On Sunday, a French president will make a state visit to Germany for the first time in 23 years. Of course, Emmanuel Macron and his predecessors, including Jacques Chirac, have visited Germany on various occasions. However, those were working visits, official visits or visits scheduled for specific events. A state visit is different in terms of protocol. During a state visit, there is a reception with military honors and a state banquet.
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron will spend three days in Germany, making stops in Ludwigsburg, Berlin, and Dresden. They will be accompanied by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Elke Büdenbender. The occasion for this visit is to honor the close friendship between the two countries in the sixtieth year of the Élysée Treaty. In addition to visiting landmarks such as Schiller’s birthplace in Marbach, there will also be meetings with young people on the agenda.
The highlight of the trip will be when Macron delivers a speech on Tuesday after a joint walk through the old town of Dresden, in front of the Frauenkirche on Neumarkt. It is expected to be an important speech, according to sources in Berlin. The focus will be on the significance of the mutual relationship in the past and the future. Soyez le bienvenu, Monsieur le Président.
A long convoy of black limousines crossed the BASF site in Brandenburg at noon yesterday, stopping next to a white marquee. EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, Brandenburg’s Minister President Dietmar Woidke – they all came to the inauguration of the new cathode material plant in Schwarzheide and emphasized the strategic importance of the project for the region, for Germany, for the EU.
The plant in Lusatia is the first production facility for cathode material in Germany and the second in Europe. The Belgian Umicore Group inaugurated its first plant in Nysa, Poland, last year. After two years of construction, production is now underway in Schwarzheide for sampling by customers; mass production is scheduled to start in 2025. Precursors from another new plant at BASF’s Harjavalta site in Finland will then be used. Both plants are supported with aid under the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI).
Materials for lithium-ion batteries for around 400,000 EVs could be produced annually in Schwarzheide. The product is already sold out for several years, it was said during the event. BASF also chose the Schwarzheide site for reasons of proximity to customers. However, the company could not disclose who these customers were for reasons of competition law. An industrial cluster for the entire value chain of batteries is currently being created in Brandenburg.
“The cathode material is crucial for almost all the properties of an automotive battery,” explained Peter Schuhmacher, head of BASF’s Battery Materials division. These include, for example, safety and the energy density and range of the vehicle. Above all, he said, it has an enormous impact on the CO2 footprint in the production of EVs. “If we don’t want the transformation from combustion engines to electromobility to simply shift the CO2 footprint from the exhaust of the combustion engine to the manufacturing chain of battery materials, we have to start with the cathode material,” he said.
BASF has set itself the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The company now obtains ten percent of the electricity for production at the Schwarzheide site from its own solar park on the plant premises.
At the same site, BASF is also currently building a recycling plant for batteries to produce black mass. The focus here is on particularly sustainable production through the integration of renewable energies at the site and high energy efficiency, the company explained. By the end of 2023, processes are to be developed here to achieve a higher recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from spent lithium-ion batteries. At the same time, metals from production scrap from cell manufacturers and battery material producers can then also be recycled.
Just last week, the European Court of Auditors pointed out the lack of competitiveness of the EU battery industry in a special report. On a global scale, only 7 percent of batteries are produced in the EU; China remains the largest producer with 76 percent of global capacity, according to the Court.
Production in the EU is currently growing so fast that it could well meet its own demand in 2025. But forecasts for 2030 are highly hypothetical, according to the Court’s auditors, as external factors could still reverse private companies’ investment plans: EU battery prices, already high, could rise even more due to energy costs and fluctuating commodity prices. In addition, there are massive subsidy programs in other world regions, such as the USA.
Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF, also complained about this yesterday. With the Inflation Reduction Act, the US is giving its industry a tailwind, he said. “This kind of support plays an important role in investment decisions for our customers, but also for us.” Europe, he said, instead risks losing its competitiveness because of the Green Deal’s “flood of regulations”.
Brudermüller had recently been criticized for massive investments in BASF’s Zhanjiang site in China. Yesterday, he stressed that the battery plants in Schwarzheide “underline that we as BASF believe in the future of the chemical industry in Europe and in Germany and are investing in innovative products and services for our customers in our home market.” As a result, BASF now produces battery materials in all three core markets: Asia, North America and Europe.
EU Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is confident: Last year, the EU had already overtaken China in terms of investment in battery technology, he recently told the “Welt am Sonntag” newspaper. Through the European Battery Alliance, it has been possible to attract €180 billion in private investment into the European battery sector, three and a half times more than in China, he said yesterday in Schwarzheide.
