An alliance of major German business associations is calling the meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC), which is taking place today and tomorrow in Luleå in northern Sweden,“a critical milestone“. The expectations of the German business community are high, but so far the associations have not seen any tangible results. Corinna Visser gives an outlook.
On Thursday, the EU Parliament will vote on the Corporate Due Diligence Directive: Charlotte Wirth has learned that the CDU/CSU group intends to vote against the report by Lara Wolters (S&D) – and is likely to get support from other EPP delegations. The fundamental question is whether one wants to impose further administrative burdens on the industry, according to the ranks of the EPP.
Following the re-election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the EU must prepare for further cooperation with a difficult partner. But Brussels is not prepared for this, as Eric Bonse analyzes.
Turbulent weeks lie ahead for the incumbent Spanish government. According to the will of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, new elections are to be held as early as July 23 – just a short time after Spain takes over the EU Council presidency. Greece will also vote again in a few weeks. Read more in the News.
If you enjoy reading Europe.Table, please feel free to forward this briefing. If this mail was sent to you: Here you can test our briefing for free.
Have a good week!
A new start for transatlantic trade relations – the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) was supposed to be nothing less than that, ever since it was founded in 2021. But the most important German business associations already see the platform at a crossroads: The past third ministerial meeting (TTC3) fell short of expectations and brought only limited progress, according to a statement by the Transatlantic Business Initiative (TBI), in which the BDI, BGA, DIHK and the banking association BdB have joined forces. Since the continuation of the TTC after the US presidential elections in 2024 is anything but certain, the TTC4 marks “a critical milestone”.
The TTC4 will take place today and tomorrow in Luleå, northern Sweden, with, among others, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the two Vice-Presidents of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager.
Once again, the expectations of the business community are high – and will not be met in all areas. The TBI wants to measure the success of the meeting by whether both sides agree on concrete results that are, on the one hand, economically relevant and, on the other, designed “in such a way that they can outlast a possible change of leadership on both sides of the Atlantic”.
In the opinion of the TBI, it is imperative that policymakers prevent a repeat of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which “with its discriminatory elements puts a strain on the transatlantic relationship”. The focus at the fourth TTC meeting should therefore be on creating as many common standards as possible and pulling together on the green transformation. The planned Transatlantic Initiative on Sustainable Trade (TIST) is an important lever for this.
The preliminary final statement available to Table.Media contains a corresponding TIST work program in the annex. In the first step, it provides for the following items to be started or discussed for TTC4:
Concrete results are therefore not (yet) to be expected here.
There are not many of the associations’ seven demands on the TIST in the work program. Among other things, the industry calls for both sides to cooperate even more closely in electromobility. The development of common standards in battery and charging technology, such as megawatt charging systems (MCS) for heavy commercial vehicles, would be particularly helpful.
To that end, the preliminary final paper says the EU and US worked together to develop “a shared vision of a standard for electric vehicle charging”. “We recognize the adoption of the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) by IEC, SAE and ISO for heavy-duty electric vehicle charging“, it continues. However, the sentence that says both sides welcome the recognition of compatible physical connectors and a common vehicle-to-grid communication interface is still in parentheses. That means it is open whether it will make it into the final document.
The industry’s call to accelerate the spread of carbon-neutral fuels is not mentioned in the preliminary final paper. According to the TBI, decarbonization of transport requires a shift to carbon-neutral fuels from shipping to aviation to the existing car and truck fleet. Close transatlantic cooperation in research and development, production and standardized accounting and certification systems is essential to achieve climate goals, the associations said.
The TIST work program, on the other hand, mentions the TBI’s call for the expansion of cooperation in rare earths and other critical minerals, which is essential for the green transformation. That the concentration of rare earth exploration and processing has created a shared dependency and vulnerability to risks in the value chain, industry and policy makers agree. “A joint document with concrete proposals on how to start this cooperation should be finalized by TTC5”, the work program states.
