August marks the beginning of the only three-week period in the summer when there is nothing going on in Brussels. The diplomats at the Permanent Representation already had some idle time in the last days of July. Time to put together the preliminary report on the third quarter of EU operations. The 20-page letter has now been sent to the federal ministries and the Chancellor’s Office. Depending on the policy field, it reports on the status of the individual dossiers and the prospects for how things will proceed under the Spanish Council presidency.
The document states, for example, that the Spanish Council Presidency aims to make substantial progress in reforming the asylum system by the end of September and to complete the entire package before Christmas. The individual legislative procedures in which the trilogues are to be completed are listed. At the level of EU ambassadors, the topic of asylum will continue to be addressed in the fall.
The Spanish government had signaled that it wanted to overcome the hurdles for Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen system. Austria, among others, had blockedit. The Justice and Home Affairs Council on October 19 and 20 will aim for the green light here. With regard to EU finances, Spain is aiming to present an agreement on the mid-term review of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) as early as the regular summit of heads of state and government in October.
This as a foretaste. We look at the outlook of the German StÄV officials on the other dossiers for tomorrow’s issue.
It has been around three years since the EU Commission assigned a working group to develop new standards for sustainability reporting based on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). On Monday, the Commission adopted its version of the developed proposals. Large companies covered by the upcoming regulations will have to comply with them from Jan. 1, 2024, while smaller companies will have two years longer. Across Europe, the number of companies required to report will gradually rise from around 12,000 to more than 50,000. In Germany alone, the number could rise from 500 to 15,000.
The EU’s declared goal is to encourage industry to examine its value creation and modify its business models so that they are in line with climate targets, protect nature and are socially acceptable. To achieve this, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Board (EFRAG) presented a list of criteria with more than 2,000 data points that companies were to request from themselves – but the industry and the Commission found this too extensive. In the negotiations, the number was significantly reduced to less than a third, so that the reporting remains practicable and the bureaucracy does not overburden anyone, as the argument goes.
Deviations are ’cause for concern’
Several civil society organizations and investorsaligned withESG criteria became more explicit in their statements. “The deviations from the standards proposed by EFRAG are a cause for concern,” says Vincent Vandeloise, Senior Research and Advocacy Officer at NGO Finance Watch. For one thing, he says, the significant reduction in data points is problematic, and for another, most of the regulations are no longer mandatory. Instead, it would now be up to companies and their materiality analyses to decide what to report on and in what depth.
The Commission’s proposal provides significantly greater flexibility for companies. For some data, such as Scope 3 emissions, they will only have to explain why they do not consider them material. Information on biodiversity conversion plans is also voluntary and no longer mandatory.
The WWF does not consider this acceptable. Philippe Diaz, responsible for Sustainable Finance at the environmental organization, recalls that standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative have been in place for many years – but that the Commission nevertheless caved in to pressure from conservative lobby groups and allowed holes that now invite greenwashing. “This is a serious breach of trust and undermines Europe’sleadership in building an economy that is socially just and compatible with the limits of our planet.”
Investors need data
ESG investors are also dissatisfied. They welcome the new standards in principle, but: “We regret that the demand of investors to make important ESG indicators mandatory was not taken into account. We are now counting on companies to submit them voluntarily,” says Aleksandra Palinska, Executive Director of EuroSIF, the European network of national trade associations for sustainable investments. Investors need “high-quality” data to make decisions and produce their reports, she adds.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is of two minds. The international organization, which has established its own standards for the disclosure of environmental data and greenhouse gas emissions, explains that of the almost 19,000 companies that report according to CDP questionnaires, most are at least partially prepared for the upcoming EU rules and that this preparatory work gives them an advantage over other competitors. However, starting in 2024, it still has to be proven in practice how well the companies can adapt their processes. Mirjam Wolfrum, Policy Engagement Director Europe, says: “It will be essential to understand why certain issues are hidden and left out by companies. It is important to provide comparable and meaningful information for investors, auditors and regulators.”
EFRAG issues guidance on implementation
It is expected that EFRAG will issue guidance on implementation and materiality analyses in the coming weeks. This should contribute to further clarification. However, the work of the Carbon Disclosure Project also shows that reporting alone is not a panacea: of the almost 19,000 CDP companies, just 4,100 state they have developed a concept beyond disclosure to make their respective business model compatible with the 1.5-degree target.
Following the EU Commission’s decision, the European Parliament and the Council now have two months to consider the proposals. They can reject but not amend them. In the Parliament, MEPs from the S&D, Renew, Green and Left groups had opposed the Commission and called for the EFRAG recommendations to be retained. Nevertheless, it is not expected that the responsible legal committee or the plenum will reject the draft.
Rapporteur Durand: ‘the core remains intact’
In the view of Pascal Durand (S&D, France), the CSRD rapporteur in the EU Parliament, the relaxations of standards are a result of “intense lobbying by right-wing political groups.” The mandatory and systematic nature of the transition plans, originally envisaged by the EU Commission, the Council and the Parliament, has been partially weakened. “Nevertheless, the core of the norms and standards remainsintact, paving the way for a new big step for transparency and sustainability in the EU and beyond,” the socialist told Table.Media. The good news, he said, is that implementation canbegin.
