A constitutional amendment is necessary “to ensure that the Union can respond more effectively to future crises” – according to a resolution recently passed by the European Parliament with a clear majority. However, governments lack the will for real reform of the EU, says Sophie Pornschlegel, Senior Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre. In an interview with Till Hoppe, she talks about her criticism of the EU’s structures and the strategy with which the traffic light coalition wants to appear pro-European.
The EU is dependent on imports of solar modules – and 63 percent of these imports come from China, according to the Commission. However, the global delivery delays are also affecting Europe: Now, container ships are even jammed in the North Sea. Experts expect the situation to ease by the end of the year. However, they expect a bottleneck in the production of polysilicon, as Manuel Berkel and Nico Beckert report.
After the ETS reform failed in the first reading in the EU Parliament, the next round is now on the agenda, directly in the plenary. The ENVI coordinators want to recommend that the amendments be put back on the agenda at the next plenary session on June 22 and 23. The Environment Committee is expected to vote on the recommendation today. The Greens warn of chaos. Read more about it in the News.
Ms. Pornschlegel, the European Parliament has spoken out in favor of a convention to amend the EU treaties. What happens now?
A convention would be a first step – but that does not yet mean that EU treaty reform will happen. First of all, the Council must vote in favor of a convention taking up its work. If such a convention is convened, negotiations will begin: first on the composition of this body, then on the process, and finally on the content of the work. So we are still a long way from EU treaty reforms. But it would be a first step to say goodbye to the outdated Lisbon Treaty and to start an important debate on how to make the EU more capable of acting in the future.
Emmanuel Macron wants to campaign for reform among the member states between now and the EU summit on June 23 and 24. Do you think it’s realistic that the Council will pave the way for treaty change?
Thirteen member states have already spoken out clearly against EU treaty reform, including all Baltic and Scandinavian countries and many Eastern and Central European countries. Six other, mainly Western European countries, including Germany and Italy, however, have spoken out in favor of EU treaty reform, albeit in a mild tone. France still holds the Council presidency until July 1, so there is an opportunity with the Council at the end of June: President Macron wants to prioritize the issue, so we can expect it to at least be discussed by EU decision-makers.
What specifically do you criticize about the existing structures in the EU?
At the moment, the EU is mainly an intergovernmental union. It is usually the Council that slows things down, and there the unanimity principle is often the problem. The political will of the heads of state and government is often lacking. It is true that the EU could use the passerelle clause of the Lisbon Treaty and vote by qualified majority much more often. But the decision-makers don’t do it because the governments would de facto lose their veto power – they simply don’t want to. Treaty reforms will not change that.
Are you thinking of specific states in particular?
I am thinking, for one, of the autocratic governments in Poland and Hungary, which are making the EU’s work increasingly difficult. But not only that: Germany and other member states see themselves as pro-European but lack the ambition to move the EU forward. This is also problematic.
The traffic light coalition is open to contract reform, especially the Greens and FDP.
The German government is calling for majority voting in foreign and security policy. Yet it knows full well that this first requires unanimity. It hides behind such demands to appear pro-European – although this reform is hardly feasible in reality.
Does this also apply to Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi, who have clearly spoken out in favor of treaty reforms?
Macron has a clear vision for the further development of the EU – many of the concepts from the Sorbonne speech now dominate the discourse in the EU. By contrast, little has come from Germany in recent years. How ambitious Macron is when it comes to treaty reform, however, remains to be seen. In his speech on May 9, he seemed more in favor of a core Europe.
Which, in turn, Germany sees critically.
The German government has been pursuing the strategy of inclusion instead of ambition for years. But this means that the EU is not making progress in many policy areas. Given the situation, however, we need an EU that is capable of action, and that is very difficult to achieve at 27. So we need either differentiated integration or treaty reforms – carrying on as before cannot be a lasting solution.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that she will incorporate demands from the Conference on the Future of Europe into her own proposals. What do you expect here?
