The 14th package of sanctions against Russia should be in place before Hungary’s pro-Russian head of government Viktor Orban takes over the Council Presidency on July 1. In order for the timetable to work out, the EU Commission should send its proposals to the member states today or this Friday at the latest. The package will probably include sanctions against Russian liquefied natural gas for the first time. The proposal does not go as far as the Baltic states’ demand for a total phase-out of Russian energy. Only re-exports of Russian LNG via terminals in Belgium, France and Spain are targeted.
While the EU states have reduced imports of Russian gas via pipelines by two-thirds, Russia has been able to increase exports of LNG, most recently earning eight billion euros a year. Moscow apparently sees even more potential here and is currently building three additional LNG terminals, including in the Arctic Circle, which are now also to be subject to restrictions. However, the new punitive measures are intended to cover a much broader spectrum this time, after the last package was mainly about plugging loopholes.
For example, there are plans to list individuals and 40 companies that supply Russia with components for the production of military equipment via Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and China. The package also includes new measures against the so-called shadow fleets, which Russia uses to circumvent the oil sanctions. Sectoral sanctions on aluminum imports and exports of luxury goods are also on the table. Demands from Eastern Europe regarding the freedom of movement of Russian diplomats in the Schengen area and Moscow’s propaganda facilities in the EU are likely to be less successful.
It is planned that the EU ambassadors will discuss the 14th sanctions package for the first time at their weekly meeting next Wednesday. The EU Commission’s legal act, which will form the basis for the first transfer of interest income on Russian central bank funds to Ukraine before the summer, may also be on the agenda.
Until now, he has stood in the shadow of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. As Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit from Luxembourg served his omnipresent German boss faithfully and loyally for five years – and was never really able to make a name for himself personally or politically.
Even notable successes such as the European Minimum Wage Directive, the EU law on platform work or the establishment of a new labor authority have hardly attracted any attention to the jovial yet discreet professional diplomat, who was Luxembourg’s Permanent Representative to the EU from 1998 to 2004.
But now the 70-year-old has to step out of the shadows and into the limelight. Schmit is the lead candidate of the European Social Democrats (PES) for the European elections and is tasked with ensuring that the comrades make up ground compared to the last election in 2019. Back then, they only won 154 seats, 30 fewer than in 2014.
But the polls do not look good. The Social Democrats are on the defensive not only in Germany, but also across the EU. In Spain, they even almost lost power. The latest projection by political scientist Manuel Müller from the end of April only gives the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) 132 seats – 22 fewer than in 2019.
Schmit is supposed to cushion the negative trend and stop it if possible, but nothing more. Not even his friends in the German Social Democrats believe he can win an election, let alone replace his overpowering boss in the EU Commission. Their lead candidate is not playing for victory, but for a place, says an SPD Member of Parliament.
If things go well, Schmit could become Executive Vice-President in the next Commission after the election – or EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs. This job is traditionally reserved for long-serving social democrats; as a trained diplomat, Schmit has all the prerequisites.
But things are not going well. At his first major election campaign appearance in Maastricht on Monday, Schmit failed to make an impression. He did not make any blunders like von der Leyen, who floundered when asked about the right-wing conservative ECR and gave the impression that she wanted to keep all options open – even to the far right.
But Schmit can’t score points either. The former Minister of Labor was too timid, writes the Luxemburger Wort after the debate. In fact, he largely stayed in the background. He left von der Leyen’s controversial statement on the ECR – which was actually a steep opportunity – unused. “I was somewhat taken aback by your answer“, Schmit replied – but he did not become more offensive.
Why is that? Schmit has not yet shed his role as EU Commissioner, according to those close to him. He has been fighting for important social dossiers such as the directive on European works councils until the very end and is not yet in election campaign mode. An appearance at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Brussels on Tuesday, which was attended by many S&D supporters, confirms this impression.
At the “Call to Europe” – the title of the event – it was once again the non-partisan Social Affairs Commissioner who spoke, not the Social Democratic lead candidate. “At the beginning of my term of office, I wouldn’t have believed myself that we would agree on common standards for minimum wages”, he conceded with confidence. It sounds like a lucky coincidence, not a successful battle.
But Schmit is not the only one lacking in aggression. His comrades are also only going into the election campaign with half their strength. Most German Social Democrats have long since resigned themselves to a second term in office for von der Leyen. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is campaigning for the SPD. However, he is not standing in the way of the Brussels CDU politician. The election campaign is about the Parliament, not the Commission, according to reports in Berlin.