When the first set of standards is adopted, as expected in October, the next task already awaits: According to the CSRD Directive, another set of sector-specific standards must be adopted by the summer of 2024. Marc Winkelmann, Leonie Düngefeld
In the end, it was mainly words that Emmanuel Macron used to underpin France’s security ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. At the final conference with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, Macron stressed they did notwant toget into “power games,” saying, “Our goal is not to compete with China or the United States.” A day earlier, in Vanuatu, he had warned against “new imperialism” in the Pacific. On other occasions, Macron and his Defense Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had stressed that France sees itself as a balancing force in the Indo-Pacific.
His visit with four of his ministers, including Defense Minister Lecornu and Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, was intended to show that France can be a third pole in the region alongside China and the United States. For the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, the promise to station 200 more soldiersandinvest €150 million in a naval base remained. New Caledonia is also significant because a quarter of the world’s nickel deposits are believed to be located there. In Samoa, France will open its first embassy in Polynesia and expand its large network of embassies in the Indo-Pacific.
USA considered most important security partner
Upon his arrival in New Caledonia, the French president was escorted by Rafale fighter pilots coming from a joint exercise with the United States. France shows a presence in the Indo-Pacific with its partners.
Nevertheless, the US is still considered the first security partner. In September 2021, Australia demonstrated to the French it would rather rely on the US and the UK, canceling a submarine deal and entering the Aukus security alliance, which is an acronym for partner countries. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in New Zealand on Thursday, said the “door is open” for New Zealand and other partners to join the alliance.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin landed in Papua New Guinea two days before Macron and spoke with Prime Minister James Marape about a defense agreement that, among other things, allows American soldiers to be present in the island nation for 15 years. Papua New Guinea is considered a strategically important country; most recently, China has strengthened its economic ties there.
France tries to keep its distance
Nevertheless, France is outwardly trying to maintain its distance from the United States and wants to be perceived as a stabilizing third force in the Indo-Pacific. France is increasing its involvement in South Pacific initiatives such as the South Pacific Defense Ministers Meeting and the Pacific Islands Forum. On National Day on July 14, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Macron’s guest of honor at the military parade on the Champs Élysées.
France defines the Indo-Pacific as an area stretching from the overseas territory of Mayotte, off the coast of Madagascar, to French Polynesia in the South Pacific. 8,000 soldiers are stationed there, according to Macron, and 1.5 million French people populate the region. More than a third of France’s trade outside the EU is with Indo-Pacific countries. Overseas territories in the Indian Ocean and Pacific make up more than 90 percent of France’s exclusive economic zone – and France the owner of the world’s second-largest maritime territory.
13 billion for overseas territories
In 2018, France became the first European country to have an Indo-Pacific strategy. The Élysée pushed hard for the EU to draw up its own Indo-Pacific strategy, published in 2021. Germany published its guidelines in 2020. Plans for upcoming military budgets include €13 billion for French overseas territories. Most are in the Indo-Pacific. The budget plans for the period 2024 to 2030 include six patrol boats and an ocean-going corvette for the region. “With the patrol boats, you can have a presence,” says Jacob Ross of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). “But you can’t send the signals that the Americans do when they send a carrier strike group to the region.”
The non-alignment stance actually thrusts France into a rivalry between China and the United States, writes Céline Pajon of the French think tank Institut Français des Relations Internationales (Ifri) in an essay on France’s Indo-Pacific strategy. France has “neither the capacity nor the diplomatic weight to fill this role,” she said. For example, she said, France has refrained from joining the Partners in the Blue Pacific US initiative so as not to send a negative signal to China. Because countries like Germany and South Korea are moving closer to the alliance, France risks being isolated rather than independent, she said. Felix Heiduk of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) believes France’s role has not yet been clarified. “There are different signals that contradict each other to some extent.”
Pacific states have primarily economic interests
In April, Macron angered some NATO partners by warning after his visit to China about the China-Taiwan-US conflict that care must be taken not to get “into crises that are not ours.” A few weeks ago, the French President spoke out against a NATO office in Tokyo, also because he did not want to offend China. “I think the impression is partly deceptive because of these very polemical statements by Macron, ultimately the cooperation is much closer at the operational level,” Ross says. However, he adds, there is “some discrepancy between the rhetoric and what the financial resources end up being.”
Pacific nations do not just have security needs. “If you want to be an alternative pole, you also have to provide the resources. Not just in the military sphere,” Heiduk says. “The primary interest of local actors is economic development, poverty, infrastructure and strongly the impact of climate change on many of these states.”
News
Niger: France takes EU citizens out of the country
Following a new meeting of the crisis management team, the German Foreign Office called on all Germans still in the country to leave Niger immediately. However, the airport of the Nigerien capital Niamey remains closed to all flights without special permission. The German government thus recommended German citizens to accept seats provided by France in aircraft of the French air force to leave the country in this way. The government in Paris announced on Monday morning that it would take its citizens out of the country, including citizens of other EU states. The French Armed Forces sent several Airbus A330 aircraft to Niamey for this evacuation, which was accompanied by a C-130 Hercules military transport presumably with soldiers for security. A passenger plane returned to Europe the same day. French TV reports said the situation at the airport was calm.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressly thanked her French colleague Catherine Colonna. The German Embassy in Niamey remains open for the time being, but not in the embassy building near the presidential palace, but at the Bundeswehr base at the airport. Berlin supports the efforts of the AU and Ecowas to find a peaceful solution. The goal is “for the coup leaders to engage in mediation efforts for the good of their country and no longer cling to power.”
