Von der Leyen’s investment plans + Solar industry + Metaverse

Dear reader,

As of today, the price cap on Russian oil is effective after all EU states, including Poland, as well as the G7 have agreed to it. The Russian government announced reactions on Sunday. It will only sell crude oil and oil products to countries that do not comply with the price cap, even if this means cutting its own production, said Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

Yesterday, Ursula von der Leyen positioned herself in the trade dispute with the USA. The Commission President announced, for example, that regulations on public investment would be relaxed. The promotion of mass production will probably also be permitted in the future – which would benefit Germany. Read more in the News section.

Relations with another world power are also a topic in the solar power sector. Nico Beckert has written down how much it would cost the EU to become more independent of Chinese production.

Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton announced a new initiative for virtual worlds and the metaverse. For her analysis, Corinna Visser asked around what the German government and industry expect from regulation.

Your
Manuel Berkel

Metaverse: Europe’s plans for the immersive Internet

By

Corinna Visser

The metaverse is still largely untapped territory. Not even an exact definition of the immersive Internet exists. Nevertheless, companies like Meta, Microsoft and Google already invest billions in these new digital spaces, created through the convergence of virtual, augmented and physical reality. And this time, the EU wants to have a say in virtual land grabbing.

Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton announced a new initiative on virtual worlds and the metaverse back in September. Breton listed three points on which this initiative should focus: People, technology and infrastructure. But what is the EU planning?

Building an ecosystem for the metaverse

Since 2020, the Commission has started to organize an ecosystem for the metaverse. It has brought together players from along the value chain – from hardware manufacturers to technology companies to content providers and users to form a VR/AR industry coalition. This was announced by the Commission in the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan. It began its work in September.

The metaverse holds enormous economic potential. The forecasts for the already existing technologies, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), provide some clues. They provide access to the metaverse. The VR/AR industry has grown significantly in recent years, both in Europe and worldwide. “At a global level, market forecasts indicate that the industry is expected to boom, having the potential to hit the EUR 766 billion mark in 2025 and to add around EUR 1.3 trillion to the global economy by 2030,” the EU Commission notes in its strategy paper.

No new legal acts planned for the Metaverse

But what exactly is the regulation of the Metaverse supposed to look like? On the one hand, the EU counts on meeting the challenges of the Metaverse with the legal acts already on the way, such as DSA and DMA, and in the future AI and Data Act. In any case, German policymakers do not expect a dedicated Metaverse law. “The EU has included the topic of metaverse in its work program for 2023 – with the clear indication to proceed non-legislatively,” says Ben Brake, Head of the digital and data policy department at the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, who was in Brussels for talks in November.

“This is the right approach,” Brake says. “We first need to look with the different stakeholders at what opportunities there are for a metaverse that we could utilize.” One question, he says, is whether something completely new is being created here, or if it is the organic evolution of existing technologies such as VR and AR. How policymakers will handle the metaverse will depend on that. “What’s clear is that we do not want to chase after trends that collapse like a soufflé after the hype,” says Brake.

Bitkom: Europe is strong on content

The German digital association Bitkom also sees no need for regulatory intervention at present. “The legal foundations are there, and we can build on them,” says Sebastian Klöß, Head of Consumer Technology, AR/VR & Metaverse. However, he says it is good that the EU already has the topic on its radar at this early stage and monitors where the opportunities for new business models lie and how Europe can contribute to this development.

According to his assessment, Europe’s strengths lie in content: in AR/VR, gaming, 3D content, designing 3D worlds and 3D avatars. The situation is more difficult when it comes to hardware – except for individual components such as sensors or optics. “That is where Europe is doing well,” Klöß says. “Here, the metaverse is a reflection of the industry as a whole.”

Korea, which also massively promoted high-speed Internet years ago, announced plans in January to invest around 160 million euros in the promotion of a metaverse ecosystem. A model for Germany? Funding always helps, of course, says Klöß. “But more important is that the state – that the EU – boldly leads the way. This way, it can also encourage others to enter the metaverse.” He cites Seoul as an example: The city plans its own representative office in the metaverse, where it also wants to offer citizen services.