I very much hope that the final report with the recommendations of the citizens will be taken up politically. We will probably find out what von der Leyen wants to implement in concrete terms in September when she delivers her State of the Union address. In any case, I hope that the EU Commission will not only use the proposals as a communication tool and will continue to advocate for deliberative democracy in the EU.
Shipping disruptions continue to have an impact on global goods traffic. They are also being felt in the solar power sector. Like other goods, solar modules are affected by the COVID-related closures of Chinese ports, confirms a spokeswoman for the German Solar Industry Association. This hurts the sector enormously. The entire European industry is heavily dependent on supplies from other countries – especially China.
For solar modules, the EU’s import dependency is 65 to 80 percent. Almost two-thirds of these imports originated from the People’s Republic, as a Commission report on strategic dependencies noted in February. And nearly two and a half years after the pandemic began, there are still snags. In Shanghai and the neighboring Zhejiang province, however, the proportion of waiting cargo ships relative to global capacity rose again in May, according to the Kiel Trade Indicator published by the IfW on June 7.
Meanwhile, the shipping delays in China have also led to longer waiting times in European ports. “For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, ships are jammed off the ports of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Almost two percent of the global freight capacity is currently stuck here and can neither be loaded nor unloaded,” writes the IfW.
But do the shipping delays also jeopardize achieving the ambitious goals of the European solar strategy? By 2025, the Commission wants to more than double the installed PV capacity to over 320 gigawatts (GW) compared to 2020, and by 2030 it is supposed to be 600 GW.
China, too, has set some ambitious goals. In 2021, the country has installed nearly 55 GW of capacity. Authorities expect that number to nearly double this year, with 108 GW added. By 2025, more than 550 gigawatts of wind and solar power plants are to be built – many of them as gigantic power plants in the deserts.
Will this even leave enough solar modules for export to the EU and Germany? The high prices for modules are likely to continue for a while, expects the umbrella organization SolarPower Europe. “Shipping delays are due to high demand and high freight costs,” says analyst Christophe Lits of SolarPower Europe, a Brussels-based lobby group that acts as a link to policymakers and the industry’s interests. However, according to a spokeswoman, the German Solar Industry Association expects the container backlog to be cleared by the end of the year.
The spot price of monocrystalline modules in Europe has jumped from $240 to $280 per kilowatt in one year, as data from consulting firm InfoLink shows. According to SolarPower Europe, some commercial solar investors have put their projects on hold till prices fall.
Last year, 20 to 25 percent of all PV projects in the EU were postponed or canceled altogether, the Commission’s report says. Aside from high shipping costs, increased raw material prices and shutdowns of Chinese factories also played a role. A lack of installers is also a significant factor, says industry representative Lits.
However, experts do not yet believe there will be production capacity bottlenecks. “Global – and China-dominated – production capacities for wafers, solar cells and modules clearly exceed even the high demand,” Johannes Bernreuter, supply chain expert at Bernreuter Research, tells Table.Media.
Presently, however, there is a bottleneck in the production of polysilicon. “The expansion of capacities is not keeping up with the rapidly growing demand,” says Bernreuter. But China is pursuing “gigantic expansion plans”. Within the next two years, the situation will ease, the expert predicts. Analyst Lits even expects new production capacities by the beginning of 2023.
In the long-term, the Commission and the European solar industry also aim to create new capacities. The industry wants to almost double the domestic production of polysilicon to have sufficient material for modules of 54 GW. Module production itself is to be quadrupled from 9 to 35.6 GW.
Yet at present, there is still fierce competition for solar components across the continent. In Slovakia, for example, there is a shortage of modules because buyers in other EU countries are able to pay higher prices, European consumer protection organizations report. With Nico Beckert
Originally, Carlo Piltz wanted to study business informatics. A computer and programming enthusiast, he took a look at the study guides when he was still at school. “That’s when I saw that business informatics involved a lot of math. Well, not so great after all. Then I’ll just take law after all,” he recalls about his decision. During his law studies in Göttingen, Piltz focused on IT and media law early on. He is now one of the leading data protection experts in Germany, serves as an expert for parliaments and advises many major clients.