The TBI almost completely ignores the issue of artificial intelligence (AI), which is currently of great public concern. Here, it merely calls for both sides to develop joint standards. The TTC4 final paper, on the other hand, deals with the topic of AI in detail. Recent developments in the field of generative AI illustrate the extent of the opportunities and the need to address the associated risks, it says.
EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had already announced in advance that the EU and the US want to cooperate more closely on AI in order to define minimum standards before the legislation comes into force. That’s because even though the EU’s AI Act is expected to be the world’s first comprehensive legislation on AI, there isn’t even a finished text on it yet. “That means we need something to bridge that time gap“. The ministerial meeting will therefore also discuss generative AI algorithms such as ChatGPT, which generate new text, image or sound content. “There is a shared sense of urgency“, Vestager said.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton also emphasized the urgency of AI legislation with regard to the TTC4. He called on the European Parliament and member states to pass the AI Act by the end of the year at the latest. “But we cannot afford to sit back and wait until the regulation comes into force”, Breton said. He announced he would work “with all AI developers in and outside the EU” to help them prepare and implement the AI Act on a voluntary basis ahead of the legal deadline. “That’s the idea of the AI Pact“.
In Hiroshima, the heads of state and government of the G7 countries had called for the development of technical standards for trustworthy AI. Topics to be discussed, they said, include governance, copyright, transparency and the risk of disinformation. “I think we can talk about this in the context of the TTC in a way that helps the G7 process to be as concrete as possible”, Vestager said. By rtr
Next Thursday, the European Parliament will vote on its mandate for the Due Diligence Act. The vote is likely to be close, as broad opposition to the report by Lara Wolters (S&D) is forming in the EPP. “We as a CDU/CSU group will vote against the report on Thursday”, co-chair Daniel Caspary tells Table.Media. He is also receiving “clear signals” from the other large EPP delegations that they are also critical of the draft, the CDU politician said.
How united the largest group in the European Parliament votes against the report is likely to show only at the group meeting on Wednesday. EPP shadow rapporteur Axel Voss has achieved great improvements in the negotiations, admits Caspary. “But even in its current form, we see huge deficits”. The law does not improve the conditions in poorer countries, but leads to the fact that European companies withdraw and leave the field to Chinese competitors, for example.
In the negotiations, Axel Voss (CDU) had tried until the end to work out compromises that his group could also support – for example, that the law would not apply to small and medium-sized companies and that the directive would only be applied in stages. Voss had to make concessions on the responsibility of management boards. In the Legal Affairs Committee, this point was voted on separately and adopted without the votes of the EPP.
About 50 amendments will be voted on Thursday, more than ever before. Axel Voss, for example, is trying to get rid of the directors’ clause after all. From the EPP come amendments that would limit the application of the law (supply chain instead of value chain, companies with 1000 employees or more, force majeure clause …). Environmental due diligence and civil liability would be watered down.
The EPP had already tabled similar amendments in the committees. Behind closed doors, it is said that the EPP would only vote in favor of the report if all its amendments were passed. Thus, one would make a so-called “key vote” out of about 15 amendments: If they fall, the report falls. If all of them are accepted, a plus is put behind the report.
In EPP circles, however, it is said that it is no longer a question of amendments or a possible weakening of the law. It is much more about the core question of whether to impose further administrative burdens on the industry. Both the CDU/CSU and the EPP have been calling for a regulatory moratorium for some time. The Due Diligence Act could therefore serve as an example. Last week, the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee had already rejected another controversial project, the Renaturation Act, with votes from the EPP, EKR, ID and Renew.
The decisive factor for the vote on the Due Diligence Act is likely to be how many Renew deputies support the Wolters report. France’s liberal President Emmanuel Macron had also recently called for a regulatory pause, albeit with a view to the next legislative period. However, Renew’s shadow rapporteurs, including Macron confidant Pascal Canfin, continue to back the compromise text, according to the European Parliament. The FDP and also Nordic MEPs, on the other hand, would reject the report, according to Renew circles.