Siemens: Opportunity lies in the industrial metaverse

German industrial companies like Siemens see enormous potential in the industrial metaverse, a variant of the metaverse alongside the consumer and enterprise metaverse. “We are already using building blocks from the industrial metaverse in our industrial applications,” says Sicco Lehmann-Brauns, Senior Director Technology and Innovation at Siemens and spokesman for the Data Economy Working Group at ZVEI. “The keyword is digital twin – in other words, everything that has to do with simulation,” says Lehmann-Brauns. Siemens is already using these technologies in the digitization of factories, energy systems and in mobility.

Lehmann-Brauns warns, however, against transferring consumer-oriented regulation “undifferentiated” to industrial B2B relationships. “These markets function quite differently when it comes to the power relations between the players,” he points out. “The electrical or mechanical engineering industries do not have these power asymmetries, nor do they have monopolies like the consumer Internet.” Regulation based on the one-size-fits-all model would jeopardize the potential of Europe’s industry, he says.

Digitization of administration would be helpful

In contrast, Lehmann-Brauns hopes for EU activities in the three areas mentioned by Breton:

In education and training
In technology, by having a good research policy that feeds into key industrial technologies and supports the transfer of knowledge from academic institutions to the industry
In the expansion of digital infrastructure – including 5G and 6G

And like Klöß from Bitkom, Lehmann-Brauns from ZVEI also thinks that “consistent digitization of public administration would certainly also be helpful.”

This is something that (German) policymakers also have in mind: “Participation is extremely important for our democracy. And the digital space offers many opportunities for this,” says Brake of the BMDV. “I’m thinking of digital townhall meetings, for example.” And so he urges, “We shouldn’t limit our projects in Europe to the industrial metaverse.”

IRA: Von der Leyen announces new investment policy

The US Inflation Reduction Act requires Europe to change course on investment policy, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In order to mitigate competitive disadvantages, EU regulations on public investment must be relaxed, she said yesterday in a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Furthermore, Europe needs additional funding to promote clean technologies and to cooperate with the US, for example, in setting industry standards and the purchase of critical raw materials. Cooperation with allies in a “critical raw materials club” on procurement, production and processing could break China’s monopoly.

Trade Committee chairman to sue US at WTO

Under the IRA, conditions for tax credits and subsidies are that companies use US products or produce in the US. The head of the trade committee in the EU Parliament, Bernd Lange (SPD), no longer expected a solution in the negotiations on Sunday. He assumes that some minor changes on the implementation of the US law could still be agreed in the talks between the EU and the US, but not “that much will change substantially,” Lange told the newspapers of Funke Mediengruppe. The EU would therefore have to file a complaint with the WTO quickly in the next few months.

The European-American Trade and Technology Council meets today. With regard to the meeting, the economic expert in the EU Parliament, Markus Ferber (CSU), previously told Funke newspapers that if the US did not make concessions to Europe at the meeting, the EU Commission would have to think about activating European trade protection instruments.

Commission president also wants to promote mass production

To finance this, von der Leyen proposed to first expand REPowerEU. The program enables investments in energy efficiency, renewable energies and infrastructure in particular. In the medium term, money should then be made available for upstream research, innovations and strategic projects via the Sovereignty Fund she already proposed in September.

Currently, there is a strong focus on avoiding distortions in the EU’s internal market, but a response to increasing global competition for clean technologies is now needed. The Commission will rethink how to support the entire value chain up to mass production, including through public investment. dpa

Independence in solar sector would cost $44 billion

To reduce dependence on China in the solar sector, Europe would have to invest billions of dollars. According to an as-yet unpublished calculation by the think tank BloombergNEF (BNEF), it would cost 44 billion US dollars to meet the demand for solar modules in 2030 from European production alone.