France had already reduced uranium imports
France has also greatly reduced its dependence on uranium from Niger. Niger is one of the largest producers of uranium in the world. More than 25 percent of the uranium consumed in Europe in 2021 was supplied by the African country. In particular, the French nuclear state-owned Orano operates several mining sites north of Niamey. But Orano has diversified its sources in recent years because of these major dependencies. Some 27 percent of the uranium France needs to run its nuclear power plants and equip its nuclear weapons now comes from Kazakhstan. Niger is “no longer Paris’s strategic partner, as it may have been in the 1960s and ’70s,” says Alain Antil, Director at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI). sbr/hlr
The EU Commission has drawn up guidelines for near-natural forest management. A working document to this effect was submitted to the Council on July 28. In it, the Commission presents methods to strengthen the biodiversity, adaptability and resilience of forests to climate change. The guidelines are intended to support the relevant authorities and key stakeholders.
The Commission cites increasing structural complexity and promoting naturalforest dynamicsas the goals of near-natural forest management. According to the document, it is based on the following principles:
learning from natural processes and allowing them to happen;
maintaining heterogeneity and complexity of forest structures and patterns;
integration of forest functions at different spatial scales;
use of various silvicultural systems based on the natural disturbance patterns of the region;
a low-impact timber harvest that pays equal attention to what is left in the forest and what is removed to preserve habitats, forest soils, and microclimates.
These include the natural regeneration of trees, respectful harvesting conditions, minimizing other management interventions or species conservation. Since knowledge and experience with these methods are not equally distributed in the EU, the Commission also wants to support organizations that strive to improve training through the “Pact for Skills” program.
Deparnay-Grunenberg: ‘completely insufficient’
MEP Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg (Greens), a forest scientist, calls these guidelines a “missed opportunity” and “completely insufficient”: Given the forest fires in Europe and the EU’salmost exclusively reactive forest fire measures, it was high time to develop preventive measures. However, these could not be found in the guidelines, instead “It is even ‘near-nature’ to clear-cut forests and then plant tree plantations.” And this although the Commission writes that intensively managed forests and forest plantations are more susceptible to forest fires than intact forest ecosystems.
In addition, the guidelines are not binding, she said. To develop common standards for fire-safe forest management, a “genuine European forest policy is needed, i.e. binding EU directives or regulations based on the natural functions of the forest.” She said this includes the fact that it absorbs carbon dioxide and acts as a carbon sink. The EU forest monitoring law planned for the fall could help “set binding definitions for an intact forest as well as identify damage,” Deparnay-Grunenberg says. “That would show how great the pressure for action already is.” leo
Power plant subsidies with cutbacks
The German government can probably quickly subsidize new power plants, but to a lesser extent than planned. Yesterday, Economics Minister Robert Habeck announced a preliminary agreement with the EU Commission on how to proceed with the state aid proceedings. The reason for the breakthrough: the tenders would not be evaluated as a contribution to security of supply, but as a contribution to climate neutrality, a ministry spokeswoman told Table.Media. The approval of a so-called capacity mechanism would probably have taken years. However, the German government wants to bring forward the coal phase-out to 2030.
However, Habeck also had to make concessions. In February, he still expected to tender “additional” hydrogen power plants totaling 25 gigawatts by 2030. Yesterday, the ministry announced a different schedule: 25 to 30 gigawatts by 2035 but only just under 15 GW of hydrogen and 3 GW of biomass power plants. In addition, the ministry expects to replace 10 GW of old coal-fired power plants that generate electricity and heat. They are to be replaced by hydrogen-capable gas-fired CHP. This means a large part does not relate to additional capacity but simply to the replacement of existing power plants.
Agora sees necessary net additions achieved
The think tank Agora Energiewende nevertheless welcomed the announcement. “In our own scenarios, we consider a net addition of 16 gigawatts of hydrogen power plants or hydrogen-capable gas power plants to be necessary by 2030. The agreement with the Commission is in this order of magnitude,” said Philipp Godron, program manager for electricity.
However, for the coal phase-out to succeed by 2030, he said, it is also important for the German government to meet the 80 percent renewable energy target by then. “Power plants also need to be supplemented by significant dispatchable capacity from battery storage and flexible demand. The 2030 coal phase-out depends on several building blocks and each must be implemented consistently.”
LEAG names further conditions
The EU Commission would not confirm agreement on a decarbonization measure rather than a capacity mechanism. “Good progress has been made recently on the key parameters of the measures to ensure compatibility with EU treaties and sectoral legislation,” a spokeswoman said yesterday.
LEAG, the eastern German lignite company, stressed yesterday that further preconditions still need to be created, at least for its own decarbonization projects. LEAG is planning hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants at its generation sites with 3 GW by 2030 and a total of 4.5 GW by 2040, requiring a connection to the gas grid and the expansion of hydrogen networks, a company spokesman said. When asked about a possible coal phase-out in 2030, he said, “We’re discussing from the framework, not the date.”