There are several reasons for this. Firstly, cooperation is going well. France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron even suspects Scholz and von der Leyen of working too closely together and favoring Germany. On the other hand, according to the coalition agreement, it would be the Greens’ turn if von der Leyen were to vacate her post. They could then appoint the next German EU Commissioner – a no-go for Scholz.
Schmit should therefore not expect any tailwind from the Chancellery. The Willy Brandt House also has other priorities. The SPD party headquarters is advertising its prominent German lead candidate Katarina Barley and Chancellor Scholz on posters and in election commercials. The party strategists in Berlin are preparing a rather small stage for Schmit. After the meeting of the SPD presidium and executive committee on April 22, the Luxembourger gave a joint press conference with Barley – three days later at the campaign launch, General Secretary Kevin Kühnert did not mention him at all.
Even from his home country of Luxembourg, there is no fresh impetus. The Social Democrats left the government there in November. It is doubtful whether the new governing coalition of Christian Socialists and Liberals will support “their” man in Brussels and nominate him for a second term in office after the election. Schmit is on his own – not a good basis for his election campaign.
The first filling stations in Germany are now offering the new diesel substitute HVO 100. The biofuel made from hydrogenated vegetable fats can be significantly more climate-friendly than its fossil counterpart – depending on which raw materials are used for production. However, according to the FAZ, the new fuel still costs around 9 cents more per liter, even in the cheapest case. The trade association Fuels and Energy (en2x) is therefore hoping that European tax regulations will be amended as quickly as possible.
“A reform of the Energy Tax Directive would be extremely helpful for biofuels made from waste and residual materials. That would create business cases,” en2x CEO Christian Küchen told Table.Briefings. “Now there will only be individual customer groups who are already willing to pay more.” Küchen cited freight forwarders as an example, whose customers insist on CO2-free supply chains. Electric drives are still in short supply for trucks.
The Energy Tax Directive currently stipulates the equivalence principle, explains a spokesperson for the Ministry of Financial Affairs. Alternative fuels must be taxed in the same way as fossil fuels. Since 2003, the energy tax on diesel in Germany has remained unchanged at 47.04 cents per liter. The EU reform will probably not change this. The minimum tax rate is to rise across Europe – from 33 to 38.7 cents according to the Commission proposal. However, Germany would continue to exceed it and it is unlikely that the federal government will reduce the tax on diesel and forego the revenue.
Rather, the decisive factor would be that climate-friendly alternatives to fossil fuels would have to be taxed at a lower rate in the future under the EU amendment. Depending on their carbon footprint, energy sources would be divided into three categories with different minimum tax rates. According to en2x, the minimum tax rate for biodiesel from sustainably cultivated biomass would only be around half as high as for fossil diesel.
As an advanced biofuel, HVO from waste and residual materials would even fall into the category with the lowest minimum tax rate of just 0.51 cents per liter according to en2x. In order to keep a distance from the next worst category, the liter should be taxed at a maximum of 17.7 cents. A liter of HVO from waste and residual materials would therefore have to be at least 29 cents cheaper and could therefore be significantly cheaper than diesel. However, the petrol stations would also have to pass on the tax reduction. According to the FAZ, experts expect large price differences and additional prices of up to 30 cents instead of 9 cents at the pump.
The Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, is unlikely to be willing to lower the tax even further to the minimum tax rate. It could be argued there that support is already being provided nationally via instruments outside of tax law – via creditability towards the greenhouse gas reduction quota.
However, it will take until after the European elections before the member states agree on a new energy tax. Although Parliament is only consulted on tax policy, the Council cannot decide without an opinion.
Until the last meetings, not even the responsible committee could agree on a position. The responsible rapporteur understood the Commission proposals as maximum rates and not as minimum tax rates, says SPD MEP Joachim Schuster. Another point of contention in both Parliament and the Council is an automatic increase in tax rates in line with inflation. The taxation of aviation fuel and nuclear fuel also caused discussion in the Council.
In the worst-case scenario, the disaster of the last decade will be repeated: In 2011, the Commission had already presented a reform proposal once before. Years of negotiations ended without a result. However, precisely because of the principle of equivalence that still applies, the EU states are under greater pressure this time, because without the reform there will be no lower tax rates for e-fuels.
