The new European Parliament was constituted on Tuesday and the prominent posts were distributed: Roberta Metsola remains President of the Parliament, as expected, and the election of her 14 Vice-Presidents also brought few surprises (see our Analysis in today’s issue). As of today, the posts of coordinators of the parliamentary groups, who have more influence on specific legislation in the committees, will be up for grabs. Candidates can register until the evening and the election will occur on Monday.
Over the past five years, many of the coveted posts have been secured by CDU and CSU MEPs, in particular, who made up nine of the 20 coordinators in the EPP Group. Most of them also want to play a leading role in the new legislature: Christian Ehler in the Industry Committee ITRE, Andreas Schwab in the Internal Market Committee IMCO, Peter Liese in ENVI, Markus Ferber in ECON, Jens Gieseke in TRAN, Dennis Radtke in EMPL, Axel Voß in JURI, Michael Gahler in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In the Agriculture Committee, however, the current chairman Norbert Lins is giving way to Herbert Dorfmann from South Tyrol. Veronika Vrecionová, a member of the ECR, is to become the new chair of the committee.
The situation is similar for the SPD: Birgit Sippel wants to remain the Social Democrats’ coordinator on the LIBE Committee on Internal Affairs, as do Tiemo Wölken on the ENVI and Udo Bullmann on the Development Committee. Maria Noichl also has renewed ambitions; it remains to be seen whether she will run for the Agriculture Committee or the Gender Equality Committee (FEMM).
I hope you find today’s issue an informative read.
The agreements between Christian Democrats, Socialists, Liberals and Greens have held in the elections for the new Bureau of the European Parliament. The members of the political groups of the platform supporting the “Von der Leyen Commission II“, i.e. EPP, S&D, Renew, as well as the Green Group, voted in such a way that they did not allow any candidate of the pro-European parties to fail. This is seen as an indication that Ursula von der Leyen also has a good chance of winning a majority of at least 361 votes when the European Parliament votes on a second term for her as Commission President on Thursday.
Von der Leyen has campaigned intensively for MEPs in recent weeks: She visited all parliamentary groups apart from the two on the right and held dozens of one-to-one meetings with MEPs whose votes she could not be sure of. The current vote calculations give her reason to be confident, but von der Leyen cannot lull herself into a sense of security.
The EPP, S&D and Renew together have 401 seats. There are also 53 seats for the Greens, even though they will probably not be part of the informal coalition. Together, the four groups have 454 MEPs, 93 seats more than von der Leyen needs for her election.
But there will be dissenters. MEPs assume that there will be significantly fewer no votes from the CDU/CSU group and the Europa SPD than five years ago. There is uncertainty among the Liberals. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, for example, has not yet indicated how she will vote. The three members of the Free Voters have also not yet given a signal. Five Irish members of the Renew Group expressed reservations last week.
On the other hand, there are signals from the Greens that a considerable part of the parliamentary group will vote for von der Leyen if her guidelines for the next mandate do not contradict Green demands. The guidelines are to be presented to the parliamentary groups on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. In the ECR group, it is becoming apparent that the three Czech MEPs from ODS and the two Belgian MEPs from the NVA will vote in favor of von der Leyen. There are initial indications that Georgia Meloni, leader of the conservative ECR party family, is encouraging the 24 Fratelli MEPs to vote in favor of von der Leyen.
The election result was particularly good for Roberta Metsola, who was re-elected President of the European Parliament with 80% of the votes cast. Metsola received strong support far beyond her own camp. During the group meeting, EPP Group Leader Manfred Weber acknowledged that the last time Jerzy Buzek from Poland had received a similarly good result was in 2009 when he was elected President of the Parliament. She received 562 votes. The term of office of the EPP politician from Malta is half of the parliamentary term, two and a half years. Her opponent, the Spaniard Irene Montero from the Left, received 61 votes.
Eleven out of 14 Vice Presidents were elected in the first round of voting. The cordon sanitaire held. No candidate from the radical right was elected to a position of responsibility. The necessary absolute majority of votes cast was achieved:
Elected in the second ballot:
As the climate targets for passenger cars are likely to be massively missed, a group of researchers is calling for an immediate and comprehensive revision of the EU’s CO2 fleet legislation. This is the central message of the white paper “CO2 emission regulations for passenger cars” from the International Association of Sustainable Drivetrain and Vehicle Technology Research (IASTEC). The paper was largely written by Thomas Koch, Head of the Institute for Piston Engines at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
The EU’s CO2 fleet regulation stipulates that manufacturers must reduce the average CO2 emissions of new cars to zero grams per kilometer driven by 2035 with intermediate steps. Otherwise, manufacturers face high fines.