Industry, science, the EU Commission and member states founded the European Battery Alliance in 2017. It has over 800 members, including BMW, Volkswagen, Bosch and Siemens in addition to BASF. The goal: a strong European battery industry with an annual market value of €250 billion from 2025. The platform is supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The battery industry is also supported by two funding programs for IPCEI. In total, over fifty companies from twelve member states are participating, including 13 companies from Germany. EU member states have paid a total of €6 billion in subsidies, on condition that a further €14 billion come from private investors. At the beginning of the year, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action announced that it would expand the second battery IPCEI coordinated by Germany and pay aid of €1 billion for further major strategic projects.
The Schwarzheide plant, which is now in operation, also benefited: The construction of the plant cost €550 million, 175 million of which were covered by the German federal government and the state of Brandenburg (70 and 30 percent respectively) as part of the first battery IPCEI. BASF invested the rest itself.
In its report, the European Court of Auditors gives a positive assessment of the provision of financial resources in the EU. However, the Commission lacks an overview of the various financial flows. This makes it difficult to properly coordinate and target funding, it says. In addition, according to the report, the rules for the individual funding streams are so broad that there can be overlaps. The funds are also unevenly distributed, with Germany, France and Italy accounting for 83 percent of approved state aid.
Maria Noichl is a newcomer to the Brussels scene. She did not plan her career as a European politician. Nevertheless, the 56-year-old has become an influential representative for agriculture and women’s rights.
Noichl grew up in Aising near Rosenheim, and her father was a councilor for the CSU (Christian Social Union). “He was typically Bavarian, a lovable Strauß look-alike,” says Noichl in an interview. At the age of 17, Noichl became pregnant while unmarried. For this, she was ostracized in conservative Bavaria. “There was a special meeting in the church youth choir, where it was said: If something like this happens again, the choir will be disbanded.” Shortly afterward, Noichl left the Catholic Church, although she remains religious.
Noichl joined the SPD through an open discussion group of SPD women in Rosenheim. “I was fascinated by how they spoke, how they argued and how they identified problems,” says Noichl. “It was so different from what I knew at home.” In 1991, she joined the SPD and became a city councilor in Rosenheim. From 2008 to 2013, she was a member of the Bavarian State Parliament. Since 2018, Noichl has been the Federal Chair of the Association of Social Democratic Women.
After the birth of her second son, Noichl obtained her vocational diploma through the second educational pathway and became a specialist teacher in nutrition and design. That’s why she joined the Committee on Nutrition in the State Parliament, which is also the Agricultural Committee. “During my five years in the State Parliament, I regularly made phone calls to Brussels,” she says. “I hadn’t planned to do European politics, but during that time, I realized: Brussels is where the agricultural action is.” She was first elected to the European Parliament in 2014.
In the current agricultural reform, Noichl caused a stir. She wanted to link payments to farmers to social minimum standards, introducing the so-called social conditionality. “My goal was to protect fair employers in agriculture from dumping,” says Noichl. “I wrote an amendment that was rejected in the committee with silly laughter.” This also came from her own faction. She reintroduced the proposal in plenary, where it received narrow approval, and it will apply EU-wide from 2025. “That’s my biggest success.”
In early June, she co-founded the European umbrella organization for landscape conservation, Landcare Europe. The association aims to provide farmers with a second source of income alongside product sales. As “eco-service providers,” farmers should also be funded for environmental protection on their land. “I envision it like a price list in a restaurant, where farmers know how much money they will receive for which project.”
Then it would be a business decision for farmers to decide whether to cultivate another field of rapeseed or support a project for field larks. For this, society must be willing to pay. “Society also finds it valuable when the marketplace is beautifully paved,” says Noichl. “Then it can also be valuable to us if farmers do more for biodiversity and climate action.”
Noichl is also the spokesperson for gender equality in the S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) Group. She supports the Nordic Model of addressing prostitution, which calls for a ban but focuses on punishing buyers, not sex workers. “Things cannot continue like this in Germany. We are Europe’s brothel,” she said. So far, not enough has been done to reduce the demand for prostitution: Advertising is allowed, as is street prostitution and prostitution in cars.
In September, the report on the regulation of prostitution in the EU will be voted on in the European Parliament. Noichl is the rapporteur. “It is about taking a position on what kind of Europe we stand for,” she says. “Prostitution violates women’s rights.” Tom Schmidtgen
Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy and leader of the Brothers of Italy party, remains at the helm of the European party family ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists). She was recently confirmed in her position by the party’s leadership body during a meeting in Rome. She intends to hold the position until the European elections in June, according to a statement released on her behalf.
This decision is interesting in light of the ambitions of Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP in both the party and the parliamentary group. Weber is speculating on cooperating with parts of the ECR group in the Parliament after the elections or attracting individual member parties from the ECR group to join the EPP.