When China’s head of state Xi Jinping meets President Emmanuel Macron in Paris at the beginning of next week to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, he is unlikely to hide his displeasure at the EU investigation into EV state subsidies. After all, France was the main driver behind Brussels‘ decision: following months of lobbying by the French, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen launched the new anti-subsidy investigation in the autumn – much to Berlin’s annoyance.
France, the EU’s second-largest economy, has a very different approach to EVs from the People’s Republic than Germany. Paris promotes EVs, but de facto excludes Chinese models. To this end, Paris has devised an environmental bonus in which manufacturers have had to collect points since the beginning of 2024 in order to qualify for a subsidy: These include the electricity mix in the country of origin (still coal-heavy in China) and the distance to the delivery point in France (China is a long way away). As a result, Chinese manufacturers never achieve the required minimum number of environmental points. “A car manufactured in China using coal-fired electricity will not benefit from the green bonus“, Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher once said. This gives domestic models a price advantage.
The French government justifies the de facto exclusion of Chinese EVs from subsidies with environmental protection. Hundreds of millions of euros of public money had previously been invested in vehicles with a very poor carbon footprint, said Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. This is now a thing of the past. In the future, an electric vehicle should “only have a minor impact on the environment during production and transportation” in order to benefit from the subsidy.
France, home to car manufacturer Renault and a sizable Stellantis workforce, is leading the EU’s efforts to produce more electric cars in Europe and bring them to buyers. All of this benefits Stellantis. The group was created in 2021 from the merger of the Italian-American Fiat-Chrysler and the French Groupe PSA. In October, Stellantis reported a turnover of around €45 billion for the third quarter. The conglomerate’s electric car sales increased by 37 percent, which was mainly due to the Jeep Avenger, Citroën Ami and Peugeot E-208 models.
In the fall of 2023, Macron also presented a new leasing system for electric vehicles for only around €100 per month. The focus is on electric cars from European manufacturers: Models from French manufacturers Renault, Peugeot and Citroën as well as Opel and Fiat were named as examples of electric cars that are eligible for the leasing offer.
The offer was primarily aimed at financially disadvantaged households. The program was temporarily discontinued in February – too many applications had been received, with 50,000 initially being the limit. The program is to be relaunched in 2025. Used electric cars and models converted to electric drive could also be leased under the program. However, the vehicle had to have been registered for the first time at least three and a half years ago.
However, the exclusion of Chinese EVs is not stopping the French from cooperating with China: Stellantis only announced in October that it would acquire around 20 percent of the Chinese manufacturer Leapmotor for around €1.5 billion. The Group also announced the founding of Leapmotor International, a joint venture 51 percent managed by Stellantis. This holds exclusive rights for the manufacture, sale and export of Leapmotor products outside China. According to media reports, two initial Leapmotor models are to be built at Stellantis’ plant in Poland, as reported by Reuters.
German trade expert Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki from the French Jaques Delors Institute is rather skeptical about the feared flood of e-cars in the European markets: “I am not convinced that China’s supply of electric vehicles is covered by sufficient European demand.” This is also shown by the fact that e-vehicles of Chinese brands are increasingly piling up in European ports, as well as the slowdown in European imports of Chinese electric vehicles last year.
“One reason could be consumer ethnocentrism”, suspects Köhler-Suzuki in an interview with Table.Briefings. “Despite decades of deep economic integration, French manufacturers continue to dominate the French market and German manufacturers the German market.” Why this should be any different for Chinese manufacturers is questionable.
Köhler-Suzuki sees the real danger elsewhere: The EV debate is currently contributing to the Franco-German divide. According to him, the differences between the respective car markets naturally play a major role in the attitude of the two EU states: “Cheaper cars such as those from Stellantis probably have a higher risk of competition with Chinese models than higher-priced German cars.” Köhler-Suzuki warns that the Franco-German differences of opinion are damaging a common European position and can be exploited by divide-and-rule tactics by Washington and Beijing.
The battle for the electoral list of the French conservatives Les Républicains (LR) was fierce and was presented in Paris on Tuesday. With polls putting them at six percent of the vote, the French conservatives led by François-Xavier Bellamy can only hope for a very limited number of MEPs in the next European Parliament, between six and eight seats.
