no majorities are possible in parliament without them. The option of cooperating with the right-wing groups gives them a strong lever to gain concessions from the Social Democrats and Liberals.
In the EPP, it is said that S&D has not yet realized the new majorities. In the last legislature, the Christian Democrats were in a position where the centre-left was able to organize its own majorities. Today it is the other way around.
Expectations are high for the first European Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen. After all, according to a post-election survey, the rising cost of housing and living mobilized many voters in this summer’s European elections. “European funding can’t solve everything,” Jørgensen said in his hearing, trying to capture some of the hopes. After all, the EU has almost no powers of its own in this area.
One of the levers the Union has when it comes to housing: money. Green budget politician Rasmus Andresen is therefore calling for more resources to be mobilized for the creation of social and affordable housing in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework in the form of a fund: “Especially when we talk about the issue of social cohesion, housing is an issue where the EU must prove itself and also take money into its own hands,” Andresen told Table.Briefings.
Whether this will succeed is another question, as the money for the upcoming EU budget is already highly controversial. Finnish ex-President Sauli Niinistö’s call for up to 20 percent of the EU budget to be allocated to crisis preparedness has recently been prominent. Jørgensen did not express himself clearly in this respect at the hearing. What he promised instead: to double the resources in the Cohesion Fund for housing to around €14 billion.
However, the current Cohesion Fund has already been worked out and the funds have already been allocated. But Andresen believes that these could certainly be reallocated, as not everything is always called up. “If there is room for maneuver, we should make it possible,” he believes. The advantage: this measure could be implemented quite quickly.
Of course, the money still has to be drawn down. And: 14 billion is just a drop in the ocean compared to the high costs of social and affordable housing. In 2018, the High-Level Task Force put the investment gap in affordable housing at around €57 billion per year in a highly regarded study. Since then, experts believe that little has changed in terms of the blatant underfunding, if the need for this has not become even greater.
Jørgensen knows this too. In his hearing, he emphasized: “We will not be able to solve the problem with state funds alone.” We need money from private investors. “In the best-case scenario, we collect three, four or five private euros for every state euro,” said the Commissioner-designate for Energy and Housing.
But how can this be achieved? The pan-European investment platform that Jørgensen wants to set up with the European Investment Bank (EIB) is central to this. Work on this is already underway, with EIB circles stating that the basic outline of such a platform should be ready by the first quarter of 2025.
The EIB is already granting loans to enable affordable housing and energy-efficient renovations. For the pan-European investment platform, national development banks and other stakeholders should ideally also be brought on board to finance even more projects, according to the mission letter to Jørgensen.
The advantage of financing via the EIB is that the loans are quite cheap. Thanks to its triple AAA rating, the EIB has easy access to money and also has a long-term repayment horizon. However, the EIB has never provided the total amount to date; borrowers must provide co-financing.
However, the financial bar for EIB projects is currently so high that many investors cannot even be considered, criticizes Andreas Ibel, President of Build Europe, which represents private property developers at European level: “Currently, it is mainly neighbourhood planning projects and large corporations that are being supported. Small and medium-sized enterprises are not included.” He calls for access to be opened up to smaller developers.
Barbara Steenbergen also thinks this is important. She heads the Brussels office of the International Union of Tenants (IUT). However, when it comes to the question of who should be prioritized for funding, the tenant protector has very different ideas to Ibel. She told Table.Briefings: “Funding must primarily go to charitable and non-profit organizations.” They would also like to do more in this area and would be delighted to receive help from the EIB. She believes: “We have left far too much of the housing sector to the private sector in recent years. We can see what that has led to: There is hardly any affordable housing left.”
Budget politician Andresen believes that another possible way to boost European funding is to change the co-financing rules. At least for non-profit housing. “It’s particularly difficult for cash-strapped municipalities to mobilize the necessary own funds. Willing actors who would like to create affordable housing are currently being thwarted by the requirements for own funds.”
But how much can the pan-European investment platform actually achieve? Opinions differ on this. Steenbergen thinks: “It could achieve a great deal, especially if charitable and social organizations are given preferential support.” Ibel, on the other hand, says: “Funding is not the most important thing. What would bring us more would be fewer burdens, especially no new guidelines and fewer taxes.”
The EU does not have legislative powers when it comes to taxes. However, Ibel welcomes the fact that Jørgensen also wants to improve the dialog between the states. Above all, he hopes that the examples from Spain, Luxembourg and Canada will set a precedent – where VAT on rental housing was recently either reduced or abolished altogether. “Engaging in an exchange would be a key building block,” says Ibel.
Housing Commissioner-designate Jørgensen wants to start talking soon. He has announced that he will enter into a dialog with all relevant stakeholders in the housing sector during his first 100 days in office. The results will then be incorporated into the first European Affordable Housing Plan and the European Housing Strategy.
The extension of the Eucap mission comes at a favorable time for Europe: In Mali, the first signs of a certain disillusionment with Russian military cooperation are emerging. While the mercenaries of the Wagner force were still celebrated as saviors when they arrived in December 2021, the halo is gone. Dozens of Russians and Malian soldiers died in July in a battle with Tuareg rebels and jihadists in the far north. This was practically the first time that Wagner had to fight a real opponent, man against man. A sandstorm in the desert prevented the Russians from flying their drones – their main weapon against often poorly armed jihadists.
It is too early to talk about tensions between Wagner and the Malian government, which pays dearly for the mercenary services. But there are already a few long faces, especially as there was little to be seen of Wagner during an attack by jihadists at Bamako airport in September. The Russians have a base there, but did not show up for hours when fighters were on the airport grounds. Another example: A convoy of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers has been traveling north for weeks to make up for the defeat in July. But there has been no attack, instead there are reports of logistical problems. Obviously, the mercenaries are no longer as willing to take risks as before. Malian expectations were unrealistic from the outset: What could around 1,000 to 1,200 Wagner mercenaries do better than more than 5,000 French soldiers in the Sahel?
Dealing with Mali’s military government and its pan-African power trip has been difficult in recent years. France in particular has reduced relations to almost zero. But there is too much at stake for Europe to break off contact now. The best example is migration: Around 200,000 Malians have fled from the center of the country, where the conflict with jihadists is raging, to the neighboring country of Mauritania. The flight is a direct result of the Wagner operation, because the Russians are fighting there with the Malian army against jihadists and often do not distinguish between civilians and fighters. In March 2022, they killed more than 500 people in the jihadist-controlled village of Moura. According to the United Nations, most of the victims were civilians.
Many refugees then try to reach the Canary Islands by boat from Mauritania. Malians are among the top 3 arrivals there for the first time this year. The re-election of Donald Trump is likely to exacerbate this trend, as the United States is likely to close the equally booming flight route from Mauritania to Nicaragua with Turkish Airlines and more migrants will then switch to the boats to Spain.
Extending the mandate is a way for the EU to stay in contact with Mali and offer itself as an alternative to Russia. Wagner will fail at some point, that is clear. Then it will be good for Europe to maintain its presence in the Sahel country. The new mandate is also an important step for another reason: Europe has finally broken away a little from the unpopular former colonial power France, which did not really want to continue Eucap. France withdrew its trainers from the mission in 2022 when the dispute with the junta escalated. At that time, the French army also withdrew from northern Mali and later had to leave neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Since then, Paris has exerted pressure on the EU to reduce relations with the Juntas and has also brought down the EU training mission for the Malian military, EUTM. Spain had actually wanted to continue this, but did not dare to confront France. The fact that the other EU members now want to extend Eucap is a first welcome emancipation from Paris in the Sahel.
Ulf Laessing is head of the Sahel regional program of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali.