EU election roadmap + Macron’s looming defeat + Energy and climate outlook

Dear reader,

Europe must grow up. This is how one could somewhat casually summarize the “strategic agenda” that Council President Charles Michel will send to the member states at the beginning of next week. It is about the guidelines for the 2024 to 2029 legislative period, with the goal of “strategic autonomy” running like a red thread through the paper.

Starting with security and defense, to strengthen the capacities of the European arms industry and overcome national egoisms through procurement. The interoperability of the armed forces is also to be improved. Support for Ukraine and the enlargement strategy take up a lot of space.

The same applies to energy independence, the digital transition and the transformation of the economy to compete with China and the USA. Charles Michel has elaborated on the original motto of French President Emmanuel Macron. How is all this to be financed? The section on the capital market union, which is finally to be realized, takes up a larger space. To secure Europe’s sovereignty, private funds would have to be mobilized in addition to public funds, which all too often still flow into the USA.

The member states’ ambassadors are to discuss the guidelines for the first time next Wednesday. The plan is to adopt them at the EU summit on June 27 and 28. A report by the EU Commission with possible options on how a European defense policy could be financed should then also be available. We can look forward to a new discussion on common debt shortly, this time under the title of European defense bonds.

The European elections have begun, with Ireland and the Czech Republic following yesterday’s kick-off in the Netherlands. We will keep you up to date – as usual, you will find the most important information from all the specialist briefings and the latest news on the elections in Europe.Table.

I wish you an interesting weekend.

Your
Stephan Israel

This is the timetable until the election of the Commission President

The last polling stations in Italy close at 11 pm on Sunday. A few hours later, the majority in the new European Parliament will be clear. Then the exciting phase of negotiations will begin, which the EPP, S&D and Renew, who have so far formed an informal coalition, want to conclude on July 17 or 18 with the election of the new Commission President.

The Christian Democrats, Socialists, Liberals and Greens, who have not yet been part of the agreement, are aiming for this date following an informal consultation. The group leaders want to talk on the phone on Sunday evening and meet on Tuesday, June 11, in Brussels for the Conference of Presidents to prepare the decisions. A meeting of the new group leaders is planned for June 27, which could presumably set the date for the election of the Commission President in Strasbourg.

Heads of state and government meet on June 17

The aim is for a broad majority of Parliament to rally behind a top candidate before the heads of state and government meet for dinner on June 17 to discuss the filling of the top jobs. In all likelihood, it will come down to Ursula von der Leyen, who is the EPP’s top candidate. All polls indicate that the EPP is by far the strongest parliamentary group.

The coming week also offers von der Leyen plenty of opportunities to win over important heads of state and government. On Tuesday, she will take part in the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in Berlin, while the three-day G7 summit in Apulia begins on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, some of the participants will travel on to the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland.

The regular European Council will take place on July 27 and 28, with the strategic agenda on the literal agenda. The Parliament wants to get ahead of the Council – unlike in 2019, when the political groups were at odds and the heads of state and government negotiated the personnel package at an extended regular summit at the end of June. On 24 June, the current EP Bureau will meet and could decide on a reorganization of the Directorates-General. The Bureau will meet again on July 15.

Tenth electoral term

During the first week of the Strasbourg session (July 16 to 18 or 19), Parliament will be constituted for the tenth parliamentary term. On Tuesday, July 16, the President of Parliament, the 14 Vice-Presidents and the Quaestors will be elected for two and a half years, i.e. half of the parliamentary term. The election of the Presidium is expected to run until Wednesday afternoon.

In the five weeks leading up to the first week of the session, the political groups position themselves internally, try to recruit additional parties on the transfer market and negotiate the allocation of committee chairs to the political groups. The chairs of the national delegations have an important function. They negotiate in their political groups which MEPs will receive which posts (committee chairs, coordinators).

This timetable is emerging for the parliamentary groups:

EPP

On Tuesday, June 11, the German group will meet and elect its chairman (Daniel Caspary and Angelika Niebler are running again) and the parliamentary directors.
On Wednesday, June 12, the EPP Group will hold a meeting in the morning with the current and newly elected MEPs. Ursula von der Leyen also wants to attend.
On Tuesday, June 18, the new EPP Group will be constituted, Wednesday, June 19, the election of the Group Presidency will take place (EPP leader Manfred Weber wants to become Group Chairman again).
On Wednesday and Thursday, July 3 and 4, the EPP Group will go on a retreat to Cascais in Portugal.

S&D

On the Monday after the election, the German group elects its boss. René Repasi is running again.
The heads of the national delegations will meet on Tuesday to begin the discussion on the group chairmanship.
The constituent group meeting with the election of the bureau is to take place on 25 and 26 June. For the Social Democrats, it is not clear who will become group leader. Traditionally, the leader is appointed by the strongest national delegation, but this is not a law of nature.

Renew

The prospective national heads of delegation will meet on June 12 to coordinate for the first time.
The new composition of the parliamentary group will be constituted on June 26. The group leadership will also be elected then.

Greens

The elected German MEPs will meet for the first time in the middle of the week. The exact date has not yet been set.
On Wednesday, June 12, the Green parliamentary group will be constituted and is already accepting applications for the two parliamentary group chairs and other top positions.
The election for the group chairmanship will take place a week later, on June 19, with group leader Terry Reintke running again. It is not yet clear who will run for the second chairmanship of the parliamentary group.
The leadership of the German group will be elected the following week at the earliest.

EKR

The parliamentary group will meet with the existing and new MEPs on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, June 19, the group’s executive committee will be elected.
The constituent meeting of the parliamentary group will take place on Wednesday, June 26.

Left

The German group will meet for the first time in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.
The first parliamentary group meeting will take place on June 12. It is not yet clear when the new group leadership will be elected. Till Hoppe, Manuel Berkel, Lukas Scheid, Markus Grabitz

France: What consequences a bitter election defeat for Macron could have

By

Claire Stam

There is one certainty in the French capital: The big winner of the upcoming European elections will be the far-right party Rassemblement National (RN), led by MEP Jordan Bardella. There is also an uncertainty: how heavy will the defeat of Emmanuel Macron’s party be? Will Besoin d’Europe possibly even be overtaken by the Socialist list led by MEP Raphaël Glucksmann?

Since March, the RN has climbed two percentage points in the polls to 33%. Renew leader Valérie Hayer, Besoin d’Europe’s lead candidate, lost one percentage point in both April and May and now stands at 16% – less than half of the RN’s vote. Raphaël Glucksmann’s position is stabilizing after experiencing a lightning rise between March and April: He comes in at 14.5 percent according to the latest figures.

‘Anti-Bardella weapon’ rather a ‘water pistol’

“If the polls are confirmed, this will be a heavy defeat for Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal“, says a French MEP who does not wish to be quoted by name. He recalls that Gabriel Attal was presented as Macron’s “anti-Bardella weapon”. “If the RN gets more than 30 percent of the vote, the weapon in question will be more like a water pistol”, says the MP. He emphasizes that neither the TV debate between Attal and Bardella nor Macron’s major Sorbonne speech in April had any significant effect on public opinion in France.

Bardella and Marine Le Pen, the RN group leader in the National Assembly, have always treated the European elections as a national event. Both have continuously claimed that this election is a referendum for or against Macron’s seven-year term and have announced that they will call for the dissolution of the National Assembly if the RN wins. This election “is the only opportunity for the French to punish Emmanuel Macron’s policies, and the punishment must be severe,” Bardella said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper at the end of May.

Major changes only after the Olympic Games

However, a clear defeat would not necessarily lead to Attals’ early departure, says the French MEP. “Paris is not planning any major changes before the Olympic Games. Only afterwards, in the autumn, will the big maneuvers begin with a view to the 2027 presidential elections.”

However, the immediate consequence of a heavy defeat for Prime Minister Attal would be that his political room for maneuver would be further restricted, as the MEP says. “Without a majority in the assembly and with the opposition strengthened by the result of the European elections, how can you continue to govern and implement far-reaching reforms in the long term?”

Glucksmann benefits from left-wing voters’ frustration with Macron

For the Macron list, the main issue is the extent of the defeat: The socialist Glucksmann also plays a role in this. He is benefiting above all from the frustration of left-wing voters who had voted for Macron and are now disappointed by his shift to the right, which in their eyes is particularly evident in the pension reform.

With a program that is firmly focused on climate and environmental protection, Glucksmann was also able to win votes from French environmentalists. Their lead candidate, MEP Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA), is struggling to get her campaign off the ground.

There is growing resentment among the Greens in Brussels and France. Marie Toussaint herself is hardly known to the general public in France. Her campaign is described by some in the party as out of touch, with no reference to the difficulties faced by fellow citizens, such as inflation. They have still not digested the launch of the campaign, which started with a “booty therapy” session that provoked much ridicule in France.

Energy outlook: Why the heat pump issue was just the beginning

By

Manuel Berkel

Europe’s green energy sector is united in the next legislative period by a shared concern about its own success – and the hesitation of others. That is why it has set itself one project in particular for the coming months: the fight for an EU-wide electrification target.

Our own success would be to unblock the expansion of renewable energies. In the last legislative period, the member states have done a lot to achieve this and planning and approval procedures have been accelerated. In Germany, the figures for the first quarter already show a clear upward trend, according to the Ministry for Economic Affairs.

Wind industry aims to almost double output by 2030

But what if rows and rows of wind and solar farms are erected over the next few years and the electricity cannot be sold? WindEurope has set itself the target of increasing wind capacity in Europe from 220 to 425 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. The association has derived this figure from the increased renewables target of 42.5 percent of energy consumption that the EU states set themselves last year.

“We don’t want to get into a situation where there is suddenly not enough demand for the electricity from our plants because transport, heating and industry have forgotten to electrify or make the necessary changes to their processes”, says an association spokesperson. “Especially in countries with a very high proportion of renewables, such as Denmark or Portugal, this could be a threat.”

Effect of debate about phasing out combustion engines

The latest figures support the fear that the relevant sectors are not switching to electricity as an energy source quickly enough. According to the BDH, sales of heat pumps in Germany slumped by 52 percent in the first quarter. In terms of investment in electromobility, North America has clearly overtaken Europe in the past three years, T&E reported on Thursday. The NGO called for an end to the uncertainty surrounding the end of the combustion engine.

There is still great potential for electrification in industry, where hydrogen is often misunderstood as a panacea. In a study published this week, Agora Industrie writes that around 62% of energy consumption in the manufacturing industry, which is currently still covered by other energy sources, could be electrified using technologies that are already available. With new technologies, which should be ready for the market by 2035 at the latest, the potential increases to 90 percent.

Hydrogen association rejects electrification target

This is why Eurelectric has also declared a voluntary electrification target to be the most important task for the next legislative period. The association is aiming for a quota of 35% across all sectors by 2030. By 2050, 50 to 70 percent would then have to be covered by electricity. The hydrogen competition from Hydrogen Europe has already spoken out to the Commission against a corresponding amendment to the Governance Regulation.

This additional target would probably do little more than create public visibility. The decisive points are regulated by a variety of other laws such as the Building Energy Directive.

Netherlands: Why the first election forecast is surprising

According to the first forecast, the European elections in the Netherlands will be a close race between the red-green electoral alliance and the radical right-wing party of populist Geert Wilders. According to the forecast published on television on Thursday evening, the red-green alliance of the social democratic Party of Labor and the green party GroenLinks has eight of the 31 seats, while Wilders’ Eurosceptic Party for Freedom (PVV) has seven.

Polls had previously suggested that the Wilders party would win a European election for the first time. Five years ago, it entered the European Parliament with just one MEP. The far-right leader and his anti-Islam party surprisingly won the national parliamentary elections in November and will now govern with three other right-wing parties. dpa

EU climate financing: Why there is criticism despite €6.5 billion increase

In 2022, the EU member states, the European Commission, and the European Investment Bank (EIB) collectively provided €28.8 billion for global climate financing, an increase of €6.5 billion compared to 2021. This information comes from a new analysis by the Climate Action Network (CAN), which was presented on Thursday. The largest share (almost €22 billion) came from the member states. Germany (€9.5 billion) and France (€7.6 billion) are the largest contributors. However, France provides a significant portion of this through loans (84 percent), which the study’s authors criticize as it can increase the debt burden in recipient countries.