MEP and first female Quaestor of the European Parliament Anne Sander is in tenth place. The Strasbourg-based MEP, who specializes in agricultural issues and comes from a family with a connection to the agricultural sector, stood out for her fierce opposition to the bill to restore nature alongside Dutch MEP Esther de Lange and German MEP Christine Schneider (CDU).
The 41-year-old cereal farmer Céline Imart, who is running in second place, should then take care of agricultural issues for the French conservatives in the European Parliament. She is a member of the Fédération nationale des syndicats d’exploitants agricoles (FNSEA) and spokesperson for Intercéréales. Imart has an atypical background: She is a graduate of the prestigious Sciences Po and the ESSEC Business School. Before taking over the family business in 2010, she was financial director of a subsidiary of Vincent Bolloré’s group in Chile and worked for the consulting firm PwC.
According to French media reports, it was Eric Ciotti, the leader of the Les Républicains party, who chose Céline Imart. He describes her as “the face of the future of our rural regions, which are despised and forgotten by those currently in power”. As a newcomer to politics, she has already made a name for herself in France through her media appearances. For example, Imart criticized President Emmanuel Macron and accused him of handling the crisis in agriculture “like a strike at the SNCF”.
Nadine Morano and Brice Hortefeux, two former ministers of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, are in the rather safe sixth and seventh places. These nominations may have come as a surprise to some members, as the voices within the party for a renewal of political personalities have become louder and louder in recent weeks. cst
Hardly anyone in Germany is more committed to the European cause than the 37-year-old. She has been the honorary President of the European Movement Germany since 2018. As Head of the Europe Department at the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the Federal Government, she also deals with the topic full-time.
The political director of the environment and development organization Germanwatch is one of the most important civil society voices in global climate diplomacy worldwide. Since the first World Climate Conference, he has been monitoring international negotiations, advising governments and driving them forward. Bals and his team also comprehensively analyze European climate policy and regularly evaluate it in their Climate Change Performance Index.
The best-connected Europe lobbyist in Berlin. He has been Secretary General of the European Movement Germany for 20 years and maintains close contact with the relevant players in the German government and Bundestag. He also has good contacts in other member states, with particular expertise in Italy. He is now also a board member of Transparency International Germany.
With his organization Algorithm Watch, Matthias Spielkamp has set himself the goal of ensuring that technology in general and algorithmic systems in particular benefit all people. From 2020 to 2022, he was a member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) initiative. Spielkamp has appeared as an expert at hearings of the Council of Europe, the EU Parliament and the Bundestag.
The friendly terror of the EU Commission, the US IT giants and the data protection authorities: With the NGO “None of your business” (NOYB), which he founded, he regularly takes legal action against anyone who does not comply with the GDPR, delays it and softens it. The Austrian lawyer first brought down an EU-US agreement on data protection as a student.
Pilgrim is a passionate advocate for a globally just raw materials policy. At Powershift, she has coordinated the Raw Materials Working Group, a network of German-speaking NGOs, since 2020. She supports the German and EU raw materials strategy and calls for higher social and environmental standards in supply chains, such as a say for the local population.
Since 2011, he has been the face of the largest citizens’ initiative for Europe in Germany: Rainer Wieland, a member of the European Parliament for the CDU since 1997 and one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament since 2009, was elected President of the non-partisan Europa-Union Deutschland in 2011. With Wieland at the helm, 17,000 members in Germany alone are committed to continuing European unification, overcoming nation-states and ultimately creating a European federal state.
Trent founded the Environmental Justice Foundation in 1999 and is still its managing director today. With a globally active team, he campaigns for the protection of the environment and human rights, for example during the EU negotiations on the ban of products from forced labor. With the “Stop Deep Sea Mining” campaign, the NGO tirelessly draws attention to the risks of mining raw materials in the deep sea.
Based in Brussels, Ganapini coordinates the “Right to Repair” campaign, a coalition of over 100 organizations from all over Europe. Together, they are working to make repairs simpler, cheaper and more accessible for everyone. With success: decisive laws such as the Right to Repair Directive and the Ecodesign Regulation have just been passed.
Kind-Rieper spent almost ten years at the WWF, where he acquired in-depth expertise on the topics of mining and metals. He is now Global Lead Metals & Mining and in this role is a member of expert groups at the EU Commission and the OECD. His current publication deals with a green battery industry in Europe.