The S&D group accuses the EPP of backward-looking policies: “It is also a directional decision for the CDU/CSU. Is it making common cause with neo-Nazis and fascists against the protection of human rights and the environment?”, asks the shadow rapporteur in the Environment Committee, Tiemo Wölken (SPD).
It remains unclear whether the S&D has enough support to get the report through. There is talk in Group circles that rapporteur Lara Wolters would vote against her own report if the EPP pushes through its key amendments.
The industry association Business Europe criticized the compromises negotiated by Wolters in a position paper. Among other things, the association calls for full harmonization and more legal certainty for companies and rejects the directors’ clause. With Till Hoppe
The Emir of Qatar, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hungary’s head of government Viktor Orbán were the first to offer their congratulations. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel were also quick to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his re-election.
Erdoğan was confirmed in office on Sunday with around 52 percent of the vote. His challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received 48 percent. Voter turnout was 85 percent, and the election was overshadowed by allegations of manipulation. For example, Kılıçdaroğlu complained that Erdoğan had been favored by the media loyal to the state. Election observers were attacked in Mardin, southeastern Turkey. Erdoğan was still distributing cash to his supporters on election day.
But that did not stop the EU and NATO from recognizing the result without further scrutiny. “Congratulations on your re-election, President”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. “I look forward to further developing EU-Turkey relations“, von der Leyen said, adding that it was of “strategic importance” to take those relations “forward for the benefit of our peoples”.
Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi expressed similar views. The EU has a “strategic interest” in close cooperation, they wrote in a joint statement. This also involves a “stable and secure environment in the eastern Mediterranean”.
But the relationship between Brussels and Ankara is strained. There has been no progress since the controversial refugee agreement of 2016. EU accession, promised in 1999, has been on hold for years. Nor is “strategic cooperation” making any headway. Erdoğan not only made life difficult for EU members Finland and Sweden when they coveted NATO membership. He continues to stall Sweden. He also regularly threatens Greece and Cyprus – and undermines Western sanctions against Russia. However, no one wants to dare break with him. Turkey is too important for that, Brussels says.
Erdoğan is still needed – for Sweden’s NATO accession, but also for the continuation of the grain agreement between Russia and Ukraine and for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
At the same time, the realization is gaining ground that Turkey under Erdoğan is neither willing nor able to fulfill the conditions for EU accession. The deficits in democracy and the rule of law are too great. If anything, the election has made the problems even greater.
But hardly any EU politician wants to say this so clearly. Only the leader of the conservative European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, speaks plainly. Weber is calling for EU accession to be called off and for a new chapter to be opened. “The last few years have shown that a close partnership is important, but that no one wants Turkey to become a full member of the EU“, the CSU politician told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe. “We must put this process on file because it blocks better relations more than it supports them”. Rather, Weber added, now is the “right time for a general new start between the EU and Turkey on a realistic basis”.
But what a new start should look like is unclear. The EU is ill-prepared. Until the presidential election, it did nothing to reorganize the tense relations. Even democratization in Turkey has not been championed by Brussels. The European Parliament did not even send election observers, as is usually the case. Moreover, the Parliament has pledged not to comment on the election and its results. Apparently, it fears being accused of interference.
The EU Commission also kept a low profile. After the first round of voting, the head of the authorities, von der Leyen, was content to praise the high turnout. She found no words of encouragement for the democratic opposition and did not develop a plan for the future.
It therefore remains unclear how relations with Turkey are to be expanded. After 20 years of Erdoğan, they have reached a low point. Von der Leyen should be happy if he doesn’t do any more damage – and does his homework first instead.
Turkey’s problems are enormous: The Turkish economy is in the doldrums, inflation and exorbitant living costs have plunged millions of Turks into poverty. In addition, after the earthquake in southeastern Turkey in February, the sluggish reconstruction must be pushed forward.
