The end of the legislative period is approaching and thus the pressure to reach an agreement on many dossiers is increasing. Till Hoppe asked around in the EU Parliament which legislative projects have priority. Read more in today’s news section.
Today is also crunch time in the Council of Labor Ministers (EPSCO) regarding the Platform Work Directive. After a year and a half of debate, a lot of back and forth and, above all, many unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement, time could now achieve what previously seemed impossible: an agreement so that the trilogue negotiations can begin.
Despite reservations, it is not just the trade unions that are pushing for a yes vote on the text, which has been repeatedly watered down. Many of the countries that have recently rejected the proposal because they are in favor of a directive as stringent and comprehensive as possible are also signaling that, given the time constraints, they could join the camp of the proponents. True to the motto: A weak regulation that can be renegotiated in the trilogue if necessary is better than none at all.
Because there is still one problem: New elections are due in Spain at the end of July. And then the conservative PP could take over, which has less interest in a strict directive than the current, left-leaning government under Pedro Sánchez. By the way, you can read more about a new left-wing party alliance in Spain in an analysis by Isabel Cuesta Camacho.
However, while there are signs that the camp of those who want the strictest possible rules for EPSCO is giving in, this is not necessarily clear on the other side. France, in particular, is in the spotlight here because it wants an as soft as possible rule and voiced criticism of the repeatedly amended text right up to the end.
The agreement will not be any easier because Germany will very likely abstain. The largest country in the EU was initially actively involved in negotiating the directive and, according to observers, could now also ensure not just an agreement but also a more ambitious text by taking an active role.
They like to say that time heals all wounds. But will it also bring an agreement in this case? It will be exciting.
The European Union has committed in principle to the same course as the COP presidency from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other oil states on a controversial issue at the next COP28: To use the controversial CCS technology as a loophole in the phase-out of fossil fuels. The EU now seeks a decision at COP28 that would allow this formulation. This became apparent on the sidelines of the Bonn Climate Change Conference. Irrespective of this, a new assessment by the think tank project “Climate Action Tracker” calls the EU’s climate policy “insufficient.”
On the path to climate neutrality, it will be possible to capture and store emissions not only from industrial processes but also from the energy sector, according to a decision by the EU Council of Ministers back in March. Up to now, the Europeans had rejected the use of CCS for the energy sector and, for example, demanded “a phase-down of fossil energies” at COP27 without mentioning CCS. The European position now only calls for an “energy system free of unabated fossil fuels.”
This decision, which has been barely known to the public, is not only a rapprochement with oil and gas producing countries such as the UAE or the United States. It also contradicts the German position. At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had clearly stated her disagreement with the next COP President, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, on this point: “We have to get out of fossil fuels,” she said – while Al-Jaber stressed that the world has to come to terms with the realities. “Fossil fuels will continue to play a role.” The goal, he said, should be to “phase out emissions.”
State Secretary Jennifer Morgan also said she did not believe “CCS would get us there.” And Robert Habeck’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is working on a German CCS management strategy whose clear stipulation is: CCS only for process emissions from the industrial sector – not as a way out for fossil fuels in the energy sector.
However, the new EU position now leaves this possibility open. An “energy system free of unabated fossil fuels” potentially also includes the application of CCS technology in electricity generation and for combustion in industry. The resolution is a little more concrete than Al-Jaber’s “phasing out emissions,” as it refers to an IPCC definition of “unabated fossil fuels” and a fossil peak well before 2050. Al-Jaber, on the other hand, used the EU term of an energy system “free of unabated fossil fuels” in a speech at the Bonn conference.
The EU Commission is aware that the decision gives fossil fuels the right to exist as fuels even in a climate-neutral EU. In any case, the plan is that even with the EU’s net-zero target, emissions from industry or agriculture will still be stored in nature or through CCS. In the debates for an opening to “unabated fuels,” countries such as Poland and Denmark, in particular, have exerted pressure, according to negotiating circles.
The EU’s change of course makes a compromise on this controversial issue at COP28 more likely. Many other influential countries whose economies still rely heavily on fossil fuels are openly or in secret striving for this goal: The oil states, the United States, but also China or European countries like Norway and Denmark, which are already working on CCS projects.