The key message from Koch and his team is that EU legislation massively underestimates the real CO2 emissions of new vehicles, especially in 2030. EU legislation stipulates that new vehicles must not emit more than 49 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven on average in 2030. The “lack of a physical basis for the legislation” leads to significantly higher real CO2 emissions compared to the emission limit value.
According to the researchers’ criticism, the legislation does not take into account all real emissions from new cars because it is based purely on a tank-to-wheel analysis. Only the CO2 emissions of vehicles with combustion engines are taken into account, and the CO2 emissions associated with the production and operation of battery electric vehicles are completely ignored. For example, after a mileage of 210,000 kilometers, an EV causes CO2 emissions of 33 tons.
This corresponds to emissions of 157 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven. The value of 157 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven by an EV is contrary to EU legislation, which stipulates a maximum value of 49 grams in 2030. However, the EV is not included in the recording of CO2 emissions according to fleet legislation with the real value, but with the value of zero grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, because only the emissions at the tailpipe are measured. The researchers’ verdict: “The effects of the legislation therefore contradict the goals of the Paris Agreement to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
With a mileage of 210,000 kilometers, the production of the drivetrain of EVs produces the equivalent of 76 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven. For a combustion engine, this value is 38 grams of CO2.
The paper also sets out how the ramp-up of EV technology must develop by 2030 according to EU fleet legislation if the current legislation remains in place. According to the paper, 1.24 EVs must be registered for every newly registered combustion engine across the EU in 2030. In April, purely battery-electric vehicles accounted for 11.9 percent of new registrations in the EU. Pure combustion engines had a share of 48.9 percent.
The paper calls on the EU legislator to swiftly amend the CO2 fleet legislation. The amendment must meet the following objectives:
The background to the debate on the reassessment of emissions from EVs is also the demand by Christian Democrats and right-wing parties to reverse the phase-out of combustion engines from 2035 via a further reform of EU fleet regulation. In the European election campaign, the CDU/CSU also promised to replace combustion engine technology with CO2-neutral e-fuels and thus extend their use.
However, the return of the combustion engine is considered rather unlikely. The Hungarian Council Presidency is also in favor of a more attractive and competitive e-car market instead of calling for the further development of combustion engines or e-fuels.
In a discussion paper by the Council Presidency, which was discussed at the Competitiveness Council last week and is available to Table.Briefings, the authors call for more support for the European EV market. Hungary is seen as a promoter of electromobility, especially as Chinese manufacturers want to invest in battery factories and production facilities in the country.
In it, they demand:
According to information obtained by Table.Briefings, the countries discussed the proposals for several hours at the Competitiveness Council. The automotive countries in particular, including Germany, reportedly spoke out against state subsidy mechanisms.
Migration expert Erik Marquardt will lead the delegation of twelve German Green MEPs in the EU Parliament. He was elected unanimously on Tuesday. “Germany is more dependent on Europe than many people realize. As head of the delegation, I would like to help make this even more visible to the public and my party”, said Marquardt. Hannah Neumann and Alexandra Geese were elected as deputies.
In the last legislature, Marquardt was the asylum policy spokesperson for the Green Group in the EU Parliament; he will probably continue to hold this position. Now he is also taking over from Rasmus Andresen. luk
The debate on the future of cohesion policy is gaining momentum. With around a third of the EU budget, it is moving to the center of the upcoming negotiations for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028 to 2034. With the final report of the Centre for European Economic Research published on Monday, Christian Lindner built a bridge between the debate on cohesion policy and that on the next EU budget.
The newly elected European Parliament and the next European Commission are facing major tasks that need to be financed. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine highlights the need for a defense policy, more intense trade competition calls for measures to strengthen European competitiveness and the transformation to climate neutrality requires hundreds of billions in additional investment every year.
On the other hand, the financial leeway is getting tighter. The repayment of NextGenEU, the debt-financed coronavirus recovery program, will require around €30 billion per year from 2028 – around one-sixth of the current EU budget.
There is therefore a need for action to finance the European project. Two options are available: An increase in the budget – i.e. higher membership fees or additional own funds – or a redistribution of the current financial resources.