The German Association of Municipal Utilities (VKU) is calling for further development of the law on combined heat and power generation. The current CHP Act only covers the period until 2026, and it also lacks a holistic perspective on the use of hydrogen. In addition, the municipal utilities insist on the introduction of a capacity market: “It is important that all investments made within the framework of an advanced power plant strategy also remain valid in a future market design.” ber
It appearsthat the European Commission is not planning a new strategy on nuclear fusion after all. Last Friday, Table.Media had reported on the announcement of the new strategy. The corresponding entry in a database for upcoming consultations of the Commission has since been deleted and was no longer accessible on Monday. According to information from Table.Media, there was an error on the authority’s website. The supposed nuclear fusion strategy was announced in the database as a communication from the Commission. ber
Heads
Patricia Lips – Away from the limelight
Patricia Lips is Deputy Chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Patricia Lips? The CDU politician is not well known to the general public, and a search on Google News yields little. Yet the 59-year-old from Hesse has held a number of important posts in her 20 years in the Bundestag, for example, as Chairwoman of the research committee, and she is now Deputy Chairwoman of the parliamentary group. And: She led Friedrich Merz’s team when he ran unsuccessfully for the party chairmanship in 2020.
“I don’t need to be in the limelight,” says Lips. She prefers to work behind the scenes; her strengths are “coordination, communication, bringing people together.” It was because of these qualities that Merz brought her onto his team, on the recommendation of a mutual acquaintance. Until then, the two had only known each other briefly, from Lips’ early days in the Bundestag in 2002, when Merz was still parliamentary group leader. They worked well as a team, says Lips.
Debut in the European Committee
It was not Merz, however, but his predecessor Ralph Brinkhaus who appointed her as Deputy Chair of the parliamentary group after the 2021 Bundestag elections, with responsibility for European policy. And so the wheel turned full circle because Lips had begun her Bundestag career in the European Affairs Committee. She then moved on to the Finance, Research and Budget Committees.
As Vice Chair of the parliamentary group, Lips does what she does best: coordinating and communicating within the parliamentary group and with her colleagues in the European Parliament. The exchange with Brussels/Strasbourg takes place via informal circles in which, depending on the topic area, the respective responsible parliamentary group vice presidents, the heads of the working groups and the rapporteurs are represented. “I’m almost always there,” says Lips.
European policy model
In the Bundestag parliamentary group, she has had her own European policy mission statement drawn up, with input from the individual working groups. After all, the EU now permeates almost every subject area. It’s a similar story in the parliamentary group meetings, says Lips, where many issues related to Europe are discussed.
As head of the parliamentary group, Brinkhaus introduceda separate agenda item on Europe, in which Lips’ predecessor Katja Leikert reported on current EU dossiers. It was a lesson learned from the disaster over the EU copyright reform when the CDU/CSU was surprised by the shitstorm that was brewing against the party and its rapporteur Axel Voss in Brussels.
Little interest in EU dossiers in the group
However, Merz has reversed this practice: A separate agenda item on EU issues was a noble goal, says Lips. However, this “unfortunately rarely sparked” a real debate. That is why they abandoned it and are now discussing specific topics. Other CDU/CSU delegates, however, report that European dossiers no longer play a role in the meeting.
Lips wants to discuss one topic in particular: competitiveness. She believes that the positioning of domestic industry will be the most important issue in the coming years and will also dominate the CDU/CSU’s European election campaign. The current upheaval is overburdening many SMEs, “if we don’t take countermeasures, we are threatened with deindustrialization.”
A heart for the middle class
The trained commercial specialist was on the national board of the Union of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (MIT) for eight years, and the issues are close to her heart. “I recently visited an electroplating company with 120 employees,” she says. “The boss told me he didn’t want to do it anymore, that the high energy prices and countless regulations were killing the business.”
So far, businesses and local people have always seen Europe as an opportunity, Lips says. “But this common sense is crumbling in the face of the flood of new regulation.” That is why a regulatory moratorium is needed, as the EPP has been calling for months. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose political home is the CDU/CSU, has partly taken up the cause – the authority’spending Green Deal proposals will be less ambitious than initially envisaged. In addition, von der Leyen is having internal reporting requirements for companies compiled that seem dispensable.
‘We are not against the Green Deal’
“We are not fundamentally opposed to the Green Deal – it would no longer be possible to win elections with such a position,” Lips asserts. But politicians need to involve people more in the process. This could be achieved by talking more about technology openness and research and development.
The fierce opposition to individual projects such as the nature restoration law has earned the EPP the accusation of aligning with right-wing forces. EPP leader Manfred Weber has also put out feelers in the direction of the ECR; among other things, he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the head of the ECR party family. The CSU politician obviously wants to open new power options for the next election period.
Against a right-wing alliance
On the one hand, Lips is understanding: It is now a fact that Christian Democratic parties cooperate with right-wing parties, as in Italy or Finland. “We shouldn’t cut that thread of conversation,” she said. “But I think it’s dangerous to start a discussion about a right-wing alliance – there’s a danger of a dam burst.”