Meloni’s continuation is seen as a signal: She wants the ECR group to remain independent and is prepared to defend against any takeover attempts by the Christian Democrats. Markus Grabitz
On Sunday, a French president will make a state visit to Germany for the first time in 23 years. Of course, Emmanuel Macron and his predecessors, including Jacques Chirac, have visited Germany on various occasions. However, those were working visits, official visits or visits scheduled for specific events. A state visit is different in terms of protocol. During a state visit, there is a reception with military honors and a state banquet.
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron will spend three days in Germany, making stops in Ludwigsburg, Berlin, and Dresden. They will be accompanied by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Elke Büdenbender. The occasion for this visit is to honor the close friendship between the two countries in the sixtieth year of the Élysée Treaty. In addition to visiting landmarks such as Schiller’s birthplace in Marbach, there will also be meetings with young people on the agenda.
The highlight of the trip will be when Macron delivers a speech on Tuesday after a joint walk through the old town of Dresden, in front of the Frauenkirche on Neumarkt. It is expected to be an important speech, according to sources in Berlin. The focus will be on the significance of the mutual relationship in the past and the future. Soyez le bienvenu, Monsieur le Président.
A long convoy of black limousines crossed the BASF site in Brandenburg at noon yesterday, stopping next to a white marquee. EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, Brandenburg’s Minister President Dietmar Woidke – they all came to the inauguration of the new cathode material plant in Schwarzheide and emphasized the strategic importance of the project for the region, for Germany, for the EU.
The plant in Lusatia is the first production facility for cathode material in Germany and the second in Europe. The Belgian Umicore Group inaugurated its first plant in Nysa, Poland, last year. After two years of construction, production is now underway in Schwarzheide for sampling by customers; mass production is scheduled to start in 2025. Precursors from another new plant at BASF’s Harjavalta site in Finland will then be used. Both plants are supported with aid under the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI).
Materials for lithium-ion batteries for around 400,000 EVs could be produced annually in Schwarzheide. The product is already sold out for several years, it was said during the event. BASF also chose the Schwarzheide site for reasons of proximity to customers. However, the company could not disclose who these customers were for reasons of competition law. An industrial cluster for the entire value chain of batteries is currently being created in Brandenburg.
“The cathode material is crucial for almost all the properties of an automotive battery,” explained Peter Schuhmacher, head of BASF’s Battery Materials division. These include, for example, safety and the energy density and range of the vehicle. Above all, he said, it has an enormous impact on the CO2 footprint in the production of EVs. “If we don’t want the transformation from combustion engines to electromobility to simply shift the CO2 footprint from the exhaust of the combustion engine to the manufacturing chain of battery materials, we have to start with the cathode material,” he said.
BASF has set itself the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The company now obtains ten percent of the electricity for production at the Schwarzheide site from its own solar park on the plant premises.
At the same site, BASF is also currently building a recycling plant for batteries to produce black mass. The focus here is on particularly sustainable production through the integration of renewable energies at the site and high energy efficiency, the company explained. By the end of 2023, processes are to be developed here to achieve a higher recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from spent lithium-ion batteries. At the same time, metals from production scrap from cell manufacturers and battery material producers can then also be recycled.
Just last week, the European Court of Auditors pointed out the lack of competitiveness of the EU battery industry in a special report. On a global scale, only 7 percent of batteries are produced in the EU; China remains the largest producer with 76 percent of global capacity, according to the Court.
Production in the EU is currently growing so fast that it could well meet its own demand in 2025. But forecasts for 2030 are highly hypothetical, according to the Court’s auditors, as external factors could still reverse private companies’ investment plans: EU battery prices, already high, could rise even more due to energy costs and fluctuating commodity prices. In addition, there are massive subsidy programs in other world regions, such as the USA.
Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF, also complained about this yesterday. With the Inflation Reduction Act, the US is giving its industry a tailwind, he said. “This kind of support plays an important role in investment decisions for our customers, but also for us.” Europe, he said, instead risks losing its competitiveness because of the Green Deal’s “flood of regulations”.
Brudermüller had recently been criticized for massive investments in BASF’s Zhanjiang site in China. Yesterday, he stressed that the battery plants in Schwarzheide “underline that we as BASF believe in the future of the chemical industry in Europe and in Germany and are investing in innovative products and services for our customers in our home market.” As a result, BASF now produces battery materials in all three core markets: Asia, North America and Europe.
EU Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is confident: Last year, the EU had already overtaken China in terms of investment in battery technology, he recently told the “Welt am Sonntag” newspaper. Through the European Battery Alliance, it has been possible to attract €180 billion in private investment into the European battery sector, three and a half times more than in China, he said yesterday in Schwarzheide.