“I started out, and then the GDPR came along. In the end, that was also luck, but it also took courage to go into this niche,” says Piltz. The General Data Protection Regulation, which was presented by the EU Commission in 2012, was something of a watershed moment in European data protection policy. In the meantime, the European Union has become a pioneer in data protection. “Data Act, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act. You can hardly keep up with everything that’s being fired out of Brussels,” he says.
For him as a lawyer and expert, these are almost heavenly conditions, because many companies approach him with more and more new questions about regulations and rules. “Even for us lawyers, who deal with this on a daily basis, it’s not like we say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s totally intuitive and understandable, who has what rights and obligations there, and how it all interacts.’ These instruments are truly complex.” The challenges for companies are correspondingly great.
His law firm offers an all-round service. From advice on compliance with applicable data protection guidelines when creating a new app, to possible risks when working with a service provider from a third country, to employee data protection, which Piltz says is not always taken seriously by every company. In addition, Piltz also takes action when complaints or potential breaches have already happened and the client faces trouble. “Data protection overlays everything. If wanted, we could find problems anywhere in data protection law.”
With a view to data protection policy, for example, in Europe, there is a conflict between the desire for investigation and the invasion of privacy, particularly in the prosecution of possible criminal offenses. This is clearly illustrated by the current initiative of the European Commission with regard to the distribution of child pornography. In a recently presented draft law, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson envisages an obligation for certain Internet providers to check their content for depictions of child abuse and for so-called “grooming”. “This is the typical tension we face in data protection law, especially when it comes to the Internet,” says Piltz.
For him, the introduction of chat monitoring would be tantamount to a “turning point” because the scope would be very broad. “If it were to be stipulated that everything I saw would be scanned, then the question could be raised of how we differ from US law, which is so extremely in favor of surveillance,” says Piltz. If, however, the surveillance is politically desired, he would have to accept it. As a lawyer and data protection specialist, he would then be faced with a new pile of work. But he will not complain about it. Constantin Eckner
A constitutional amendment is necessary “to ensure that the Union can respond more effectively to future crises” – according to a resolution recently passed by the European Parliament with a clear majority. However, governments lack the will for real reform of the EU, says Sophie Pornschlegel, Senior Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre. In an interview with Till Hoppe, she talks about her criticism of the EU’s structures and the strategy with which the traffic light coalition wants to appear pro-European.
The EU is dependent on imports of solar modules – and 63 percent of these imports come from China, according to the Commission. However, the global delivery delays are also affecting Europe: Now, container ships are even jammed in the North Sea. Experts expect the situation to ease by the end of the year. However, they expect a bottleneck in the production of polysilicon, as Manuel Berkel and Nico Beckert report.
After the ETS reform failed in the first reading in the EU Parliament, the next round is now on the agenda, directly in the plenary. The ENVI coordinators want to recommend that the amendments be put back on the agenda at the next plenary session on June 22 and 23. The Environment Committee is expected to vote on the recommendation today. The Greens warn of chaos. Read more about it in the News.
Ms. Pornschlegel, the European Parliament has spoken out in favor of a convention to amend the EU treaties. What happens now?
A convention would be a first step – but that does not yet mean that EU treaty reform will happen. First of all, the Council must vote in favor of a convention taking up its work. If such a convention is convened, negotiations will begin: first on the composition of this body, then on the process, and finally on the content of the work. So we are still a long way from EU treaty reforms. But it would be a first step to say goodbye to the outdated Lisbon Treaty and to start an important debate on how to make the EU more capable of acting in the future.
Emmanuel Macron wants to campaign for reform among the member states between now and the EU summit on June 23 and 24. Do you think it’s realistic that the Council will pave the way for treaty change?
Thirteen member states have already spoken out clearly against EU treaty reform, including all Baltic and Scandinavian countries and many Eastern and Central European countries. Six other, mainly Western European countries, including Germany and Italy, however, have spoken out in favor of EU treaty reform, albeit in a mild tone. France still holds the Council presidency until July 1, so there is an opportunity with the Council at the end of June: President Macron wants to prioritize the issue, so we can expect it to at least be discussed by EU decision-makers.