For the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) scientists, however, CCS is a “dangerous distraction.” CCS should not be used to reduce emissions in the energy sector because “far cheaper renewables are available,” says Claire Stockwell of the CAT project organization Climate Analytics. In its recent report mid-way to COP28, the EU does not score well either: Its continued investment in new fossil fuel infrastructure, especially LNG terminals and gas pipelines, “undermines the EU’s decarbonization efforts,” it says. CAT rates the EU’s climate policy as a whole as “insufficient” also because the EU has not yet raised its climate target (NDC) submitted to the UN as promised.
Generally, the main arguments of CCS critics are that the technology is more expensive than renewables, has not been tested on a large scale worldwide, and is too late to achieve the necessary 50% reduction in global emissions by 2030. But Alden Meyer, a climate expert at the think tank E3G, hopes that a possible COP28 declaration on the fossil flue end will at least define sectoral targets with the help of CCS: Then the addition of “unabated” would not be so problematic, says Meyer. Because then it would be clear that only the few sectors that are difficult to decarbonize could resort to technologies such as CCS.
Moreover, the EU would then have to assess the potential of CCS realistically, Meyer said. “If you recognize that CCS can prevent maybe only five percent of emissions, then it would be clear that the phase-down would be 95 fossil fuels of any kind.” In any case, the UAE, a strong proponent of CCS, plans to store only 2 percent of its emissions this way by 2030, according to CAT.
Meyer, therefore, demands that the EU clarify the role it attributes to CCS for the envisaged phase-down. But for this, a generally accepted definition of what counts as “abated fuel” is first needed. Last week, the Commission launched a public consultation on CCS to examine what role CCS can play in decarbonization by 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Experts from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) also call for a debate on this issue. They note that CCS is being discussed in countries with high exports of fossil fuels as a means of safeguarding fossil fuel business models to ease the pressure to abandon fossil fuels. They assume that the overall potential of the technology is limited: By 2050, a total of 550 million tons of carbon could be stored in the EU. Worldwide, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects just over 5 billion tons in 2050.
At the last moment, the left-wing camp in Spain united on Friday evening for the early elections on July 23. A few hours before the legal deadline, the Podemos party base voted in favor of an alliance with the fledgling left-wing party Sumar. A total of 16 groups are now participating, which can be located further to the left than the ruling Socialist Workers’ Party PSOE of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Sánchez called for early elections after the defeat of the PSOE and the left-wing parties in the regional elections on May 28. A coalition of the left and PSOE is necessary to try to save the current government – in union with Unidas Podemos, the left-wing alliance led by Podemos. Alliances had to be registered for the election by last Friday. Electoral lists must now be formally submitted by June 19.
According to recent polls, the conservative People’s Party (PP) would win the elections with 145 seats but would need the right-wing Vox party (31 seats) to govern. The PSOE would get 103 seats and Sumar 33. The absolute majority is 176 seats.
Sánchez criticizes the PP and Vox as “Trumpists.” He even referred to both parties as “far-right” under the hashtag “VoxPP” on Twitter in recent weeks, without making any distinction between the far-right and the PP, the popular party.
The incumbent Prime Minister also called on PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to hold six televised debates with him – one per week until election day. The new Left leader Yolanda Díaz criticized the proposal. She said, “Spain is more than a debate between two men.” For his part, Vox leader Santiago Abascal criticized Sánchez’s proposal as a “remnant of the two-party system” that did not correspond to Spain’s current political reality.
The conservative-right parties are opposed by a still disunited left camp. Vice President Yolanda Díaz’s Sumar, already involved in the government, had risen to become the new leader of the left. In turn, Podemos had lost political weight, which had created tensions with Sumar. Against this background, the decision of the Podemos base had been eagerly awaited.
In the run-up, Díaz had fueled tensions. She vetoed Podemos politician Irene Montero, the current Minister of Equality, and other party members to exclude them from the electoral lists.
For Podemos, the last word on the agreement has thus not yet been spoken. The reason for Díaz’s veto against Equality Minister Montero was the failure of the so-called “only-yes-is-yes” law she promoted, leading to reduced sentences for more than 1,000 sex offenders.