Given the past, this is particularly true for Germany. “Cooperation with the AfD is out of the question for me,” Lips emphasizes. “When the dams break in Germany, they break everywhere.” Till Hoppe
August marks the beginning of the only three-week period in the summer when there is nothing going on in Brussels. The diplomats at the Permanent Representation already had some idle time in the last days of July. Time to put together the preliminary report on the third quarter of EU operations. The 20-page letter has now been sent to the federal ministries and the Chancellor’s Office. Depending on the policy field, it reports on the status of the individual dossiers and the prospects for how things will proceed under the Spanish Council presidency.
The document states, for example, that the Spanish Council Presidency aims to make substantial progress in reforming the asylum system by the end of September and to complete the entire package before Christmas. The individual legislative procedures in which the trilogues are to be completed are listed. At the level of EU ambassadors, the topic of asylum will continue to be addressed in the fall.
The Spanish government had signaled that it wanted to overcome the hurdles for Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen system. Austria, among others, had blockedit. The Justice and Home Affairs Council on October 19 and 20 will aim for the green light here. With regard to EU finances, Spain is aiming to present an agreement on the mid-term review of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) as early as the regular summit of heads of state and government in October.
This as a foretaste. We look at the outlook of the German StÄV officials on the other dossiers for tomorrow’s issue.
It has been around three years since the EU Commission assigned a working group to develop new standards for sustainability reporting based on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). On Monday, the Commission adopted its version of the developed proposals. Large companies covered by the upcoming regulations will have to comply with them from Jan. 1, 2024, while smaller companies will have two years longer. Across Europe, the number of companies required to report will gradually rise from around 12,000 to more than 50,000. In Germany alone, the number could rise from 500 to 15,000.
The EU’s declared goal is to encourage industry to examine its value creation and modify its business models so that they are in line with climate targets, protect nature and are socially acceptable. To achieve this, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Board (EFRAG) presented a list of criteria with more than 2,000 data points that companies were to request from themselves – but the industry and the Commission found this too extensive. In the negotiations, the number was significantly reduced to less than a third, so that the reporting remains practicable and the bureaucracy does not overburden anyone, as the argument goes.
Deviations are ’cause for concern’
Several civil society organizations and investorsaligned withESG criteria became more explicit in their statements. “The deviations from the standards proposed by EFRAG are a cause for concern,” says Vincent Vandeloise, Senior Research and Advocacy Officer at NGO Finance Watch. For one thing, he says, the significant reduction in data points is problematic, and for another, most of the regulations are no longer mandatory. Instead, it would now be up to companies and their materiality analyses to decide what to report on and in what depth.
The Commission’s proposal provides significantly greater flexibility for companies. For some data, such as Scope 3 emissions, they will only have to explain why they do not consider them material. Information on biodiversity conversion plans is also voluntary and no longer mandatory.
The WWF does not consider this acceptable. Philippe Diaz, responsible for Sustainable Finance at the environmental organization, recalls that standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative have been in place for many years – but that the Commission nevertheless caved in to pressure from conservative lobby groups and allowed holes that now invite greenwashing. “This is a serious breach of trust and undermines Europe’sleadership in building an economy that is socially just and compatible with the limits of our planet.”
Investors need data
ESG investors are also dissatisfied. They welcome the new standards in principle, but: “We regret that the demand of investors to make important ESG indicators mandatory was not taken into account. We are now counting on companies to submit them voluntarily,” says Aleksandra Palinska, Executive Director of EuroSIF, the European network of national trade associations for sustainable investments. Investors need “high-quality” data to make decisions and produce their reports, she adds.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is of two minds. The international organization, which has established its own standards for the disclosure of environmental data and greenhouse gas emissions, explains that of the almost 19,000 companies that report according to CDP questionnaires, most are at least partially prepared for the upcoming EU rules and that this preparatory work gives them an advantage over other competitors. However, starting in 2024, it still has to be proven in practice how well the companies can adapt their processes. Mirjam Wolfrum, Policy Engagement Director Europe, says: “It will be essential to understand why certain issues are hidden and left out by companies. It is important to provide comparable and meaningful information for investors, auditors and regulators.”
EFRAG issues guidance on implementation
It is expected that EFRAG will issue guidance on implementation and materiality analyses in the coming weeks. This should contribute to further clarification. However, the work of the Carbon Disclosure Project also shows that reporting alone is not a panacea: of the almost 19,000 CDP companies, just 4,100 state they have developed a concept beyond disclosure to make their respective business model compatible with the 1.5-degree target.
Following the EU Commission’s decision, the European Parliament and the Council now have two months to consider the proposals. They can reject but not amend them. In the Parliament, MEPs from the S&D, Renew, Green and Left groups had opposed the Commission and called for the EFRAG recommendations to be retained. Nevertheless, it is not expected that the responsible legal committee or the plenum will reject the draft.
Rapporteur Durand: ‘the core remains intact’
In the view of Pascal Durand (S&D, France), the CSRD rapporteur in the EU Parliament, the relaxations of standards are a result of “intense lobbying by right-wing political groups.” The mandatory and systematic nature of the transition plans, originally envisaged by the EU Commission, the Council and the Parliament, has been partially weakened. “Nevertheless, the core of the norms and standards remainsintact, paving the way for a new big step for transparency and sustainability in the EU and beyond,” the socialist told Table.Media. The good news, he said, is that implementation canbegin.