What specifically do you criticize about the existing structures in the EU?
At the moment, the EU is mainly an intergovernmental union. It is usually the Council that slows things down, and there the unanimity principle is often the problem. The political will of the heads of state and government is often lacking. It is true that the EU could use the passerelle clause of the Lisbon Treaty and vote by qualified majority much more often. But the decision-makers don’t do it because the governments would de facto lose their veto power – they simply don’t want to. Treaty reforms will not change that.
Are you thinking of specific states in particular?
I am thinking, for one, of the autocratic governments in Poland and Hungary, which are making the EU’s work increasingly difficult. But not only that: Germany and other member states see themselves as pro-European but lack the ambition to move the EU forward. This is also problematic.
The traffic light coalition is open to contract reform, especially the Greens and FDP.
The German government is calling for majority voting in foreign and security policy. Yet it knows full well that this first requires unanimity. It hides behind such demands to appear pro-European – although this reform is hardly feasible in reality.
Does this also apply to Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi, who have clearly spoken out in favor of treaty reforms?
Macron has a clear vision for the further development of the EU – many of the concepts from the Sorbonne speech now dominate the discourse in the EU. By contrast, little has come from Germany in recent years. How ambitious Macron is when it comes to treaty reform, however, remains to be seen. In his speech on May 9, he seemed more in favor of a core Europe.
Which, in turn, Germany sees critically.
The German government has been pursuing the strategy of inclusion instead of ambition for years. But this means that the EU is not making progress in many policy areas. Given the situation, however, we need an EU that is capable of action, and that is very difficult to achieve at 27. So we need either differentiated integration or treaty reforms – carrying on as before cannot be a lasting solution.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that she will incorporate demands from the Conference on the Future of Europe into her own proposals. What do you expect here?
I very much hope that the final report with the recommendations of the citizens will be taken up politically. We will probably find out what von der Leyen wants to implement in concrete terms in September when she delivers her State of the Union address. In any case, I hope that the EU Commission will not only use the proposals as a communication tool and will continue to advocate for deliberative democracy in the EU.
Shipping disruptions continue to have an impact on global goods traffic. They are also being felt in the solar power sector. Like other goods, solar modules are affected by the COVID-related closures of Chinese ports, confirms a spokeswoman for the German Solar Industry Association. This hurts the sector enormously. The entire European industry is heavily dependent on supplies from other countries – especially China.
For solar modules, the EU’s import dependency is 65 to 80 percent. Almost two-thirds of these imports originated from the People’s Republic, as a Commission report on strategic dependencies noted in February. And nearly two and a half years after the pandemic began, there are still snags. In Shanghai and the neighboring Zhejiang province, however, the proportion of waiting cargo ships relative to global capacity rose again in May, according to the Kiel Trade Indicator published by the IfW on June 7.
Meanwhile, the shipping delays in China have also led to longer waiting times in European ports. “For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, ships are jammed off the ports of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Almost two percent of the global freight capacity is currently stuck here and can neither be loaded nor unloaded,” writes the IfW.
But do the shipping delays also jeopardize achieving the ambitious goals of the European solar strategy? By 2025, the Commission wants to more than double the installed PV capacity to over 320 gigawatts (GW) compared to 2020, and by 2030 it is supposed to be 600 GW.
China, too, has set some ambitious goals. In 2021, the country has installed nearly 55 GW of capacity. Authorities expect that number to nearly double this year, with 108 GW added. By 2025, more than 550 gigawatts of wind and solar power plants are to be built – many of them as gigantic power plants in the deserts.
Will this even leave enough solar modules for export to the EU and Germany? The high prices for modules are likely to continue for a while, expects the umbrella organization SolarPower Europe. “Shipping delays are due to high demand and high freight costs,” says analyst Christophe Lits of SolarPower Europe, a Brussels-based lobby group that acts as a link to policymakers and the industry’s interests. However, according to a spokeswoman, the German Solar Industry Association expects the container backlog to be cleared by the end of the year.