The 14th package of sanctions against Russia should be in place before Hungary’s pro-Russian head of government Viktor Orban takes over the Council Presidency on July 1. In order for the timetable to work out, the EU Commission should send its proposals to the member states today or this Friday at the latest. The package will probably include sanctions against Russian liquefied natural gas for the first time. The proposal does not go as far as the Baltic states’ demand for a total phase-out of Russian energy. Only re-exports of Russian LNG via terminals in Belgium, France and Spain are targeted.
While the EU states have reduced imports of Russian gas via pipelines by two-thirds, Russia has been able to increase exports of LNG, most recently earning eight billion euros a year. Moscow apparently sees even more potential here and is currently building three additional LNG terminals, including in the Arctic Circle, which are now also to be subject to restrictions. However, the new punitive measures are intended to cover a much broader spectrum this time, after the last package was mainly about plugging loopholes.
For example, there are plans to list individuals and 40 companies that supply Russia with components for the production of military equipment via Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and China. The package also includes new measures against the so-called shadow fleets, which Russia uses to circumvent the oil sanctions. Sectoral sanctions on aluminum imports and exports of luxury goods are also on the table. Demands from Eastern Europe regarding the freedom of movement of Russian diplomats in the Schengen area and Moscow’s propaganda facilities in the EU are likely to be less successful.
It is planned that the EU ambassadors will discuss the 14th sanctions package for the first time at their weekly meeting next Wednesday. The EU Commission’s legal act, which will form the basis for the first transfer of interest income on Russian central bank funds to Ukraine before the summer, may also be on the agenda.
Until now, he has stood in the shadow of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. As Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit from Luxembourg served his omnipresent German boss faithfully and loyally for five years – and was never really able to make a name for himself personally or politically.
Even notable successes such as the European Minimum Wage Directive, the EU law on platform work or the establishment of a new labor authority have hardly attracted any attention to the jovial yet discreet professional diplomat, who was Luxembourg’s Permanent Representative to the EU from 1998 to 2004.
But now the 70-year-old has to step out of the shadows and into the limelight. Schmit is the lead candidate of the European Social Democrats (PES) for the European elections and is tasked with ensuring that the comrades make up ground compared to the last election in 2019. Back then, they only won 154 seats, 30 fewer than in 2014.
But the polls do not look good. The Social Democrats are on the defensive not only in Germany, but also across the EU. In Spain, they even almost lost power. The latest projection by political scientist Manuel Müller from the end of April only gives the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) 132 seats – 22 fewer than in 2019.
Schmit is supposed to cushion the negative trend and stop it if possible, but nothing more. Not even his friends in the German Social Democrats believe he can win an election, let alone replace his overpowering boss in the EU Commission. Their lead candidate is not playing for victory, but for a place, says an SPD Member of Parliament.
If things go well, Schmit could become Executive Vice-President in the next Commission after the election – or EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs. This job is traditionally reserved for long-serving social democrats; as a trained diplomat, Schmit has all the prerequisites.
But things are not going well. At his first major election campaign appearance in Maastricht on Monday, Schmit failed to make an impression. He did not make any blunders like von der Leyen, who floundered when asked about the right-wing conservative ECR and gave the impression that she wanted to keep all options open – even to the far right.
But Schmit can’t score points either. The former Minister of Labor was too timid, writes the Luxemburger Wort after the debate. In fact, he largely stayed in the background. He left von der Leyen’s controversial statement on the ECR – which was actually a steep opportunity – unused. “I was somewhat taken aback by your answer“, Schmit replied – but he did not become more offensive.
Why is that? Schmit has not yet shed his role as EU Commissioner, according to those close to him. He has been fighting for important social dossiers such as the directive on European works councils until the very end and is not yet in election campaign mode. An appearance at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Brussels on Tuesday, which was attended by many S&D supporters, confirms this impression.
At the “Call to Europe” – the title of the event – it was once again the non-partisan Social Affairs Commissioner who spoke, not the Social Democratic lead candidate. “At the beginning of my term of office, I wouldn’t have believed myself that we would agree on common standards for minimum wages”, he conceded with confidence. It sounds like a lucky coincidence, not a successful battle.
But Schmit is not the only one lacking in aggression. His comrades are also only going into the election campaign with half their strength. Most German Social Democrats have long since resigned themselves to a second term in office for von der Leyen. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is campaigning for the SPD. However, he is not standing in the way of the Brussels CDU politician. The election campaign is about the Parliament, not the Commission, according to reports in Berlin.