The EU has promised help – now Erdoğan must get down to work and fulfill his election promises. Another touchstone from Brussels’ point of view is Sweden’s accession to NATO. Only when the Turkish president gives up his veto will the way be clear for a new start in the EU.
The story about a certain visa goes back almost 40 years. It was in the 80s, the current president of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg was visiting the school. A trip to Strasbourg was on the agenda. As a student with a Turkish passport, she needed a visa to enter France. Her father, who was employed as a worker at Thyssen, had to take a day off and go to the consulate so that she could go along.
Aras was born in 1966 in a village in eastern Anatolia. When she was twelve, her father brought the family to Germany. Today’s Green Party politician spent her youth in a small village near Stuttgart. Aras has not forgotten the visa issue. “As a non-partisan representative of the state parliament, I want to make people aware that the four fundamental freedoms of the EU are not something to be taken for granted, but something very valuable”.
Aras raised her hand when the Greens in the southwest were asked to fill a second permanent seat on the Committee of the Regions (CoR). The committee is not directly involved in EU legislation. However, it may issue opinions on legislative projects if the interests of municipalities and regions are affected. As president of the state parliament, Aras is the highest-ranking member of the 24-member German CoR delegation. With Florian Hassler (Greens), State Secretary for Europe under Minister President Winfried Kretschmann, the Southwest Greens are more prominently represented in the CoR than any other political force in Germany.
Aras has fought her way up. She went from secondary school to high school graduation and a degree, for which she had to take out a loan, to her own tax consulting firm with a double-digit number of employees. Because her parents did not allow her to be with her boyfriend at the time, Aras married her current husband while still in high school. The two have two children.
In 1999, Aras entered local politics for the Green Party; she was first elected to the state parliament in 2011 and re-elected in 2016 and 2021. As the first woman and Muslim from an Alevi family, Aras has held the second highest state office in Baden-Württemberg since 2016.
She takes her office for Europe seriously. She has attended every plenary session of the Future Conference and fought to ensure that the CoR, which was originally only entitled to 18 seats in the plenary session of the Future Conference, was finally given 30 seats. “When I’m not in session in the state parliament, I never miss a plenary session of the CoR”, the politician explains from her office in the Stuttgart state parliament.
Aras drafted the CoR’s opinion on the Emergency Instrument (SMEI), with which the Commission intends to draw conclusions from the pandemic. At the time, the internal market temporarily collapsed because member states had closed national borders. The politician was not put off by the fact that the text has no legally binding effect. She said she was all the more pleased that not only had the CoR unanimously adopted her opinion, but that she had received support for her report from both the European Parliament’s rapporteur, Andreas Schwab (CDU), and the shadow rapporteurs Anna Cavazzini (Greens) and René Repasi (SPD).
Aras criticizes the Commission’s proposal for being too tailored to the powers of the Commission: “I would like to see the European Parliament and the regional level granted more than just observer status in the course of the emergency instrument”. She criticizes, “Currently, the measures of the emergency instrument would come to nothing because member states could continue to introduce sharp border controls”.
The Green politician makes no secret of the fact that she would have expected more commitment to Europe from the federal government, in which the Greens occupy key positions in European policy: “I would like to see a stronger positioning, for example, for the convening of the Convention, as provided for in the coalition agreement”.
Of course, she knows that the federal states are involved in EU legislation via the Bundesrat and that it is difficult to give the regions more influence on legislative work. Nevertheless, she says, “The state parliaments have an important bridging function. I would therefore like to see the voice of the CoR taken more into account“. The CoR, for example, needs to coordinate more closely with the European Parliament, she says.