Industry, science, the EU Commission and member states founded the European Battery Alliance in 2017. It has over 800 members, including BMW, Volkswagen, Bosch and Siemens in addition to BASF. The goal: a strong European battery industry with an annual market value of €250 billion from 2025. The platform is supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The battery industry is also supported by two funding programs for IPCEI. In total, over fifty companies from twelve member states are participating, including 13 companies from Germany. EU member states have paid a total of €6 billion in subsidies, on condition that a further €14 billion come from private investors. At the beginning of the year, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action announced that it would expand the second battery IPCEI coordinated by Germany and pay aid of €1 billion for further major strategic projects.
The Schwarzheide plant, which is now in operation, also benefited: The construction of the plant cost €550 million, 175 million of which were covered by the German federal government and the state of Brandenburg (70 and 30 percent respectively) as part of the first battery IPCEI. BASF invested the rest itself.
In its report, the European Court of Auditors gives a positive assessment of the provision of financial resources in the EU. However, the Commission lacks an overview of the various financial flows. This makes it difficult to properly coordinate and target funding, it says. In addition, according to the report, the rules for the individual funding streams are so broad that there can be overlaps. The funds are also unevenly distributed, with Germany, France and Italy accounting for 83 percent of approved state aid.
Maria Noichl is a newcomer to the Brussels scene. She did not plan her career as a European politician. Nevertheless, the 56-year-old has become an influential representative for agriculture and women’s rights.
Noichl grew up in Aising near Rosenheim, and her father was a councilor for the CSU (Christian Social Union). “He was typically Bavarian, a lovable Strauß look-alike,” says Noichl in an interview. At the age of 17, Noichl became pregnant while unmarried. For this, she was ostracized in conservative Bavaria. “There was a special meeting in the church youth choir, where it was said: If something like this happens again, the choir will be disbanded.” Shortly afterward, Noichl left the Catholic Church, although she remains religious.
Noichl joined the SPD through an open discussion group of SPD women in Rosenheim. “I was fascinated by how they spoke, how they argued and how they identified problems,” says Noichl. “It was so different from what I knew at home.” In 1991, she joined the SPD and became a city councilor in Rosenheim. From 2008 to 2013, she was a member of the Bavarian State Parliament. Since 2018, Noichl has been the Federal Chair of the Association of Social Democratic Women.
After the birth of her second son, Noichl obtained her vocational diploma through the second educational pathway and became a specialist teacher in nutrition and design. That’s why she joined the Committee on Nutrition in the State Parliament, which is also the Agricultural Committee. “During my five years in the State Parliament, I regularly made phone calls to Brussels,” she says. “I hadn’t planned to do European politics, but during that time, I realized: Brussels is where the agricultural action is.” She was first elected to the European Parliament in 2014.
In the current agricultural reform, Noichl caused a stir. She wanted to link payments to farmers to social minimum standards, introducing the so-called social conditionality. “My goal was to protect fair employers in agriculture from dumping,” says Noichl. “I wrote an amendment that was rejected in the committee with silly laughter.” This also came from her own faction. She reintroduced the proposal in plenary, where it received narrow approval, and it will apply EU-wide from 2025. “That’s my biggest success.”
In early June, she co-founded the European umbrella organization for landscape conservation, Landcare Europe. The association aims to provide farmers with a second source of income alongside product sales. As “eco-service providers,” farmers should also be funded for environmental protection on their land. “I envision it like a price list in a restaurant, where farmers know how much money they will receive for which project.”
Then it would be a business decision for farmers to decide whether to cultivate another field of rapeseed or support a project for field larks. For this, society must be willing to pay. “Society also finds it valuable when the marketplace is beautifully paved,” says Noichl. “Then it can also be valuable to us if farmers do more for biodiversity and climate action.”
Noichl is also the spokesperson for gender equality in the S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) Group. She supports the Nordic Model of addressing prostitution, which calls for a ban but focuses on punishing buyers, not sex workers. “Things cannot continue like this in Germany. We are Europe’s brothel,” she said. So far, not enough has been done to reduce the demand for prostitution: Advertising is allowed, as is street prostitution and prostitution in cars.
In September, the report on the regulation of prostitution in the EU will be voted on in the European Parliament. Noichl is the rapporteur. “It is about taking a position on what kind of Europe we stand for,” she says. “Prostitution violates women’s rights.” Tom Schmidtgen
Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy and leader of the Brothers of Italy party, remains at the helm of the European party family ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists). She was recently confirmed in her position by the party’s leadership body during a meeting in Rome. She intends to hold the position until the European elections in June, according to a statement released on her behalf.
This decision is interesting in light of the ambitions of Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP in both the party and the parliamentary group. Weber is speculating on cooperating with parts of the ECR group in the Parliament after the elections or attracting individual member parties from the ECR group to join the EPP.
Meloni’s continuation is seen as a signal: She wants the ECR group to remain independent and is prepared to defend against any takeover attempts by the Christian Democrats. Markus Grabitz