There are several reasons for this. Firstly, cooperation is going well. France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron even suspects Scholz and von der Leyen of working too closely together and favoring Germany. On the other hand, according to the coalition agreement, it would be the Greens’ turn if von der Leyen were to vacate her post. They could then appoint the next German EU Commissioner – a no-go for Scholz.
Schmit should therefore not expect any tailwind from the Chancellery. The Willy Brandt House also has other priorities. The SPD party headquarters is advertising its prominent German lead candidate Katarina Barley and Chancellor Scholz on posters and in election commercials. The party strategists in Berlin are preparing a rather small stage for Schmit. After the meeting of the SPD presidium and executive committee on April 22, the Luxembourger gave a joint press conference with Barley – three days later at the campaign launch, General Secretary Kevin Kühnert did not mention him at all.
Even from his home country of Luxembourg, there is no fresh impetus. The Social Democrats left the government there in November. It is doubtful whether the new governing coalition of Christian Socialists and Liberals will support “their” man in Brussels and nominate him for a second term in office after the election. Schmit is on his own – not a good basis for his election campaign.
The first filling stations in Germany are now offering the new diesel substitute HVO 100. The biofuel made from hydrogenated vegetable fats can be significantly more climate-friendly than its fossil counterpart – depending on which raw materials are used for production. However, according to the FAZ, the new fuel still costs around 9 cents more per liter, even in the cheapest case. The trade association Fuels and Energy (en2x) is therefore hoping that European tax regulations will be amended as quickly as possible.
“A reform of the Energy Tax Directive would be extremely helpful for biofuels made from waste and residual materials. That would create business cases,” en2x CEO Christian Küchen told Table.Briefings. “Now there will only be individual customer groups who are already willing to pay more.” Küchen cited freight forwarders as an example, whose customers insist on CO2-free supply chains. Electric drives are still in short supply for trucks.
The Energy Tax Directive currently stipulates the equivalence principle, explains a spokesperson for the Ministry of Financial Affairs. Alternative fuels must be taxed in the same way as fossil fuels. Since 2003, the energy tax on diesel in Germany has remained unchanged at 47.04 cents per liter. The EU reform will probably not change this. The minimum tax rate is to rise across Europe – from 33 to 38.7 cents according to the Commission proposal. However, Germany would continue to exceed it and it is unlikely that the federal government will reduce the tax on diesel and forego the revenue.
Rather, the decisive factor would be that climate-friendly alternatives to fossil fuels would have to be taxed at a lower rate in the future under the EU amendment. Depending on their carbon footprint, energy sources would be divided into three categories with different minimum tax rates. According to en2x, the minimum tax rate for biodiesel from sustainably cultivated biomass would only be around half as high as for fossil diesel.
As an advanced biofuel, HVO from waste and residual materials would even fall into the category with the lowest minimum tax rate of just 0.51 cents per liter according to en2x. In order to keep a distance from the next worst category, the liter should be taxed at a maximum of 17.7 cents. A liter of HVO from waste and residual materials would therefore have to be at least 29 cents cheaper and could therefore be significantly cheaper than diesel. However, the petrol stations would also have to pass on the tax reduction. According to the FAZ, experts expect large price differences and additional prices of up to 30 cents instead of 9 cents at the pump.
The Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, is unlikely to be willing to lower the tax even further to the minimum tax rate. It could be argued there that support is already being provided nationally via instruments outside of tax law – via creditability towards the greenhouse gas reduction quota.
However, it will take until after the European elections before the member states agree on a new energy tax. Although Parliament is only consulted on tax policy, the Council cannot decide without an opinion.
Until the last meetings, not even the responsible committee could agree on a position. The responsible rapporteur understood the Commission proposals as maximum rates and not as minimum tax rates, says SPD MEP Joachim Schuster. Another point of contention in both Parliament and the Council is an automatic increase in tax rates in line with inflation. The taxation of aviation fuel and nuclear fuel also caused discussion in the Council.
In the worst-case scenario, the disaster of the last decade will be repeated: In 2011, the Commission had already presented a reform proposal once before. Years of negotiations ended without a result. However, precisely because of the principle of equivalence that still applies, the EU states are under greater pressure this time, because without the reform there will be no lower tax rates for e-fuels.