Podemos leader Ione Belarra said she had reached an agreement with Sumar not to remain outside the alliance. However, she insisted she would continue to negotiate with Díaz on including Montero in the electoral lists.
If the older left-wing party Podemos runs alone in the elections, it could go down completely. It already disappeared from eight regional parliaments in the May 28 regional elections, including Madrid and Valencia. Even government partners of Podemos, such as Vice President Nadia Calviño, believe the party can hardly be called a relevant force anymore.
The bringing forward of the elections is already beginning to impact Spain’s upcoming presidency of the Council, which starts in July. Although individual cabinet members are already in the process of giving a preview of the presidency in some formations of the Council, it is likely that only the next Spanish government leadership will present the entire program in the plenary session of the European Parliament in September.
In Spain, the date of the elections is causing astonishment: in the middle of the summer vacation and with high temperatures. According to the National Institute of Statistics, more than ten million Spaniards might not be at their place of residence on election day.
There seem to be two hearts beating in Gunther Krichbaum’s political chest. One for his home, the Stuttgart region, and now especially Pforzheim. He studied law at the universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg. But at a young age, Krichbaum also took the path to neighboring countries with detours to Geneva and Lausanne. The second heart beats European.
The fully qualified lawyer entered the Bundestag in 2002 via a direct mandate in the Pforzheim constituency and took on the post of deputy European policy spokesman within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group only three years later. “The decision to join the European Affairs Committee was no coincidence for me. An older colleague had asked me: ‘What do you want in the European Committee? They’re doing the constitution, aren’t they?’ Which later became the Treaty of Lisbon. ‘Then it will be totally boring there.’ This boredom never materialized, because the topics are also very, very diverse,” says Krichbaum.
On closer anatomical examination, however, there are probably not two hearts, but only one beating in the 59-year-old’s chest. His commitment to Europe has a history, and this in turn lies in his homeland. “I grew up in a town near Stuttgart, in Korntal and in Baden-Württemberg, not very far from the French border. That’s why I became interested in France relatively early on, through my school exchange program,” recalls Krichbaum.
At first, he did not understand a word in France. But that did not dampen his desire to see other countries. “Europe has always fascinated me, in fact, even as a youngster. The many different cultures, languages, the diversity of our individual countries. And that’s why I had already traveled to the various countries privately in the past and simply remained true to that,” adds the CDU politician.
His affinity for Europe was also quickly recognized in the Bundestag. Until the change of government in 2021, Krichbaum was Chairman of the Committee on European Union Affairs for just over 14 years. He thus became a permanent fixture when it came to EU-relevant issues and also their mediation. “You have a very strong moderating, coordinating role as Committee Chairman, sometimes also a very strong representative role,” Krichbaum said.
In addition, extensive travel was part of his life as a member of Parliament – and yet he still managed to win his direct mandate six times by now. “That has to be accepted in the constituency. On the other hand, there are enough opportunities for synergies to be created in town twinning or for the support of municipalities by landing European funding. It certainly works, but it needs explaining, that’s true,” says Krichbaum.
The Europe Committee is one of five committees with a strong “external touch,” as Krichbaum calls it. “So there, in other words, you have to love your suitcase almost as much as you love your wife. In any case, you have to know that, if you choose one of these committees, you’re actually going to be on the road a lot. But the compensation for that is: It’s incredibly rewarding,” Krichbaum says.
Since the last Bundestag election and the departure of the CDU/CSU from the federal government, he is no longer Committee Chairman, but the European policy spokesman for his parliamentary group. Krichbaum is not letting go of European policy per se. When asked how he actually does networking for such a policy field beyond Berlin-Mitte, the man from Pforzheim finds an appealing metaphor: “In principle, it’s like a stone that they throw into the water and which then draws its concentric circles. Of course, in my function now, the task is that I primarily maintain contact with the other Christian Democratic parties, within the framework of the EPP. I’m also a member of the board of the EPP.”
Beyond that, however, Gunther Krichbaum also comes into constant contact with colleagues from other parties through formats such as interparliamentary conferences. “A lot also comes from the visits abroad that I make quite regularly. Not a week goes by that I’m not on a plane somehow,” adds the 59-year-old. To take this on and continue to be passionate about it, the heart must beat strongly for Europe.