Aras is elected until 2026. Many a Green has been drawn to Europe at an advanced point in her career. Could she imagine a move to Brussels? “I’m very happy with my current position”, she says, smiling. Markus Grabitz
An alliance of major German business associations is calling the meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC), which is taking place today and tomorrow in Luleå in northern Sweden,“a critical milestone“. The expectations of the German business community are high, but so far the associations have not seen any tangible results. Corinna Visser gives an outlook.
On Thursday, the EU Parliament will vote on the Corporate Due Diligence Directive: Charlotte Wirth has learned that the CDU/CSU group intends to vote against the report by Lara Wolters (S&D) – and is likely to get support from other EPP delegations. The fundamental question is whether one wants to impose further administrative burdens on the industry, according to the ranks of the EPP.
Following the re-election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the EU must prepare for further cooperation with a difficult partner. But Brussels is not prepared for this, as Eric Bonse analyzes.
Turbulent weeks lie ahead for the incumbent Spanish government. According to the will of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, new elections are to be held as early as July 23 – just a short time after Spain takes over the EU Council presidency. Greece will also vote again in a few weeks. Read more in the News.
If you enjoy reading Europe.Table, please feel free to forward this briefing. If this mail was sent to you: Here you can test our briefing for free.
Have a good week!
A new start for transatlantic trade relations – the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) was supposed to be nothing less than that, ever since it was founded in 2021. But the most important German business associations already see the platform at a crossroads: The past third ministerial meeting (TTC3) fell short of expectations and brought only limited progress, according to a statement by the Transatlantic Business Initiative (TBI), in which the BDI, BGA, DIHK and the banking association BdB have joined forces. Since the continuation of the TTC after the US presidential elections in 2024 is anything but certain, the TTC4 marks “a critical milestone”.
The TTC4 will take place today and tomorrow in Luleå, northern Sweden, with, among others, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the two Vice-Presidents of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager.
Once again, the expectations of the business community are high – and will not be met in all areas. The TBI wants to measure the success of the meeting by whether both sides agree on concrete results that are, on the one hand, economically relevant and, on the other, designed “in such a way that they can outlast a possible change of leadership on both sides of the Atlantic”.
In the opinion of the TBI, it is imperative that policymakers prevent a repeat of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which “with its discriminatory elements puts a strain on the transatlantic relationship”. The focus at the fourth TTC meeting should therefore be on creating as many common standards as possible and pulling together on the green transformation. The planned Transatlantic Initiative on Sustainable Trade (TIST) is an important lever for this.
The preliminary final statement available to Table.Media contains a corresponding TIST work program in the annex. In the first step, it provides for the following items to be started or discussed for TTC4:
Concrete results are therefore not (yet) to be expected here.
There are not many of the associations’ seven demands on the TIST in the work program. Among other things, the industry calls for both sides to cooperate even more closely in electromobility. The development of common standards in battery and charging technology, such as megawatt charging systems (MCS) for heavy commercial vehicles, would be particularly helpful.
To that end, the preliminary final paper says the EU and US worked together to develop “a shared vision of a standard for electric vehicle charging”. “We recognize the adoption of the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) by IEC, SAE and ISO for heavy-duty electric vehicle charging“, it continues. However, the sentence that says both sides welcome the recognition of compatible physical connectors and a common vehicle-to-grid communication interface is still in parentheses. That means it is open whether it will make it into the final document.
The industry’s call to accelerate the spread of carbon-neutral fuels is not mentioned in the preliminary final paper. According to the TBI, decarbonization of transport requires a shift to carbon-neutral fuels from shipping to aviation to the existing car and truck fleet. Close transatlantic cooperation in research and development, production and standardized accounting and certification systems is essential to achieve climate goals, the associations said.
The TIST work program, on the other hand, mentions the TBI’s call for the expansion of cooperation in rare earths and other critical minerals, which is essential for the green transformation. That the concentration of rare earth exploration and processing has created a shared dependency and vulnerability to risks in the value chain, industry and policy makers agree. “A joint document with concrete proposals on how to start this cooperation should be finalized by TTC5”, the work program states.