A recent Nature study also shows the cost savings from globalized solar supply chains. As a result, Germany alone would have had to pay around seven billion US dollars less for solar modules between 2008 and 2020 than in “a counterfactual scenario in which domestic manufacturers supply an increasing proportion” of modules manufactured in Germany. If the PV industry were to undergo a strong de-globalization with national supply chains, prices for solar modules would increase by between 20 and 25 percent by 2030, according to the researchers.

‘Almost impossible without Chinese equipment’

In addition, BNEF analysts note a lack of expertise and equipment in the West.

There is a lack of expertise in the operation of factories for solar ingots (semiconductor material for solar wafers) in the West
Inputs such as certain glasses for photovoltaic systems are not available
China is also a leader in manufacturing production equipment for the solar industry. Building a solar industry without the use of Chinese equipment is “almost impossible,” BNEF analysts write.

Overall, the entry barriers to the production of polysilicon, solar ingots and wafers are very high. So far, the EU is hardly making any efforts to bring production back to Europe – unlike the USA. There, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) also provides billions in subsidies for the solar industry (Climate.Table reported). Decommissioned US polysilicon factories could be restarted as a result. Subsidies for wafer and ingot production are also “particularly high,” BNEF said. According to Johannes Bernreuter, a polysilicon expert with the consulting firm Bernreuter Research, the IRA “now seems to be increasing political pressure on the EU, at least.” nib

Council wants to expand gas price cap

The EU member states want to lower the requirements for the gas price cap and thus ensure that extraordinarily high prices such as those of last August do not happen again. Therefore, the market correction mechanism is to be triggered as soon as TTF derivatives are traded for more than 264 euros for five trading days. This was stated in the first revision by the Council on Thursday, published by Contexte.

The Commission suggested ten trading days and 275 euros. However, this would not have activated the mechanism even last summer. Accordingly, however, it should also be possible to disable the cap again more quickly – as soon as it falls below 58 euros above the EGSI as LNG index for five days.

However, the values are likely to be adjusted once again; The Czech presidency has put them in brackets due to “methodological uncertainties”.

The price cap will also apply to a wider range of derivatives – not just the front month, but also the front quarter and all included monthly contracts, “not only to target the most used and liquid markets, but also to prevent arbitrage and minimize circumvention of the mechanism,” it says in justification.

Member states have scrapped the requirement to inform the Commission about the status of gas and electricity savings as soon as the market correction mechanism is triggered. Poland even appealed to the ECJ last month over an earlier Council decision on gas savings. ber

German SPD criticizes short deadline for hydrogen legislation

SPD MEP Jens Geier harshly criticizes the expected date for the publication of the Commission’s delegated act on hydrogen. Choosing December 15 is a “sign of a lack of appreciation towards the stakeholders,” Geier said at a press briefing in Berlin on Friday.

This is the penultimate working day of the Parliament before the Christmas break. The usual deadline for associations to comment of four weeks falls in the Christmas period, criticized the rapporteur of the gas internal market directive. After working on the legal act for a year, the Commission could now have presented it in mid-January, Geier said.

Content-wise, however, the draft that surfaced last week was the best he has seen so far, said the Chairman of the Europe SPD. Positive is the extended temporal and geographical decoupling of green electricity and hydrogen production. ber

Euro 7 dossier goes to ECR

Czech MEP Alexandr Vondra (ECR) will be the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Euro 7. Vondra will thus be the lead negotiator in the responsible Environment Committee ENVI. Shadow rapporteur for the EPP will be Jens Gieseke (CDU). In early November, the Commission presented its proposal for the next stage of pollutant regulation for passenger cars, vans, buses, light and heavy commercial vehicles. On the Council side, the first trilogues will be held under the Swedish Council Presidency. The dates have not yet been set. The introduction deadlines, limit values for vans and commercial vehicles are likely to be particularly disputed between the co-legislators. The test conditions for passenger cars will also be a topic for discussion. mgr

Ecofin: probably no fiscal reform yet

According to insiders, the German government does not believe that there will be a quick agreement in the EU on a reform of the European debt rules. There will be an intensive exchange of views on this at tomorrow’s meeting of European finance ministers, German government circles said in advance. “There are voices that are very optimistic that something could already be reached there in March.” The German government does not share this optimism, however. Too many questions would remain unanswered. There are also no legal proposals from the EU Commission yet.

German Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP) already expressed skepticism. Contrary to the plans of the Brussels authority, he insisted on uniform rules. The EU Commission wants to tailor debt rules more closely to the needs of individual countries. The core element is to be medium-term financial plans of respective states, which can be negotiated individually. In return, the rules are to become simpler, more transparent and easier to enforce.

Negotiations on Hungary deadlocked

According to diplomats in Brussels, the EU finance ministers will also not reach a decision this Tuesday in the dispute with Hungary over the rule of law requirements. The positions of, for example, Italy and various states in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States are currently unclear. It is therefore likely that the package will be put on the agenda again at a special meeting of EU finance ministers before the European Council, which is scheduled for Dec. 15-16. But it is also possible that the EU heads of state and government will discuss the package directly. rtr/cr

Annika Thies – European networker at DESY

Since June, legal expert Annika Thies heads the EU project office of the German Electron Synchrotron.

Trust, cooperation and autonomy of employees – these values are important to Annika Thies when leading her team. Since June of this year, she has headed the EU project office of the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), focusing on a “post-heroic leadership style” without micromanagement. The office supports scientists from application to accounting and final report. The first few months were hectic and time-consuming for the 49-year-old, but all in all, she says, it was a pleasant arrival. “I’m lucky to have a very fit and sympathetic team.”

Into the research landscape by coincidence

Time management is often challenging, but Annika Thies has experience with demanding tasks: Previously, she worked as a director in the Brussels office of the Helmholtz Association and as a legal expert for the European Commission. For the latter, the Flensburg native was involved, among other things, in setting up a separate legal form in the field of research infrastructures. She came to this specific area of law more by chance than anything else. At the beginning of her career, she says, a friend told her to apply for a job at the German Aerospace Center. “I thought it was great from the start because it’s not a classic legal job like lawyer, but with a strong international focus.”

She even specifically chose to study law in Trier because of the specialized foreign language training offered there. It was clear to her from the start that she wanted to work in the international field. What fascinates her most about law is how it can facilitate cooperation. Especially when it comes to European research collaboration. “When the rules are clearly negotiated and laid down, there are far fewer misunderstandings and collaborations run more smoothly.” Law, she says, is particularly helpful in finding that basis and putting it into a framework.

Promotion of European cooperation

One project that is particularly close to Annika Thies’ heart is LEAPS: League of European Accelerator-based-Photon Sources. This is an association of 16 European institutions leading in the field of synchrotron and free-electron lasers. The goals of the alliance are, among others, to promote research and to strengthen exchanges with organizations and stakeholders. This project was also one of the main reasons that appealed to the legal expert about the DESY job offer. “Because it’s very strategic here at the European level and has a director in Helmut Dosch who is himself strongly committed to European cooperation.”

At the DESY location in Hamburg, she particularly appreciates the international aspect, which reminds her a lot of Brussels. “The proximity to the water is a very big plus”. She has also decided to take a sailing course. She finds the necessary balance to her duties as director as a contralto singer in a choir or during a walk along the Elbe river. Kim Fischer

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORS

Till
Hoppe

Charlotte
Wirth

Falk
Steiner

Timo
Landenberger

Corinna
Visser

Lukas
Knigge

Eric
Bonse

Sarah
Schaefer

Manuel
Berkel

Lisa-Martina
Klein

Markus
Grabitz

Stephan
Israel

Claire
Stam

Dear reader,

As of today, the price cap on Russian oil is effective after all EU states, including Poland, as well as the G7 have agreed to it. The Russian government announced reactions on Sunday. It will only sell crude oil and oil products to countries that do not comply with the price cap, even if this means cutting its own production, said Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

Yesterday, Ursula von der Leyen positioned herself in the trade dispute with the USA. The Commission President announced, for example, that regulations on public investment would be relaxed. The promotion of mass production will probably also be permitted in the future – which would benefit Germany. Read more in the News section.