In this mixed situation, cohesion policy, the European structural and regional policy, takes center stage. At around €50 billion a year, it is the second largest area of expenditure after the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Given recent farmers’ protests, there is a reluctance to make cuts to the CAP, which means that cohesion policy is now under scrutiny.
The first point of discussion concerns the objectives of European cohesion policy. The treaty’s objective of creating economic, social and territorial cohesion is reflected in supportive measures to manage the green and digital transformation, the promotion of research and development, labor market policy measures and much more. The resulting multitude of objectives for cohesion policy makes it difficult to communicate and its impact difficult to evaluate.
The objectives of cohesion policy are sometimes even in conflict with each other. Although structural policy measures such as R&D funding to increase competitiveness in weaker regions reduce the gap between regions, they pose new challenges in terms of income distribution, as better-educated people benefit more from them.
In addition to the disagreement about the objectives of cohesion policy, there are questions about its successes to date. Although the disparities in Europe have decreased in recent decades, the development varies depending on the indicator and level of observation. However, regions in Eastern Europe have developed particularly dynamically, while regions in Southern Europe have stagnated.
The contribution of cohesion policy to these developments is difficult to isolate due to the large number of macroeconomic factors and political measures. Academic studies show an impact, but this requires conditions such as sufficient institutional capacity in the regions.
Even if the majority of cohesion funds flow into weaker regions, wealthier regions also benefit from cohesion policy. This is currently justified by the upcoming challenges for these regions in the green and digital transition, which do not necessarily correlate with their current economic strength.
The involvement of wealthier regions in cohesion policy to form cross-border cooperation and exchange experiences should be in everyone’s interest: learning from each other works best based on best practice solutions, which can often be found in the wealthier regions.
Overcoming the challenges in the areas of defense, competitiveness, and green transformation requires finding a balance between efficiency and distributive justice. Efficiency and distributive justice do not necessarily have to contradict each other: Strengthening competitiveness, for example, requires the use of all ideas and creativity in Europe regardless of where people live, and the energy transition can bring new opportunities for weaker rural regions.
However, for all people and regions to benefit from this, accompanying measures are required. A strong cohesion policy that is adapted to the new challenges is essential for this. Further discussions in the coming months will point the way forward.
The new European Parliament was constituted on Tuesday and the prominent posts were distributed: Roberta Metsola remains President of the Parliament, as expected, and the election of her 14 Vice-Presidents also brought few surprises (see our Analysis in today’s issue). As of today, the posts of coordinators of the parliamentary groups, who have more influence on specific legislation in the committees, will be up for grabs. Candidates can register until the evening and the election will occur on Monday.
Over the past five years, many of the coveted posts have been secured by CDU and CSU MEPs, in particular, who made up nine of the 20 coordinators in the EPP Group. Most of them also want to play a leading role in the new legislature: Christian Ehler in the Industry Committee ITRE, Andreas Schwab in the Internal Market Committee IMCO, Peter Liese in ENVI, Markus Ferber in ECON, Jens Gieseke in TRAN, Dennis Radtke in EMPL, Axel Voß in JURI, Michael Gahler in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In the Agriculture Committee, however, the current chairman Norbert Lins is giving way to Herbert Dorfmann from South Tyrol. Veronika Vrecionová, a member of the ECR, is to become the new chair of the committee.
The situation is similar for the SPD: Birgit Sippel wants to remain the Social Democrats’ coordinator on the LIBE Committee on Internal Affairs, as do Tiemo Wölken on the ENVI and Udo Bullmann on the Development Committee. Maria Noichl also has renewed ambitions; it remains to be seen whether she will run for the Agriculture Committee or the Gender Equality Committee (FEMM).
I hope you find today’s issue an informative read.
The agreements between Christian Democrats, Socialists, Liberals and Greens have held in the elections for the new Bureau of the European Parliament. The members of the political groups of the platform supporting the “Von der Leyen Commission II“, i.e. EPP, S&D, Renew, as well as the Green Group, voted in such a way that they did not allow any candidate of the pro-European parties to fail. This is seen as an indication that Ursula von der Leyen also has a good chance of winning a majority of at least 361 votes when the European Parliament votes on a second term for her as Commission President on Thursday.
Von der Leyen has campaigned intensively for MEPs in recent weeks: She visited all parliamentary groups apart from the two on the right and held dozens of one-to-one meetings with MEPs whose votes she could not be sure of. The current vote calculations give her reason to be confident, but von der Leyen cannot lull herself into a sense of security.