When the first set of standards is adopted, as expected in October, the next task already awaits: According to the CSRD Directive, another set of sector-specific standards must be adopted by the summer of 2024. Marc Winkelmann, Leonie Düngefeld
In the end, it was mainly words that Emmanuel Macron used to underpin France’s security ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. At the final conference with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, Macron stressed they did notwant toget into “power games,” saying, “Our goal is not to compete with China or the United States.” A day earlier, in Vanuatu, he had warned against “new imperialism” in the Pacific. On other occasions, Macron and his Defense Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had stressed that France sees itself as a balancing force in the Indo-Pacific.
His visit with four of his ministers, including Defense Minister Lecornu and Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, was intended to show that France can be a third pole in the region alongside China and the United States. For the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, the promise to station 200 more soldiersandinvest €150 million in a naval base remained. New Caledonia is also significant because a quarter of the world’s nickel deposits are believed to be located there. In Samoa, France will open its first embassy in Polynesia and expand its large network of embassies in the Indo-Pacific.
USA considered most important security partner
Upon his arrival in New Caledonia, the French president was escorted by Rafale fighter pilots coming from a joint exercise with the United States. France shows a presence in the Indo-Pacific with its partners.
Nevertheless, the US is still considered the first security partner. In September 2021, Australia demonstrated to the French it would rather rely on the US and the UK, canceling a submarine deal and entering the Aukus security alliance, which is an acronym for partner countries. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in New Zealand on Thursday, said the “door is open” for New Zealand and other partners to join the alliance.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin landed in Papua New Guinea two days before Macron and spoke with Prime Minister James Marape about a defense agreement that, among other things, allows American soldiers to be present in the island nation for 15 years. Papua New Guinea is considered a strategically important country; most recently, China has strengthened its economic ties there.
France tries to keep its distance
Nevertheless, France is outwardly trying to maintain its distance from the United States and wants to be perceived as a stabilizing third force in the Indo-Pacific. France is increasing its involvement in South Pacific initiatives such as the South Pacific Defense Ministers Meeting and the Pacific Islands Forum. On National Day on July 14, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Macron’s guest of honor at the military parade on the Champs Élysées.
France defines the Indo-Pacific as an area stretching from the overseas territory of Mayotte, off the coast of Madagascar, to French Polynesia in the South Pacific. 8,000 soldiers are stationed there, according to Macron, and 1.5 million French people populate the region. More than a third of France’s trade outside the EU is with Indo-Pacific countries. Overseas territories in the Indian Ocean and Pacific make up more than 90 percent of France’s exclusive economic zone – and France the owner of the world’s second-largest maritime territory.
13 billion for overseas territories
In 2018, France became the first European country to have an Indo-Pacific strategy. The Élysée pushed hard for the EU to draw up its own Indo-Pacific strategy, published in 2021. Germany published its guidelines in 2020. Plans for upcoming military budgets include €13 billion for French overseas territories. Most are in the Indo-Pacific. The budget plans for the period 2024 to 2030 include six patrol boats and an ocean-going corvette for the region. “With the patrol boats, you can have a presence,” says Jacob Ross of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). “But you can’t send the signals that the Americans do when they send a carrier strike group to the region.”
The non-alignment stance actually thrusts France into a rivalry between China and the United States, writes Céline Pajon of the French think tank Institut Français des Relations Internationales (Ifri) in an essay on France’s Indo-Pacific strategy. France has “neither the capacity nor the diplomatic weight to fill this role,” she said. For example, she said, France has refrained from joining the Partners in the Blue Pacific US initiative so as not to send a negative signal to China. Because countries like Germany and South Korea are moving closer to the alliance, France risks being isolated rather than independent, she said. Felix Heiduk of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) believes France’s role has not yet been clarified. “There are different signals that contradict each other to some extent.”
Pacific states have primarily economic interests
In April, Macron angered some NATO partners by warning after his visit to China about the China-Taiwan-US conflict that care must be taken not to get “into crises that are not ours.” A few weeks ago, the French President spoke out against a NATO office in Tokyo, also because he did not want to offend China. “I think the impression is partly deceptive because of these very polemical statements by Macron, ultimately the cooperation is much closer at the operational level,” Ross says. However, he adds, there is “some discrepancy between the rhetoric and what the financial resources end up being.”
Pacific nations do not just have security needs. “If you want to be an alternative pole, you also have to provide the resources. Not just in the military sphere,” Heiduk says. “The primary interest of local actors is economic development, poverty, infrastructure and strongly the impact of climate change on many of these states.”
News
Niger: France takes EU citizens out of the country
Following a new meeting of the crisis management team, the German Foreign Office called on all Germans still in the country to leave Niger immediately. However, the airport of the Nigerien capital Niamey remains closed to all flights without special permission. The German government thus recommended German citizens to accept seats provided by France in aircraft of the French air force to leave the country in this way. The government in Paris announced on Monday morning that it would take its citizens out of the country, including citizens of other EU states. The French Armed Forces sent several Airbus A330 aircraft to Niamey for this evacuation, which was accompanied by a C-130 Hercules military transport presumably with soldiers for security. A passenger plane returned to Europe the same day. French TV reports said the situation at the airport was calm.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressly thanked her French colleague Catherine Colonna. The German Embassy in Niamey remains open for the time being, but not in the embassy building near the presidential palace, but at the Bundeswehr base at the airport. Berlin supports the efforts of the AU and Ecowas to find a peaceful solution. The goal is “for the coup leaders to engage in mediation efforts for the good of their country and no longer cling to power.”