The TBI almost completely ignores the issue of artificial intelligence (AI), which is currently of great public concern. Here, it merely calls for both sides to develop joint standards. The TTC4 final paper, on the other hand, deals with the topic of AI in detail. Recent developments in the field of generative AI illustrate the extent of the opportunities and the need to address the associated risks, it says.
EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had already announced in advance that the EU and the US want to cooperate more closely on AI in order to define minimum standards before the legislation comes into force. That’s because even though the EU’s AI Act is expected to be the world’s first comprehensive legislation on AI, there isn’t even a finished text on it yet. “That means we need something to bridge that time gap“. The ministerial meeting will therefore also discuss generative AI algorithms such as ChatGPT, which generate new text, image or sound content. “There is a shared sense of urgency“, Vestager said.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton also emphasized the urgency of AI legislation with regard to the TTC4. He called on the European Parliament and member states to pass the AI Act by the end of the year at the latest. “But we cannot afford to sit back and wait until the regulation comes into force”, Breton said. He announced he would work “with all AI developers in and outside the EU” to help them prepare and implement the AI Act on a voluntary basis ahead of the legal deadline. “That’s the idea of the AI Pact“.
In Hiroshima, the heads of state and government of the G7 countries had called for the development of technical standards for trustworthy AI. Topics to be discussed, they said, include governance, copyright, transparency and the risk of disinformation. “I think we can talk about this in the context of the TTC in a way that helps the G7 process to be as concrete as possible”, Vestager said. By rtr
Next Thursday, the European Parliament will vote on its mandate for the Due Diligence Act. The vote is likely to be close, as broad opposition to the report by Lara Wolters (S&D) is forming in the EPP. “We as a CDU/CSU group will vote against the report on Thursday”, co-chair Daniel Caspary tells Table.Media. He is also receiving “clear signals” from the other large EPP delegations that they are also critical of the draft, the CDU politician said.
How united the largest group in the European Parliament votes against the report is likely to show only at the group meeting on Wednesday. EPP shadow rapporteur Axel Voss has achieved great improvements in the negotiations, admits Caspary. “But even in its current form, we see huge deficits”. The law does not improve the conditions in poorer countries, but leads to the fact that European companies withdraw and leave the field to Chinese competitors, for example.
In the negotiations, Axel Voss (CDU) had tried until the end to work out compromises that his group could also support – for example, that the law would not apply to small and medium-sized companies and that the directive would only be applied in stages. Voss had to make concessions on the responsibility of management boards. In the Legal Affairs Committee, this point was voted on separately and adopted without the votes of the EPP.
About 50 amendments will be voted on Thursday, more than ever before. Axel Voss, for example, is trying to get rid of the directors’ clause after all. From the EPP come amendments that would limit the application of the law (supply chain instead of value chain, companies with 1000 employees or more, force majeure clause …). Environmental due diligence and civil liability would be watered down.
The EPP had already tabled similar amendments in the committees. Behind closed doors, it is said that the EPP would only vote in favor of the report if all its amendments were passed. Thus, one would make a so-called “key vote” out of about 15 amendments: If they fall, the report falls. If all of them are accepted, a plus is put behind the report.
In EPP circles, however, it is said that it is no longer a question of amendments or a possible weakening of the law. It is much more about the core question of whether to impose further administrative burdens on the industry. Both the CDU/CSU and the EPP have been calling for a regulatory moratorium for some time. The Due Diligence Act could therefore serve as an example. Last week, the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee had already rejected another controversial project, the Renaturation Act, with votes from the EPP, EKR, ID and Renew.
The decisive factor for the vote on the Due Diligence Act is likely to be how many Renew deputies support the Wolters report. France’s liberal President Emmanuel Macron had also recently called for a regulatory pause, albeit with a view to the next legislative period. However, Renew’s shadow rapporteurs, including Macron confidant Pascal Canfin, continue to back the compromise text, according to the European Parliament. The FDP and also Nordic MEPs, on the other hand, would reject the report, according to Renew circles.