The end of the legislative period is approaching and thus the pressure to reach an agreement on many dossiers is increasing. Till Hoppe asked around in the EU Parliament which legislative projects have priority. Read more in today’s news section.
Today is also crunch time in the Council of Labor Ministers (EPSCO) regarding the Platform Work Directive. After a year and a half of debate, a lot of back and forth and, above all, many unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement, time could now achieve what previously seemed impossible: an agreement so that the trilogue negotiations can begin.
Despite reservations, it is not just the trade unions that are pushing for a yes vote on the text, which has been repeatedly watered down. Many of the countries that have recently rejected the proposal because they are in favor of a directive as stringent and comprehensive as possible are also signaling that, given the time constraints, they could join the camp of the proponents. True to the motto: A weak regulation that can be renegotiated in the trilogue if necessary is better than none at all.
Because there is still one problem: New elections are due in Spain at the end of July. And then the conservative PP could take over, which has less interest in a strict directive than the current, left-leaning government under Pedro Sánchez. By the way, you can read more about a new left-wing party alliance in Spain in an analysis by Isabel Cuesta Camacho.
However, while there are signs that the camp of those who want the strictest possible rules for EPSCO is giving in, this is not necessarily clear on the other side. France, in particular, is in the spotlight here because it wants an as soft as possible rule and voiced criticism of the repeatedly amended text right up to the end.
The agreement will not be any easier because Germany will very likely abstain. The largest country in the EU was initially actively involved in negotiating the directive and, according to observers, could now also ensure not just an agreement but also a more ambitious text by taking an active role.
They like to say that time heals all wounds. But will it also bring an agreement in this case? It will be exciting.
The European Union has committed in principle to the same course as the COP presidency from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other oil states on a controversial issue at the next COP28: To use the controversial CCS technology as a loophole in the phase-out of fossil fuels. The EU now seeks a decision at COP28 that would allow this formulation. This became apparent on the sidelines of the Bonn Climate Change Conference. Irrespective of this, a new assessment by the think tank project “Climate Action Tracker” calls the EU’s climate policy “insufficient.”
On the path to climate neutrality, it will be possible to capture and store emissions not only from industrial processes but also from the energy sector, according to a decision by the EU Council of Ministers back in March. Up to now, the Europeans had rejected the use of CCS for the energy sector and, for example, demanded “a phase-down of fossil energies” at COP27 without mentioning CCS. The European position now only calls for an “energy system free of unabated fossil fuels.”
This decision, which has been barely known to the public, is not only a rapprochement with oil and gas producing countries such as the UAE or the United States. It also contradicts the German position. At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had clearly stated her disagreement with the next COP President, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, on this point: “We have to get out of fossil fuels,” she said – while Al-Jaber stressed that the world has to come to terms with the realities. “Fossil fuels will continue to play a role.” The goal, he said, should be to “phase out emissions.”
State Secretary Jennifer Morgan also said she did not believe “CCS would get us there.” And Robert Habeck’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is working on a German CCS management strategy whose clear stipulation is: CCS only for process emissions from the industrial sector – not as a way out for fossil fuels in the energy sector.
However, the new EU position now leaves this possibility open. An “energy system free of unabated fossil fuels” potentially also includes the application of CCS technology in electricity generation and for combustion in industry. The resolution is a little more concrete than Al-Jaber’s “phasing out emissions,” as it refers to an IPCC definition of “unabated fossil fuels” and a fossil peak well before 2050. Al-Jaber, on the other hand, used the EU term of an energy system “free of unabated fossil fuels” in a speech at the Bonn conference.
The EU Commission is aware that the decision gives fossil fuels the right to exist as fuels even in a climate-neutral EU. In any case, the plan is that even with the EU’s net-zero target, emissions from industry or agriculture will still be stored in nature or through CCS. In the debates for an opening to “unabated fuels,” countries such as Poland and Denmark, in particular, have exerted pressure, according to negotiating circles.
The EU’s change of course makes a compromise on this controversial issue at COP28 more likely. Many other influential countries whose economies still rely heavily on fossil fuels are openly or in secret striving for this goal: The oil states, the United States, but also China or European countries like Norway and Denmark, which are already working on CCS projects.