The European Investment Bank is also providing less money at concessional rates. Concessional loans accounted for only two percent of climate financing in 2022, down from 19 percent in 2017. Additionally, the interest rates on loans given by the EIB at market conditions have increased in recent years, according to the authors. Only 37 percent of European climate financing went into the area of climate adaptation, and the least developed countries received only 18 percent of the climate financing. nib

Caspary: This is why he is calling for a Commissioner for SMEs

The chairman of the CDU/CSU MEPs in the European Parliament, Daniel Caspary, is in favor of a separate Commissioner for SMEs. The CDU politician said at an event organized by Table.Briefings and the European Movement Germany on Thursday that this Commissioner should take care of the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises and reduce bureaucracy.

In the spring, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wanted to create the new post of SME Envoy in the authority, who was to have the rank of Director-General. The choice fell on CDU MEP Markus Pieper, but he withdrew at the last minute after fierce criticism from the European Parliament and the Commission regarding the selection process. Von der Leyen then postponed the appointment.

“My wish would be for us to set this even higher in the next Commission and, in case of doubt, create a separate Commissioner for these issues”, Caspary said. Ursula von der Leyen had announced that she wanted to eliminate 25 percent of reporting obligations for companies. “And we are serious about this”, said Caspary. “As unappetizing as this may sound, bureaucracy in Europe is essentially like a toenail, it keeps growing and sometimes you simply have to cut it.”

Higher contributions instead of new EU debt

The CDU politician also called on the EU member states to make more funds available to the Union instead of discussing taking on more debt: “If we give the European Union more tasks, such as in the area of defense, then the member states should also finance these tasks additionally”. Of course, one must also ask where in the EU budget the money can still be spent sensibly. For every euro generated, €0.50 goes to the public purse, but only €0.01 of this goes to the European Union – so we are talking about “small sums” here.

The deputy director of the Jacques Delors Centre at the Berlin Hertie School, Nils Redeker, expects a compromise solution to the funding issue. “In the end, it will be a mix”, he said. It will require higher contributions from the member states, as well as new resources for the EU, such as revenue from emissions trading or the CBAM. Taking on new EU debt is also conceivable, but the European treaties set limits here. tho

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Till
Hoppe

Sarah
Schaefer

Lukas
Knigge

Corinna
Visser

Markus
Grabitz

Alina
Leimbach

Eric
Bonse

Manuel
Berkel

Stephan
Israel

Claire
Stam

János
Allenbach-Ammann

Dear reader,

Europe must grow up. This is how one could somewhat casually summarize the “strategic agenda” that Council President Charles Michel will send to the member states at the beginning of next week. It is about the guidelines for the 2024 to 2029 legislative period, with the goal of “strategic autonomy” running like a red thread through the paper.

Starting with security and defense, to strengthen the capacities of the European arms industry and overcome national egoisms through procurement. The interoperability of the armed forces is also to be improved. Support for Ukraine and the enlargement strategy take up a lot of space.

The same applies to energy independence, the digital transition and the transformation of the economy to compete with China and the USA. Charles Michel has elaborated on the original motto of French President Emmanuel Macron. How is all this to be financed? The section on the capital market union, which is finally to be realized, takes up a larger space. To secure Europe’s sovereignty, private funds would have to be mobilized in addition to public funds, which all too often still flow into the USA.

The member states’ ambassadors are to discuss the guidelines for the first time next Wednesday. The plan is to adopt them at the EU summit on June 27 and 28. A report by the EU Commission with possible options on how a European defense policy could be financed should then also be available. We can look forward to a new discussion on common debt shortly, this time under the title of European defense bonds.

The European elections have begun, with Ireland and the Czech Republic following yesterday’s kick-off in the Netherlands. We will keep you up to date – as usual, you will find the most important information from all the specialist briefings and the latest news on the elections in Europe.Table.

I wish you an interesting weekend.

Your
Stephan Israel

This is the timetable until the election of the Commission President

The last polling stations in Italy close at 11 pm on Sunday. A few hours later, the majority in the new European Parliament will be clear. Then the exciting phase of negotiations will begin, which the EPP, S&D and Renew, who have so far formed an informal coalition, want to conclude on July 17 or 18 with the election of the new Commission President.