France had already reduced uranium imports
France has also greatly reduced its dependence on uranium from Niger. Niger is one of the largest producers of uranium in the world. More than 25 percent of the uranium consumed in Europe in 2021 was supplied by the African country. In particular, the French nuclear state-owned Orano operates several mining sites north of Niamey. But Orano has diversified its sources in recent years because of these major dependencies. Some 27 percent of the uranium France needs to run its nuclear power plants and equip its nuclear weapons now comes from Kazakhstan. Niger is “no longer Paris’s strategic partner, as it may have been in the 1960s and ’70s,” says Alain Antil, Director at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI). sbr/hlr
The EU Commission has drawn up guidelines for near-natural forest management. A working document to this effect was submitted to the Council on July 28. In it, the Commission presents methods to strengthen the biodiversity, adaptability and resilience of forests to climate change. The guidelines are intended to support the relevant authorities and key stakeholders.
The Commission cites increasing structural complexity and promoting naturalforest dynamicsas the goals of near-natural forest management. According to the document, it is based on the following principles:
learning from natural processes and allowing them to happen;
maintaining heterogeneity and complexity of forest structures and patterns;
integration of forest functions at different spatial scales;
use of various silvicultural systems based on the natural disturbance patterns of the region;
a low-impact timber harvest that pays equal attention to what is left in the forest and what is removed to preserve habitats, forest soils, and microclimates.
These include the natural regeneration of trees, respectful harvesting conditions, minimizing other management interventions or species conservation. Since knowledge and experience with these methods are not equally distributed in the EU, the Commission also wants to support organizations that strive to improve training through the “Pact for Skills” program.
Deparnay-Grunenberg: ‘completely insufficient’
MEP Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg (Greens), a forest scientist, calls these guidelines a “missed opportunity” and “completely insufficient”: Given the forest fires in Europe and the EU’salmost exclusively reactive forest fire measures, it was high time to develop preventive measures. However, these could not be found in the guidelines, instead “It is even ‘near-nature’ to clear-cut forests and then plant tree plantations.” And this although the Commission writes that intensively managed forests and forest plantations are more susceptible to forest fires than intact forest ecosystems.
In addition, the guidelines are not binding, she said. To develop common standards for fire-safe forest management, a “genuine European forest policy is needed, i.e. binding EU directives or regulations based on the natural functions of the forest.” She said this includes the fact that it absorbs carbon dioxide and acts as a carbon sink. The EU forest monitoring law planned for the fall could help “set binding definitions for an intact forest as well as identify damage,” Deparnay-Grunenberg says. “That would show how great the pressure for action already is.” leo
Power plant subsidies with cutbacks
The German government can probably quickly subsidize new power plants, but to a lesser extent than planned. Yesterday, Economics Minister Robert Habeck announced a preliminary agreement with the EU Commission on how to proceed with the state aid proceedings. The reason for the breakthrough: the tenders would not be evaluated as a contribution to security of supply, but as a contribution to climate neutrality, a ministry spokeswoman told Table.Media. The approval of a so-called capacity mechanism would probably have taken years. However, the German government wants to bring forward the coal phase-out to 2030.
However, Habeck also had to make concessions. In February, he still expected to tender “additional” hydrogen power plants totaling 25 gigawatts by 2030. Yesterday, the ministry announced a different schedule: 25 to 30 gigawatts by 2035 but only just under 15 GW of hydrogen and 3 GW of biomass power plants. In addition, the ministry expects to replace 10 GW of old coal-fired power plants that generate electricity and heat. They are to be replaced by hydrogen-capable gas-fired CHP. This means a large part does not relate to additional capacity but simply to the replacement of existing power plants.
Agora sees necessary net additions achieved
The think tank Agora Energiewende nevertheless welcomed the announcement. “In our own scenarios, we consider a net addition of 16 gigawatts of hydrogen power plants or hydrogen-capable gas power plants to be necessary by 2030. The agreement with the Commission is in this order of magnitude,” said Philipp Godron, program manager for electricity.
However, for the coal phase-out to succeed by 2030, he said, it is also important for the German government to meet the 80 percent renewable energy target by then. “Power plants also need to be supplemented by significant dispatchable capacity from battery storage and flexible demand. The 2030 coal phase-out depends on several building blocks and each must be implemented consistently.”
LEAG names further conditions
The EU Commission would not confirm agreement on a decarbonization measure rather than a capacity mechanism. “Good progress has been made recently on the key parameters of the measures to ensure compatibility with EU treaties and sectoral legislation,” a spokeswoman said yesterday.
LEAG, the eastern German lignite company, stressed yesterday that further preconditions still need to be created, at least for its own decarbonization projects. LEAG is planning hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants at its generation sites with 3 GW by 2030 and a total of 4.5 GW by 2040, requiring a connection to the gas grid and the expansion of hydrogen networks, a company spokesman said. When asked about a possible coal phase-out in 2030, he said, “We’re discussing from the framework, not the date.”