The S&D group accuses the EPP of backward-looking policies: “It is also a directional decision for the CDU/CSU. Is it making common cause with neo-Nazis and fascists against the protection of human rights and the environment?”, asks the shadow rapporteur in the Environment Committee, Tiemo Wölken (SPD).
It remains unclear whether the S&D has enough support to get the report through. There is talk in Group circles that rapporteur Lara Wolters would vote against her own report if the EPP pushes through its key amendments.
The industry association Business Europe criticized the compromises negotiated by Wolters in a position paper. Among other things, the association calls for full harmonization and more legal certainty for companies and rejects the directors’ clause. With Till Hoppe
The Emir of Qatar, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hungary’s head of government Viktor Orbán were the first to offer their congratulations. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel were also quick to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his re-election.
Erdoğan was confirmed in office on Sunday with around 52 percent of the vote. His challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received 48 percent. Voter turnout was 85 percent, and the election was overshadowed by allegations of manipulation. For example, Kılıçdaroğlu complained that Erdoğan had been favored by the media loyal to the state. Election observers were attacked in Mardin, southeastern Turkey. Erdoğan was still distributing cash to his supporters on election day.
But that did not stop the EU and NATO from recognizing the result without further scrutiny. “Congratulations on your re-election, President”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. “I look forward to further developing EU-Turkey relations“, von der Leyen said, adding that it was of “strategic importance” to take those relations “forward for the benefit of our peoples”.
Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi expressed similar views. The EU has a “strategic interest” in close cooperation, they wrote in a joint statement. This also involves a “stable and secure environment in the eastern Mediterranean”.
But the relationship between Brussels and Ankara is strained. There has been no progress since the controversial refugee agreement of 2016. EU accession, promised in 1999, has been on hold for years. Nor is “strategic cooperation” making any headway. Erdoğan not only made life difficult for EU members Finland and Sweden when they coveted NATO membership. He continues to stall Sweden. He also regularly threatens Greece and Cyprus – and undermines Western sanctions against Russia. However, no one wants to dare break with him. Turkey is too important for that, Brussels says.
Erdoğan is still needed – for Sweden’s NATO accession, but also for the continuation of the grain agreement between Russia and Ukraine and for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
At the same time, the realization is gaining ground that Turkey under Erdoğan is neither willing nor able to fulfill the conditions for EU accession. The deficits in democracy and the rule of law are too great. If anything, the election has made the problems even greater.
But hardly any EU politician wants to say this so clearly. Only the leader of the conservative European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, speaks plainly. Weber is calling for EU accession to be called off and for a new chapter to be opened. “The last few years have shown that a close partnership is important, but that no one wants Turkey to become a full member of the EU“, the CSU politician told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe. “We must put this process on file because it blocks better relations more than it supports them”. Rather, Weber added, now is the “right time for a general new start between the EU and Turkey on a realistic basis”.
But what a new start should look like is unclear. The EU is ill-prepared. Until the presidential election, it did nothing to reorganize the tense relations. Even democratization in Turkey has not been championed by Brussels. The European Parliament did not even send election observers, as is usually the case. Moreover, the Parliament has pledged not to comment on the election and its results. Apparently, it fears being accused of interference.
The EU Commission also kept a low profile. After the first round of voting, the head of the authorities, von der Leyen, was content to praise the high turnout. She found no words of encouragement for the democratic opposition and did not develop a plan for the future.
It therefore remains unclear how relations with Turkey are to be expanded. After 20 years of Erdoğan, they have reached a low point. Von der Leyen should be happy if he doesn’t do any more damage – and does his homework first instead.
Turkey’s problems are enormous: The Turkish economy is in the doldrums, inflation and exorbitant living costs have plunged millions of Turks into poverty. In addition, after the earthquake in southeastern Turkey in February, the sluggish reconstruction must be pushed forward.