The EPP, S&D and Renew together have 401 seats. There are also 53 seats for the Greens, even though they will probably not be part of the informal coalition. Together, the four groups have 454 MEPs, 93 seats more than von der Leyen needs for her election.
But there will be dissenters. MEPs assume that there will be significantly fewer no votes from the CDU/CSU group and the Europa SPD than five years ago. There is uncertainty among the Liberals. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, for example, has not yet indicated how she will vote. The three members of the Free Voters have also not yet given a signal. Five Irish members of the Renew Group expressed reservations last week.
On the other hand, there are signals from the Greens that a considerable part of the parliamentary group will vote for von der Leyen if her guidelines for the next mandate do not contradict Green demands. The guidelines are to be presented to the parliamentary groups on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. In the ECR group, it is becoming apparent that the three Czech MEPs from ODS and the two Belgian MEPs from the NVA will vote in favor of von der Leyen. There are initial indications that Georgia Meloni, leader of the conservative ECR party family, is encouraging the 24 Fratelli MEPs to vote in favor of von der Leyen.
The election result was particularly good for Roberta Metsola, who was re-elected President of the European Parliament with 80% of the votes cast. Metsola received strong support far beyond her own camp. During the group meeting, EPP Group Leader Manfred Weber acknowledged that the last time Jerzy Buzek from Poland had received a similarly good result was in 2009 when he was elected President of the Parliament. She received 562 votes. The term of office of the EPP politician from Malta is half of the parliamentary term, two and a half years. Her opponent, the Spaniard Irene Montero from the Left, received 61 votes.
Eleven out of 14 Vice Presidents were elected in the first round of voting. The cordon sanitaire held. No candidate from the radical right was elected to a position of responsibility. The necessary absolute majority of votes cast was achieved:
Elected in the second ballot:
As the climate targets for passenger cars are likely to be massively missed, a group of researchers is calling for an immediate and comprehensive revision of the EU’s CO2 fleet legislation. This is the central message of the white paper “CO2 emission regulations for passenger cars” from the International Association of Sustainable Drivetrain and Vehicle Technology Research (IASTEC). The paper was largely written by Thomas Koch, Head of the Institute for Piston Engines at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
The EU’s CO2 fleet regulation stipulates that manufacturers must reduce the average CO2 emissions of new cars to zero grams per kilometer driven by 2035 with intermediate steps. Otherwise, manufacturers face high fines.
The key message from Koch and his team is that EU legislation massively underestimates the real CO2 emissions of new vehicles, especially in 2030. EU legislation stipulates that new vehicles must not emit more than 49 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven on average in 2030. The “lack of a physical basis for the legislation” leads to significantly higher real CO2 emissions compared to the emission limit value.
According to the researchers’ criticism, the legislation does not take into account all real emissions from new cars because it is based purely on a tank-to-wheel analysis. Only the CO2 emissions of vehicles with combustion engines are taken into account, and the CO2 emissions associated with the production and operation of battery electric vehicles are completely ignored. For example, after a mileage of 210,000 kilometers, an EV causes CO2 emissions of 33 tons.
This corresponds to emissions of 157 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven. The value of 157 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven by an EV is contrary to EU legislation, which stipulates a maximum value of 49 grams in 2030. However, the EV is not included in the recording of CO2 emissions according to fleet legislation with the real value, but with the value of zero grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, because only the emissions at the tailpipe are measured. The researchers’ verdict: “The effects of the legislation therefore contradict the goals of the Paris Agreement to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
With a mileage of 210,000 kilometers, the production of the drivetrain of EVs produces the equivalent of 76 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven. For a combustion engine, this value is 38 grams of CO2.
The paper also sets out how the ramp-up of EV technology must develop by 2030 according to EU fleet legislation if the current legislation remains in place. According to the paper, 1.24 EVs must be registered for every newly registered combustion engine across the EU in 2030. In April, purely battery-electric vehicles accounted for 11.9 percent of new registrations in the EU. Pure combustion engines had a share of 48.9 percent.
The paper calls on the EU legislator to swiftly amend the CO2 fleet legislation. The amendment must meet the following objectives:
The background to the debate on the reassessment of emissions from EVs is also the demand by Christian Democrats and right-wing parties to reverse the phase-out of combustion engines from 2035 via a further reform of EU fleet regulation. In the European election campaign, the CDU/CSU also promised to replace combustion engine technology with CO2-neutral e-fuels and thus extend their use.