The spot price of monocrystalline modules in Europe has jumped from $240 to $280 per kilowatt in one year, as data from consulting firm InfoLink shows. According to SolarPower Europe, some commercial solar investors have put their projects on hold till prices fall.
Last year, 20 to 25 percent of all PV projects in the EU were postponed or canceled altogether, the Commission’s report says. Aside from high shipping costs, increased raw material prices and shutdowns of Chinese factories also played a role. A lack of installers is also a significant factor, says industry representative Lits.
However, experts do not yet believe there will be production capacity bottlenecks. “Global – and China-dominated – production capacities for wafers, solar cells and modules clearly exceed even the high demand,” Johannes Bernreuter, supply chain expert at Bernreuter Research, tells Table.Media.
Presently, however, there is a bottleneck in the production of polysilicon. “The expansion of capacities is not keeping up with the rapidly growing demand,” says Bernreuter. But China is pursuing “gigantic expansion plans”. Within the next two years, the situation will ease, the expert predicts. Analyst Lits even expects new production capacities by the beginning of 2023.
In the long-term, the Commission and the European solar industry also aim to create new capacities. The industry wants to almost double the domestic production of polysilicon to have sufficient material for modules of 54 GW. Module production itself is to be quadrupled from 9 to 35.6 GW.
Yet at present, there is still fierce competition for solar components across the continent. In Slovakia, for example, there is a shortage of modules because buyers in other EU countries are able to pay higher prices, European consumer protection organizations report. With Nico Beckert
Originally, Carlo Piltz wanted to study business informatics. A computer and programming enthusiast, he took a look at the study guides when he was still at school. “That’s when I saw that business informatics involved a lot of math. Well, not so great after all. Then I’ll just take law after all,” he recalls about his decision. During his law studies in Göttingen, Piltz focused on IT and media law early on. He is now one of the leading data protection experts in Germany, serves as an expert for parliaments and advises many major clients.
“I started out, and then the GDPR came along. In the end, that was also luck, but it also took courage to go into this niche,” says Piltz. The General Data Protection Regulation, which was presented by the EU Commission in 2012, was something of a watershed moment in European data protection policy. In the meantime, the European Union has become a pioneer in data protection. “Data Act, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act. You can hardly keep up with everything that’s being fired out of Brussels,” he says.
For him as a lawyer and expert, these are almost heavenly conditions, because many companies approach him with more and more new questions about regulations and rules. “Even for us lawyers, who deal with this on a daily basis, it’s not like we say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s totally intuitive and understandable, who has what rights and obligations there, and how it all interacts.’ These instruments are truly complex.” The challenges for companies are correspondingly great.
His law firm offers an all-round service. From advice on compliance with applicable data protection guidelines when creating a new app, to possible risks when working with a service provider from a third country, to employee data protection, which Piltz says is not always taken seriously by every company. In addition, Piltz also takes action when complaints or potential breaches have already happened and the client faces trouble. “Data protection overlays everything. If wanted, we could find problems anywhere in data protection law.”
With a view to data protection policy, for example, in Europe, there is a conflict between the desire for investigation and the invasion of privacy, particularly in the prosecution of possible criminal offenses. This is clearly illustrated by the current initiative of the European Commission with regard to the distribution of child pornography. In a recently presented draft law, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson envisages an obligation for certain Internet providers to check their content for depictions of child abuse and for so-called “grooming”. “This is the typical tension we face in data protection law, especially when it comes to the Internet,” says Piltz.
For him, the introduction of chat monitoring would be tantamount to a “turning point” because the scope would be very broad. “If it were to be stipulated that everything I saw would be scanned, then the question could be raised of how we differ from US law, which is so extremely in favor of surveillance,” says Piltz. If, however, the surveillance is politically desired, he would have to accept it. As a lawyer and data protection specialist, he would then be faced with a new pile of work. But he will not complain about it. Constantin Eckner