The EU has promised help – now Erdoğan must get down to work and fulfill his election promises. Another touchstone from Brussels’ point of view is Sweden’s accession to NATO. Only when the Turkish president gives up his veto will the way be clear for a new start in the EU.
The story about a certain visa goes back almost 40 years. It was in the 80s, the current president of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg was visiting the school. A trip to Strasbourg was on the agenda. As a student with a Turkish passport, she needed a visa to enter France. Her father, who was employed as a worker at Thyssen, had to take a day off and go to the consulate so that she could go along.
Aras was born in 1966 in a village in eastern Anatolia. When she was twelve, her father brought the family to Germany. Today’s Green Party politician spent her youth in a small village near Stuttgart. Aras has not forgotten the visa issue. “As a non-partisan representative of the state parliament, I want to make people aware that the four fundamental freedoms of the EU are not something to be taken for granted, but something very valuable”.
Aras raised her hand when the Greens in the southwest were asked to fill a second permanent seat on the Committee of the Regions (CoR). The committee is not directly involved in EU legislation. However, it may issue opinions on legislative projects if the interests of municipalities and regions are affected. As president of the state parliament, Aras is the highest-ranking member of the 24-member German CoR delegation. With Florian Hassler (Greens), State Secretary for Europe under Minister President Winfried Kretschmann, the Southwest Greens are more prominently represented in the CoR than any other political force in Germany.
Aras has fought her way up. She went from secondary school to high school graduation and a degree, for which she had to take out a loan, to her own tax consulting firm with a double-digit number of employees. Because her parents did not allow her to be with her boyfriend at the time, Aras married her current husband while still in high school. The two have two children.
In 1999, Aras entered local politics for the Green Party; she was first elected to the state parliament in 2011 and re-elected in 2016 and 2021. As the first woman and Muslim from an Alevi family, Aras has held the second highest state office in Baden-Württemberg since 2016.
She takes her office for Europe seriously. She has attended every plenary session of the Future Conference and fought to ensure that the CoR, which was originally only entitled to 18 seats in the plenary session of the Future Conference, was finally given 30 seats. “When I’m not in session in the state parliament, I never miss a plenary session of the CoR”, the politician explains from her office in the Stuttgart state parliament.
Aras drafted the CoR’s opinion on the Emergency Instrument (SMEI), with which the Commission intends to draw conclusions from the pandemic. At the time, the internal market temporarily collapsed because member states had closed national borders. The politician was not put off by the fact that the text has no legally binding effect. She said she was all the more pleased that not only had the CoR unanimously adopted her opinion, but that she had received support for her report from both the European Parliament’s rapporteur, Andreas Schwab (CDU), and the shadow rapporteurs Anna Cavazzini (Greens) and René Repasi (SPD).
Aras criticizes the Commission’s proposal for being too tailored to the powers of the Commission: “I would like to see the European Parliament and the regional level granted more than just observer status in the course of the emergency instrument”. She criticizes, “Currently, the measures of the emergency instrument would come to nothing because member states could continue to introduce sharp border controls”.
The Green politician makes no secret of the fact that she would have expected more commitment to Europe from the federal government, in which the Greens occupy key positions in European policy: “I would like to see a stronger positioning, for example, for the convening of the Convention, as provided for in the coalition agreement”.
Of course, she knows that the federal states are involved in EU legislation via the Bundesrat and that it is difficult to give the regions more influence on legislative work. Nevertheless, she says, “The state parliaments have an important bridging function. I would therefore like to see the voice of the CoR taken more into account“. The CoR, for example, needs to coordinate more closely with the European Parliament, she says.
Aras is elected until 2026. Many a Green has been drawn to Europe at an advanced point in her career. Could she imagine a move to Brussels? “I’m very happy with my current position”, she says, smiling. Markus Grabitz