When China’s head of state Xi Jinping meets President Emmanuel Macron in Paris at the beginning of next week to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, he is unlikely to hide his displeasure at the EU investigation into EV state subsidies. After all, France was the main driver behind Brussels‘ decision: following months of lobbying by the French, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen launched the new anti-subsidy investigation in the autumn – much to Berlin’s annoyance.
France, the EU’s second-largest economy, has a very different approach to EVs from the People’s Republic than Germany. Paris promotes EVs, but de facto excludes Chinese models. To this end, Paris has devised an environmental bonus in which manufacturers have had to collect points since the beginning of 2024 in order to qualify for a subsidy: These include the electricity mix in the country of origin (still coal-heavy in China) and the distance to the delivery point in France (China is a long way away). As a result, Chinese manufacturers never achieve the required minimum number of environmental points. “A car manufactured in China using coal-fired electricity will not benefit from the green bonus“, Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher once said. This gives domestic models a price advantage.
The French government justifies the de facto exclusion of Chinese EVs from subsidies with environmental protection. Hundreds of millions of euros of public money had previously been invested in vehicles with a very poor carbon footprint, said Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. This is now a thing of the past. In the future, an electric vehicle should “only have a minor impact on the environment during production and transportation” in order to benefit from the subsidy.
France, home to car manufacturer Renault and a sizable Stellantis workforce, is leading the EU’s efforts to produce more electric cars in Europe and bring them to buyers. All of this benefits Stellantis. The group was created in 2021 from the merger of the Italian-American Fiat-Chrysler and the French Groupe PSA. In October, Stellantis reported a turnover of around €45 billion for the third quarter. The conglomerate’s electric car sales increased by 37 percent, which was mainly due to the Jeep Avenger, Citroën Ami and Peugeot E-208 models.
In the fall of 2023, Macron also presented a new leasing system for electric vehicles for only around €100 per month. The focus is on electric cars from European manufacturers: Models from French manufacturers Renault, Peugeot and Citroën as well as Opel and Fiat were named as examples of electric cars that are eligible for the leasing offer.
The offer was primarily aimed at financially disadvantaged households. The program was temporarily discontinued in February – too many applications had been received, with 50,000 initially being the limit. The program is to be relaunched in 2025. Used electric cars and models converted to electric drive could also be leased under the program. However, the vehicle had to have been registered for the first time at least three and a half years ago.
However, the exclusion of Chinese EVs is not stopping the French from cooperating with China: Stellantis only announced in October that it would acquire around 20 percent of the Chinese manufacturer Leapmotor for around €1.5 billion. The Group also announced the founding of Leapmotor International, a joint venture 51 percent managed by Stellantis. This holds exclusive rights for the manufacture, sale and export of Leapmotor products outside China. According to media reports, two initial Leapmotor models are to be built at Stellantis’ plant in Poland, as reported by Reuters.
German trade expert Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki from the French Jaques Delors Institute is rather skeptical about the feared flood of e-cars in the European markets: “I am not convinced that China’s supply of electric vehicles is covered by sufficient European demand.” This is also shown by the fact that e-vehicles of Chinese brands are increasingly piling up in European ports, as well as the slowdown in European imports of Chinese electric vehicles last year.
“One reason could be consumer ethnocentrism”, suspects Köhler-Suzuki in an interview with Table.Briefings. “Despite decades of deep economic integration, French manufacturers continue to dominate the French market and German manufacturers the German market.” Why this should be any different for Chinese manufacturers is questionable.
Köhler-Suzuki sees the real danger elsewhere: The EV debate is currently contributing to the Franco-German divide. According to him, the differences between the respective car markets naturally play a major role in the attitude of the two EU states: “Cheaper cars such as those from Stellantis probably have a higher risk of competition with Chinese models than higher-priced German cars.” Köhler-Suzuki warns that the Franco-German differences of opinion are damaging a common European position and can be exploited by divide-and-rule tactics by Washington and Beijing.
The battle for the electoral list of the French conservatives Les Républicains (LR) was fierce and was presented in Paris on Tuesday. With polls putting them at six percent of the vote, the French conservatives led by François-Xavier Bellamy can only hope for a very limited number of MEPs in the next European Parliament, between six and eight seats.