For the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) scientists, however, CCS is a “dangerous distraction.” CCS should not be used to reduce emissions in the energy sector because “far cheaper renewables are available,” says Claire Stockwell of the CAT project organization Climate Analytics. In its recent report mid-way to COP28, the EU does not score well either: Its continued investment in new fossil fuel infrastructure, especially LNG terminals and gas pipelines, “undermines the EU’s decarbonization efforts,” it says. CAT rates the EU’s climate policy as a whole as “insufficient” also because the EU has not yet raised its climate target (NDC) submitted to the UN as promised.
Generally, the main arguments of CCS critics are that the technology is more expensive than renewables, has not been tested on a large scale worldwide, and is too late to achieve the necessary 50% reduction in global emissions by 2030. But Alden Meyer, a climate expert at the think tank E3G, hopes that a possible COP28 declaration on the fossil flue end will at least define sectoral targets with the help of CCS: Then the addition of “unabated” would not be so problematic, says Meyer. Because then it would be clear that only the few sectors that are difficult to decarbonize could resort to technologies such as CCS.
Moreover, the EU would then have to assess the potential of CCS realistically, Meyer said. “If you recognize that CCS can prevent maybe only five percent of emissions, then it would be clear that the phase-down would be 95 fossil fuels of any kind.” In any case, the UAE, a strong proponent of CCS, plans to store only 2 percent of its emissions this way by 2030, according to CAT.
Meyer, therefore, demands that the EU clarify the role it attributes to CCS for the envisaged phase-down. But for this, a generally accepted definition of what counts as “abated fuel” is first needed. Last week, the Commission launched a public consultation on CCS to examine what role CCS can play in decarbonization by 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Experts from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) also call for a debate on this issue. They note that CCS is being discussed in countries with high exports of fossil fuels as a means of safeguarding fossil fuel business models to ease the pressure to abandon fossil fuels. They assume that the overall potential of the technology is limited: By 2050, a total of 550 million tons of carbon could be stored in the EU. Worldwide, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects just over 5 billion tons in 2050.
At the last moment, the left-wing camp in Spain united on Friday evening for the early elections on July 23. A few hours before the legal deadline, the Podemos party base voted in favor of an alliance with the fledgling left-wing party Sumar. A total of 16 groups are now participating, which can be located further to the left than the ruling Socialist Workers’ Party PSOE of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Sánchez called for early elections after the defeat of the PSOE and the left-wing parties in the regional elections on May 28. A coalition of the left and PSOE is necessary to try to save the current government – in union with Unidas Podemos, the left-wing alliance led by Podemos. Alliances had to be registered for the election by last Friday. Electoral lists must now be formally submitted by June 19.
According to recent polls, the conservative People’s Party (PP) would win the elections with 145 seats but would need the right-wing Vox party (31 seats) to govern. The PSOE would get 103 seats and Sumar 33. The absolute majority is 176 seats.
Sánchez criticizes the PP and Vox as “Trumpists.” He even referred to both parties as “far-right” under the hashtag “VoxPP” on Twitter in recent weeks, without making any distinction between the far-right and the PP, the popular party.
The incumbent Prime Minister also called on PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to hold six televised debates with him – one per week until election day. The new Left leader Yolanda Díaz criticized the proposal. She said, “Spain is more than a debate between two men.” For his part, Vox leader Santiago Abascal criticized Sánchez’s proposal as a “remnant of the two-party system” that did not correspond to Spain’s current political reality.
The conservative-right parties are opposed by a still disunited left camp. Vice President Yolanda Díaz’s Sumar, already involved in the government, had risen to become the new leader of the left. In turn, Podemos had lost political weight, which had created tensions with Sumar. Against this background, the decision of the Podemos base had been eagerly awaited.
In the run-up, Díaz had fueled tensions. She vetoed Podemos politician Irene Montero, the current Minister of Equality, and other party members to exclude them from the electoral lists.
For Podemos, the last word on the agreement has thus not yet been spoken. The reason for Díaz’s veto against Equality Minister Montero was the failure of the so-called “only-yes-is-yes” law she promoted, leading to reduced sentences for more than 1,000 sex offenders.