The Christian Democrats, Socialists, Liberals and Greens, who have not yet been part of the agreement, are aiming for this date following an informal consultation. The group leaders want to talk on the phone on Sunday evening and meet on Tuesday, June 11, in Brussels for the Conference of Presidents to prepare the decisions. A meeting of the new group leaders is planned for June 27, which could presumably set the date for the election of the Commission President in Strasbourg.

Heads of state and government meet on June 17

The aim is for a broad majority of Parliament to rally behind a top candidate before the heads of state and government meet for dinner on June 17 to discuss the filling of the top jobs. In all likelihood, it will come down to Ursula von der Leyen, who is the EPP’s top candidate. All polls indicate that the EPP is by far the strongest parliamentary group.

The coming week also offers von der Leyen plenty of opportunities to win over important heads of state and government. On Tuesday, she will take part in the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in Berlin, while the three-day G7 summit in Apulia begins on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, some of the participants will travel on to the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland.

The regular European Council will take place on July 27 and 28, with the strategic agenda on the literal agenda. The Parliament wants to get ahead of the Council – unlike in 2019, when the political groups were at odds and the heads of state and government negotiated the personnel package at an extended regular summit at the end of June. On 24 June, the current EP Bureau will meet and could decide on a reorganization of the Directorates-General. The Bureau will meet again on July 15.

Tenth electoral term

During the first week of the Strasbourg session (July 16 to 18 or 19), Parliament will be constituted for the tenth parliamentary term. On Tuesday, July 16, the President of Parliament, the 14 Vice-Presidents and the Quaestors will be elected for two and a half years, i.e. half of the parliamentary term. The election of the Presidium is expected to run until Wednesday afternoon.

In the five weeks leading up to the first week of the session, the political groups position themselves internally, try to recruit additional parties on the transfer market and negotiate the allocation of committee chairs to the political groups. The chairs of the national delegations have an important function. They negotiate in their political groups which MEPs will receive which posts (committee chairs, coordinators).

This timetable is emerging for the parliamentary groups:

EPP

On Tuesday, June 11, the German group will meet and elect its chairman (Daniel Caspary and Angelika Niebler are running again) and the parliamentary directors.
On Wednesday, June 12, the EPP Group will hold a meeting in the morning with the current and newly elected MEPs. Ursula von der Leyen also wants to attend.
On Tuesday, June 18, the new EPP Group will be constituted, Wednesday, June 19, the election of the Group Presidency will take place (EPP leader Manfred Weber wants to become Group Chairman again).
On Wednesday and Thursday, July 3 and 4, the EPP Group will go on a retreat to Cascais in Portugal.

S&D

On the Monday after the election, the German group elects its boss. René Repasi is running again.
The heads of the national delegations will meet on Tuesday to begin the discussion on the group chairmanship.
The constituent group meeting with the election of the bureau is to take place on 25 and 26 June. For the Social Democrats, it is not clear who will become group leader. Traditionally, the leader is appointed by the strongest national delegation, but this is not a law of nature.

Renew

The prospective national heads of delegation will meet on June 12 to coordinate for the first time.
The new composition of the parliamentary group will be constituted on June 26. The group leadership will also be elected then.

Greens

The elected German MEPs will meet for the first time in the middle of the week. The exact date has not yet been set.
On Wednesday, June 12, the Green parliamentary group will be constituted and is already accepting applications for the two parliamentary group chairs and other top positions.
The election for the group chairmanship will take place a week later, on June 19, with group leader Terry Reintke running again. It is not yet clear who will run for the second chairmanship of the parliamentary group.
The leadership of the German group will be elected the following week at the earliest.

EKR

The parliamentary group will meet with the existing and new MEPs on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, June 19, the group’s executive committee will be elected.
The constituent meeting of the parliamentary group will take place on Wednesday, June 26.

Left

The German group will meet for the first time in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.
The first parliamentary group meeting will take place on June 12. It is not yet clear when the new group leadership will be elected. Till Hoppe, Manuel Berkel, Lukas Scheid, Markus Grabitz

France: What consequences a bitter election defeat for Macron could have

By

Claire Stam

There is one certainty in the French capital: The big winner of the upcoming European elections will be the far-right party Rassemblement National (RN), led by MEP Jordan Bardella. There is also an uncertainty: how heavy will the defeat of Emmanuel Macron’s party be? Will Besoin d’Europe possibly even be overtaken by the Socialist list led by MEP Raphaël Glucksmann?