The German Association of Municipal Utilities (VKU) is calling for further development of the law on combined heat and power generation. The current CHP Act only covers the period until 2026, and it also lacks a holistic perspective on the use of hydrogen. In addition, the municipal utilities insist on the introduction of a capacity market: “It is important that all investments made within the framework of an advanced power plant strategy also remain valid in a future market design.” ber
It appearsthat the European Commission is not planning a new strategy on nuclear fusion after all. Last Friday, Table.Media had reported on the announcement of the new strategy. The corresponding entry in a database for upcoming consultations of the Commission has since been deleted and was no longer accessible on Monday. According to information from Table.Media, there was an error on the authority’s website. The supposed nuclear fusion strategy was announced in the database as a communication from the Commission. ber
Heads
Patricia Lips – Away from the limelight
Patricia Lips is Deputy Chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Patricia Lips? The CDU politician is not well known to the general public, and a search on Google News yields little. Yet the 59-year-old from Hesse has held a number of important posts in her 20 years in the Bundestag, for example, as Chairwoman of the research committee, and she is now Deputy Chairwoman of the parliamentary group. And: She led Friedrich Merz’s team when he ran unsuccessfully for the party chairmanship in 2020.
“I don’t need to be in the limelight,” says Lips. She prefers to work behind the scenes; her strengths are “coordination, communication, bringing people together.” It was because of these qualities that Merz brought her onto his team, on the recommendation of a mutual acquaintance. Until then, the two had only known each other briefly, from Lips’ early days in the Bundestag in 2002, when Merz was still parliamentary group leader. They worked well as a team, says Lips.
Debut in the European Committee
It was not Merz, however, but his predecessor Ralph Brinkhaus who appointed her as Deputy Chair of the parliamentary group after the 2021 Bundestag elections, with responsibility for European policy. And so the wheel turned full circle because Lips had begun her Bundestag career in the European Affairs Committee. She then moved on to the Finance, Research and Budget Committees.
As Vice Chair of the parliamentary group, Lips does what she does best: coordinating and communicating within the parliamentary group and with her colleagues in the European Parliament. The exchange with Brussels/Strasbourg takes place via informal circles in which, depending on the topic area, the respective responsible parliamentary group vice presidents, the heads of the working groups and the rapporteurs are represented. “I’m almost always there,” says Lips.
European policy model
In the Bundestag parliamentary group, she has had her own European policy mission statement drawn up, with input from the individual working groups. After all, the EU now permeates almost every subject area. It’s a similar story in the parliamentary group meetings, says Lips, where many issues related to Europe are discussed.
As head of the parliamentary group, Brinkhaus introduceda separate agenda item on Europe, in which Lips’ predecessor Katja Leikert reported on current EU dossiers. It was a lesson learned from the disaster over the EU copyright reform when the CDU/CSU was surprised by the shitstorm that was brewing against the party and its rapporteur Axel Voss in Brussels.
Little interest in EU dossiers in the group
However, Merz has reversed this practice: A separate agenda item on EU issues was a noble goal, says Lips. However, this “unfortunately rarely sparked” a real debate. That is why they abandoned it and are now discussing specific topics. Other CDU/CSU delegates, however, report that European dossiers no longer play a role in the meeting.
Lips wants to discuss one topic in particular: competitiveness. She believes that the positioning of domestic industry will be the most important issue in the coming years and will also dominate the CDU/CSU’s European election campaign. The current upheaval is overburdening many SMEs, “if we don’t take countermeasures, we are threatened with deindustrialization.”
A heart for the middle class
The trained commercial specialist was on the national board of the Union of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (MIT) for eight years, and the issues are close to her heart. “I recently visited an electroplating company with 120 employees,” she says. “The boss told me he didn’t want to do it anymore, that the high energy prices and countless regulations were killing the business.”
So far, businesses and local people have always seen Europe as an opportunity, Lips says. “But this common sense is crumbling in the face of the flood of new regulation.” That is why a regulatory moratorium is needed, as the EPP has been calling for months. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose political home is the CDU/CSU, has partly taken up the cause – the authority’spending Green Deal proposals will be less ambitious than initially envisaged. In addition, von der Leyen is having internal reporting requirements for companies compiled that seem dispensable.
‘We are not against the Green Deal’
“We are not fundamentally opposed to the Green Deal – it would no longer be possible to win elections with such a position,” Lips asserts. But politicians need to involve people more in the process. This could be achieved by talking more about technology openness and research and development.
The fierce opposition to individual projects such as the nature restoration law has earned the EPP the accusation of aligning with right-wing forces. EPP leader Manfred Weber has also put out feelers in the direction of the ECR; among other things, he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the head of the ECR party family. The CSU politician obviously wants to open new power options for the next election period.
Against a right-wing alliance
On the one hand, Lips is understanding: It is now a fact that Christian Democratic parties cooperate with right-wing parties, as in Italy or Finland. “We shouldn’t cut that thread of conversation,” she said. “But I think it’s dangerous to start a discussion about a right-wing alliance – there’s a danger of a dam burst.”
Given the past, this is particularly true for Germany. “Cooperation with the AfD is out of the question for me,” Lips emphasizes. “When the dams break in Germany, they break everywhere.” Till Hoppe