Podemos leader Ione Belarra said she had reached an agreement with Sumar not to remain outside the alliance. However, she insisted she would continue to negotiate with Díaz on including Montero in the electoral lists.
If the older left-wing party Podemos runs alone in the elections, it could go down completely. It already disappeared from eight regional parliaments in the May 28 regional elections, including Madrid and Valencia. Even government partners of Podemos, such as Vice President Nadia Calviño, believe the party can hardly be called a relevant force anymore.
The bringing forward of the elections is already beginning to impact Spain’s upcoming presidency of the Council, which starts in July. Although individual cabinet members are already in the process of giving a preview of the presidency in some formations of the Council, it is likely that only the next Spanish government leadership will present the entire program in the plenary session of the European Parliament in September.
In Spain, the date of the elections is causing astonishment: in the middle of the summer vacation and with high temperatures. According to the National Institute of Statistics, more than ten million Spaniards might not be at their place of residence on election day.
There seem to be two hearts beating in Gunther Krichbaum’s political chest. One for his home, the Stuttgart region, and now especially Pforzheim. He studied law at the universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg. But at a young age, Krichbaum also took the path to neighboring countries with detours to Geneva and Lausanne. The second heart beats European.
The fully qualified lawyer entered the Bundestag in 2002 via a direct mandate in the Pforzheim constituency and took on the post of deputy European policy spokesman within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group only three years later. “The decision to join the European Affairs Committee was no coincidence for me. An older colleague had asked me: ‘What do you want in the European Committee? They’re doing the constitution, aren’t they?’ Which later became the Treaty of Lisbon. ‘Then it will be totally boring there.’ This boredom never materialized, because the topics are also very, very diverse,” says Krichbaum.
On closer anatomical examination, however, there are probably not two hearts, but only one beating in the 59-year-old’s chest. His commitment to Europe has a history, and this in turn lies in his homeland. “I grew up in a town near Stuttgart, in Korntal and in Baden-Württemberg, not very far from the French border. That’s why I became interested in France relatively early on, through my school exchange program,” recalls Krichbaum.
At first, he did not understand a word in France. But that did not dampen his desire to see other countries. “Europe has always fascinated me, in fact, even as a youngster. The many different cultures, languages, the diversity of our individual countries. And that’s why I had already traveled to the various countries privately in the past and simply remained true to that,” adds the CDU politician.
His affinity for Europe was also quickly recognized in the Bundestag. Until the change of government in 2021, Krichbaum was Chairman of the Committee on European Union Affairs for just over 14 years. He thus became a permanent fixture when it came to EU-relevant issues and also their mediation. “You have a very strong moderating, coordinating role as Committee Chairman, sometimes also a very strong representative role,” Krichbaum said.
In addition, extensive travel was part of his life as a member of Parliament – and yet he still managed to win his direct mandate six times by now. “That has to be accepted in the constituency. On the other hand, there are enough opportunities for synergies to be created in town twinning or for the support of municipalities by landing European funding. It certainly works, but it needs explaining, that’s true,” says Krichbaum.
The Europe Committee is one of five committees with a strong “external touch,” as Krichbaum calls it. “So there, in other words, you have to love your suitcase almost as much as you love your wife. In any case, you have to know that, if you choose one of these committees, you’re actually going to be on the road a lot. But the compensation for that is: It’s incredibly rewarding,” Krichbaum says.
Since the last Bundestag election and the departure of the CDU/CSU from the federal government, he is no longer Committee Chairman, but the European policy spokesman for his parliamentary group. Krichbaum is not letting go of European policy per se. When asked how he actually does networking for such a policy field beyond Berlin-Mitte, the man from Pforzheim finds an appealing metaphor: “In principle, it’s like a stone that they throw into the water and which then draws its concentric circles. Of course, in my function now, the task is that I primarily maintain contact with the other Christian Democratic parties, within the framework of the EPP. I’m also a member of the board of the EPP.”
Beyond that, however, Gunther Krichbaum also comes into constant contact with colleagues from other parties through formats such as interparliamentary conferences. “A lot also comes from the visits abroad that I make quite regularly. Not a week goes by that I’m not on a plane somehow,” adds the 59-year-old. To take this on and continue to be passionate about it, the heart must beat strongly for Europe.