However, the return of the combustion engine is considered rather unlikely. The Hungarian Council Presidency is also in favor of a more attractive and competitive e-car market instead of calling for the further development of combustion engines or e-fuels.
In a discussion paper by the Council Presidency, which was discussed at the Competitiveness Council last week and is available to Table.Briefings, the authors call for more support for the European EV market. Hungary is seen as a promoter of electromobility, especially as Chinese manufacturers want to invest in battery factories and production facilities in the country.
In it, they demand:
According to information obtained by Table.Briefings, the countries discussed the proposals for several hours at the Competitiveness Council. The automotive countries in particular, including Germany, reportedly spoke out against state subsidy mechanisms.
Migration expert Erik Marquardt will lead the delegation of twelve German Green MEPs in the EU Parliament. He was elected unanimously on Tuesday. “Germany is more dependent on Europe than many people realize. As head of the delegation, I would like to help make this even more visible to the public and my party”, said Marquardt. Hannah Neumann and Alexandra Geese were elected as deputies.
In the last legislature, Marquardt was the asylum policy spokesperson for the Green Group in the EU Parliament; he will probably continue to hold this position. Now he is also taking over from Rasmus Andresen. luk
The debate on the future of cohesion policy is gaining momentum. With around a third of the EU budget, it is moving to the center of the upcoming negotiations for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028 to 2034. With the final report of the Centre for European Economic Research published on Monday, Christian Lindner built a bridge between the debate on cohesion policy and that on the next EU budget.
The newly elected European Parliament and the next European Commission are facing major tasks that need to be financed. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine highlights the need for a defense policy, more intense trade competition calls for measures to strengthen European competitiveness and the transformation to climate neutrality requires hundreds of billions in additional investment every year.
On the other hand, the financial leeway is getting tighter. The repayment of NextGenEU, the debt-financed coronavirus recovery program, will require around €30 billion per year from 2028 – around one-sixth of the current EU budget.
There is therefore a need for action to finance the European project. Two options are available: An increase in the budget – i.e. higher membership fees or additional own funds – or a redistribution of the current financial resources.
In this mixed situation, cohesion policy, the European structural and regional policy, takes center stage. At around €50 billion a year, it is the second largest area of expenditure after the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Given recent farmers’ protests, there is a reluctance to make cuts to the CAP, which means that cohesion policy is now under scrutiny.
The first point of discussion concerns the objectives of European cohesion policy. The treaty’s objective of creating economic, social and territorial cohesion is reflected in supportive measures to manage the green and digital transformation, the promotion of research and development, labor market policy measures and much more. The resulting multitude of objectives for cohesion policy makes it difficult to communicate and its impact difficult to evaluate.
The objectives of cohesion policy are sometimes even in conflict with each other. Although structural policy measures such as R&D funding to increase competitiveness in weaker regions reduce the gap between regions, they pose new challenges in terms of income distribution, as better-educated people benefit more from them.
In addition to the disagreement about the objectives of cohesion policy, there are questions about its successes to date. Although the disparities in Europe have decreased in recent decades, the development varies depending on the indicator and level of observation. However, regions in Eastern Europe have developed particularly dynamically, while regions in Southern Europe have stagnated.
The contribution of cohesion policy to these developments is difficult to isolate due to the large number of macroeconomic factors and political measures. Academic studies show an impact, but this requires conditions such as sufficient institutional capacity in the regions.
Even if the majority of cohesion funds flow into weaker regions, wealthier regions also benefit from cohesion policy. This is currently justified by the upcoming challenges for these regions in the green and digital transition, which do not necessarily correlate with their current economic strength.
The involvement of wealthier regions in cohesion policy to form cross-border cooperation and exchange experiences should be in everyone’s interest: learning from each other works best based on best practice solutions, which can often be found in the wealthier regions.
Overcoming the challenges in the areas of defense, competitiveness, and green transformation requires finding a balance between efficiency and distributive justice. Efficiency and distributive justice do not necessarily have to contradict each other: Strengthening competitiveness, for example, requires the use of all ideas and creativity in Europe regardless of where people live, and the energy transition can bring new opportunities for weaker rural regions.
However, for all people and regions to benefit from this, accompanying measures are required. A strong cohesion policy that is adapted to the new challenges is essential for this. Further discussions in the coming months will point the way forward.