MEP and first female Quaestor of the European Parliament Anne Sander is in tenth place. The Strasbourg-based MEP, who specializes in agricultural issues and comes from a family with a connection to the agricultural sector, stood out for her fierce opposition to the bill to restore nature alongside Dutch MEP Esther de Lange and German MEP Christine Schneider (CDU).
The 41-year-old cereal farmer Céline Imart, who is running in second place, should then take care of agricultural issues for the French conservatives in the European Parliament. She is a member of the Fédération nationale des syndicats d’exploitants agricoles (FNSEA) and spokesperson for Intercéréales. Imart has an atypical background: She is a graduate of the prestigious Sciences Po and the ESSEC Business School. Before taking over the family business in 2010, she was financial director of a subsidiary of Vincent Bolloré’s group in Chile and worked for the consulting firm PwC.
According to French media reports, it was Eric Ciotti, the leader of the Les Républicains party, who chose Céline Imart. He describes her as “the face of the future of our rural regions, which are despised and forgotten by those currently in power”. As a newcomer to politics, she has already made a name for herself in France through her media appearances. For example, Imart criticized President Emmanuel Macron and accused him of handling the crisis in agriculture “like a strike at the SNCF”.
Nadine Morano and Brice Hortefeux, two former ministers of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, are in the rather safe sixth and seventh places. These nominations may have come as a surprise to some members, as the voices within the party for a renewal of political personalities have become louder and louder in recent weeks. cst
Hardly anyone in Germany is more committed to the European cause than the 37-year-old. She has been the honorary President of the European Movement Germany since 2018. As Head of the Europe Department at the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the Federal Government, she also deals with the topic full-time.
The political director of the environment and development organization Germanwatch is one of the most important civil society voices in global climate diplomacy worldwide. Since the first World Climate Conference, he has been monitoring international negotiations, advising governments and driving them forward. Bals and his team also comprehensively analyze European climate policy and regularly evaluate it in their Climate Change Performance Index.
The best-connected Europe lobbyist in Berlin. He has been Secretary General of the European Movement Germany for 20 years and maintains close contact with the relevant players in the German government and Bundestag. He also has good contacts in other member states, with particular expertise in Italy. He is now also a board member of Transparency International Germany.
With his organization Algorithm Watch, Matthias Spielkamp has set himself the goal of ensuring that technology in general and algorithmic systems in particular benefit all people. From 2020 to 2022, he was a member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) initiative. Spielkamp has appeared as an expert at hearings of the Council of Europe, the EU Parliament and the Bundestag.
The friendly terror of the EU Commission, the US IT giants and the data protection authorities: With the NGO “None of your business” (NOYB), which he founded, he regularly takes legal action against anyone who does not comply with the GDPR, delays it and softens it. The Austrian lawyer first brought down an EU-US agreement on data protection as a student.
Pilgrim is a passionate advocate for a globally just raw materials policy. At Powershift, she has coordinated the Raw Materials Working Group, a network of German-speaking NGOs, since 2020. She supports the German and EU raw materials strategy and calls for higher social and environmental standards in supply chains, such as a say for the local population.
Since 2011, he has been the face of the largest citizens’ initiative for Europe in Germany: Rainer Wieland, a member of the European Parliament for the CDU since 1997 and one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament since 2009, was elected President of the non-partisan Europa-Union Deutschland in 2011. With Wieland at the helm, 17,000 members in Germany alone are committed to continuing European unification, overcoming nation-states and ultimately creating a European federal state.
Trent founded the Environmental Justice Foundation in 1999 and is still its managing director today. With a globally active team, he campaigns for the protection of the environment and human rights, for example during the EU negotiations on the ban of products from forced labor. With the “Stop Deep Sea Mining” campaign, the NGO tirelessly draws attention to the risks of mining raw materials in the deep sea.
Based in Brussels, Ganapini coordinates the “Right to Repair” campaign, a coalition of over 100 organizations from all over Europe. Together, they are working to make repairs simpler, cheaper and more accessible for everyone. With success: decisive laws such as the Right to Repair Directive and the Ecodesign Regulation have just been passed.
Kind-Rieper spent almost ten years at the WWF, where he acquired in-depth expertise on the topics of mining and metals. He is now Global Lead Metals & Mining and in this role is a member of expert groups at the EU Commission and the OECD. His current publication deals with a green battery industry in Europe.