Since March, the RN has climbed two percentage points in the polls to 33%. Renew leader Valérie Hayer, Besoin d’Europe’s lead candidate, lost one percentage point in both April and May and now stands at 16% – less than half of the RN’s vote. Raphaël Glucksmann’s position is stabilizing after experiencing a lightning rise between March and April: He comes in at 14.5 percent according to the latest figures.

‘Anti-Bardella weapon’ rather a ‘water pistol’

“If the polls are confirmed, this will be a heavy defeat for Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal“, says a French MEP who does not wish to be quoted by name. He recalls that Gabriel Attal was presented as Macron’s “anti-Bardella weapon”. “If the RN gets more than 30 percent of the vote, the weapon in question will be more like a water pistol”, says the MP. He emphasizes that neither the TV debate between Attal and Bardella nor Macron’s major Sorbonne speech in April had any significant effect on public opinion in France.

Bardella and Marine Le Pen, the RN group leader in the National Assembly, have always treated the European elections as a national event. Both have continuously claimed that this election is a referendum for or against Macron’s seven-year term and have announced that they will call for the dissolution of the National Assembly if the RN wins. This election “is the only opportunity for the French to punish Emmanuel Macron’s policies, and the punishment must be severe,” Bardella said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper at the end of May.

Major changes only after the Olympic Games

However, a clear defeat would not necessarily lead to Attals’ early departure, says the French MEP. “Paris is not planning any major changes before the Olympic Games. Only afterwards, in the autumn, will the big maneuvers begin with a view to the 2027 presidential elections.”

However, the immediate consequence of a heavy defeat for Prime Minister Attal would be that his political room for maneuver would be further restricted, as the MEP says. “Without a majority in the assembly and with the opposition strengthened by the result of the European elections, how can you continue to govern and implement far-reaching reforms in the long term?”

Glucksmann benefits from left-wing voters’ frustration with Macron

For the Macron list, the main issue is the extent of the defeat: The socialist Glucksmann also plays a role in this. He is benefiting above all from the frustration of left-wing voters who had voted for Macron and are now disappointed by his shift to the right, which in their eyes is particularly evident in the pension reform.

With a program that is firmly focused on climate and environmental protection, Glucksmann was also able to win votes from French environmentalists. Their lead candidate, MEP Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA), is struggling to get her campaign off the ground.

There is growing resentment among the Greens in Brussels and France. Marie Toussaint herself is hardly known to the general public in France. Her campaign is described by some in the party as out of touch, with no reference to the difficulties faced by fellow citizens, such as inflation. They have still not digested the launch of the campaign, which started with a “booty therapy” session that provoked much ridicule in France.

Energy outlook: Why the heat pump issue was just the beginning

By

Manuel Berkel

Europe’s green energy sector is united in the next legislative period by a shared concern about its own success – and the hesitation of others. That is why it has set itself one project in particular for the coming months: the fight for an EU-wide electrification target.

Our own success would be to unblock the expansion of renewable energies. In the last legislative period, the member states have done a lot to achieve this and planning and approval procedures have been accelerated. In Germany, the figures for the first quarter already show a clear upward trend, according to the Ministry for Economic Affairs.

Wind industry aims to almost double output by 2030

But what if rows and rows of wind and solar farms are erected over the next few years and the electricity cannot be sold? WindEurope has set itself the target of increasing wind capacity in Europe from 220 to 425 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. The association has derived this figure from the increased renewables target of 42.5 percent of energy consumption that the EU states set themselves last year.

“We don’t want to get into a situation where there is suddenly not enough demand for the electricity from our plants because transport, heating and industry have forgotten to electrify or make the necessary changes to their processes”, says an association spokesperson. “Especially in countries with a very high proportion of renewables, such as Denmark or Portugal, this could be a threat.”

Effect of debate about phasing out combustion engines

The latest figures support the fear that the relevant sectors are not switching to electricity as an energy source quickly enough. According to the BDH, sales of heat pumps in Germany slumped by 52 percent in the first quarter. In terms of investment in electromobility, North America has clearly overtaken Europe in the past three years, T&E reported on Thursday. The NGO called for an end to the uncertainty surrounding the end of the combustion engine.

There is still great potential for electrification in industry, where hydrogen is often misunderstood as a panacea. In a study published this week, Agora Industrie writes that around 62% of energy consumption in the manufacturing industry, which is currently still covered by other energy sources, could be electrified using technologies that are already available. With new technologies, which should be ready for the market by 2035 at the latest, the potential increases to 90 percent.

Hydrogen association rejects electrification target

This is why Eurelectric has also declared a voluntary electrification target to be the most important task for the next legislative period. The association is aiming for a quota of 35% across all sectors by 2030. By 2050, 50 to 70 percent would then have to be covered by electricity. The hydrogen competition from Hydrogen Europe has already spoken out to the Commission against a corresponding amendment to the Governance Regulation.

This additional target would probably do little more than create public visibility. The decisive points are regulated by a variety of other laws such as the Building Energy Directive.

Netherlands: Why the first election forecast is surprising

According to the first forecast, the European elections in the Netherlands will be a close race between the red-green electoral alliance and the radical right-wing party of populist Geert Wilders. According to the forecast published on television on Thursday evening, the red-green alliance of the social democratic Party of Labor and the green party GroenLinks has eight of the 31 seats, while Wilders’ Eurosceptic Party for Freedom (PVV) has seven.

Polls had previously suggested that the Wilders party would win a European election for the first time. Five years ago, it entered the European Parliament with just one MEP. The far-right leader and his anti-Islam party surprisingly won the national parliamentary elections in November and will now govern with three other right-wing parties. dpa

EU climate financing: Why there is criticism despite €6.5 billion increase

In 2022, the EU member states, the European Commission, and the European Investment Bank (EIB) collectively provided €28.8 billion for global climate financing, an increase of €6.5 billion compared to 2021. This information comes from a new analysis by the Climate Action Network (CAN), which was presented on Thursday. The largest share (almost €22 billion) came from the member states. Germany (€9.5 billion) and France (€7.6 billion) are the largest contributors. However, France provides a significant portion of this through loans (84 percent), which the study’s authors criticize as it can increase the debt burden in recipient countries.

The European Investment Bank is also providing less money at concessional rates. Concessional loans accounted for only two percent of climate financing in 2022, down from 19 percent in 2017. Additionally, the interest rates on loans given by the EIB at market conditions have increased in recent years, according to the authors. Only 37 percent of European climate financing went into the area of climate adaptation, and the least developed countries received only 18 percent of the climate financing. nib

Caspary: This is why he is calling for a Commissioner for SMEs

The chairman of the CDU/CSU MEPs in the European Parliament, Daniel Caspary, is in favor of a separate Commissioner for SMEs. The CDU politician said at an event organized by Table.Briefings and the European Movement Germany on Thursday that this Commissioner should take care of the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises and reduce bureaucracy.

In the spring, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wanted to create the new post of SME Envoy in the authority, who was to have the rank of Director-General. The choice fell on CDU MEP Markus Pieper, but he withdrew at the last minute after fierce criticism from the European Parliament and the Commission regarding the selection process. Von der Leyen then postponed the appointment.

“My wish would be for us to set this even higher in the next Commission and, in case of doubt, create a separate Commissioner for these issues”, Caspary said. Ursula von der Leyen had announced that she wanted to eliminate 25 percent of reporting obligations for companies. “And we are serious about this”, said Caspary. “As unappetizing as this may sound, bureaucracy in Europe is essentially like a toenail, it keeps growing and sometimes you simply have to cut it.”

Higher contributions instead of new EU debt

The CDU politician also called on the EU member states to make more funds available to the Union instead of discussing taking on more debt: “If we give the European Union more tasks, such as in the area of defense, then the member states should also finance these tasks additionally”. Of course, one must also ask where in the EU budget the money can still be spent sensibly. For every euro generated, €0.50 goes to the public purse, but only €0.01 of this goes to the European Union – so we are talking about “small sums” here.

The deputy director of the Jacques Delors Centre at the Berlin Hertie School, Nils Redeker, expects a compromise solution to the funding issue. “In the end, it will be a mix”, he said. It will require higher contributions from the member states, as well as new resources for the EU, such as revenue from emissions trading or the CBAM. Taking on new EU debt is also conceivable, but the European treaties set limits here. tho