Relations with another world power are also a topic in the solar power sector. Nico Beckert has written down how much it would cost the EU to become more independent of Chinese production.

Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton announced a new initiative for virtual worlds and the metaverse. For her analysis, Corinna Visser asked around what the German government and industry expect from regulation.

Your
Manuel Berkel

Metaverse: Europe’s plans for the immersive Internet

By

Corinna Visser

The metaverse is still largely untapped territory. Not even an exact definition of the immersive Internet exists. Nevertheless, companies like Meta, Microsoft and Google already invest billions in these new digital spaces, created through the convergence of virtual, augmented and physical reality. And this time, the EU wants to have a say in virtual land grabbing.

Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton announced a new initiative on virtual worlds and the metaverse back in September. Breton listed three points on which this initiative should focus: People, technology and infrastructure. But what is the EU planning?

Building an ecosystem for the metaverse

Since 2020, the Commission has started to organize an ecosystem for the metaverse. It has brought together players from along the value chain – from hardware manufacturers to technology companies to content providers and users to form a VR/AR industry coalition. This was announced by the Commission in the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan. It began its work in September.

The metaverse holds enormous economic potential. The forecasts for the already existing technologies, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), provide some clues. They provide access to the metaverse. The VR/AR industry has grown significantly in recent years, both in Europe and worldwide. “At a global level, market forecasts indicate that the industry is expected to boom, having the potential to hit the EUR 766 billion mark in 2025 and to add around EUR 1.3 trillion to the global economy by 2030,” the EU Commission notes in its strategy paper.

No new legal acts planned for the Metaverse

But what exactly is the regulation of the Metaverse supposed to look like? On the one hand, the EU counts on meeting the challenges of the Metaverse with the legal acts already on the way, such as DSA and DMA, and in the future AI and Data Act. In any case, German policymakers do not expect a dedicated Metaverse law. “The EU has included the topic of metaverse in its work program for 2023 – with the clear indication to proceed non-legislatively,” says Ben Brake, Head of the digital and data policy department at the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, who was in Brussels for talks in November.

“This is the right approach,” Brake says. “We first need to look with the different stakeholders at what opportunities there are for a metaverse that we could utilize.” One question, he says, is whether something completely new is being created here, or if it is the organic evolution of existing technologies such as VR and AR. How policymakers will handle the metaverse will depend on that. “What’s clear is that we do not want to chase after trends that collapse like a soufflé after the hype,” says Brake.

Bitkom: Europe is strong on content

The German digital association Bitkom also sees no need for regulatory intervention at present. “The legal foundations are there, and we can build on them,” says Sebastian Klöß, Head of Consumer Technology, AR/VR & Metaverse. However, he says it is good that the EU already has the topic on its radar at this early stage and monitors where the opportunities for new business models lie and how Europe can contribute to this development.

According to his assessment, Europe’s strengths lie in content: in AR/VR, gaming, 3D content, designing 3D worlds and 3D avatars. The situation is more difficult when it comes to hardware – except for individual components such as sensors or optics. “That is where Europe is doing well,” Klöß says. “Here, the metaverse is a reflection of the industry as a whole.”

Korea, which also massively promoted high-speed Internet years ago, announced plans in January to invest around 160 million euros in the promotion of a metaverse ecosystem. A model for Germany? Funding always helps, of course, says Klöß. “But more important is that the state – that the EU – boldly leads the way. This way, it can also encourage others to enter the metaverse.” He cites Seoul as an example: The city plans its own representative office in the metaverse, where it also wants to offer citizen services.

Siemens: Opportunity lies in the industrial metaverse

German industrial companies like Siemens see enormous potential in the industrial metaverse, a variant of the metaverse alongside the consumer and enterprise metaverse. “We are already using building blocks from the industrial metaverse in our industrial applications,” says Sicco Lehmann-Brauns, Senior Director Technology and Innovation at Siemens and spokesman for the Data Economy Working Group at ZVEI. “The keyword is digital twin – in other words, everything that has to do with simulation,” says Lehmann-Brauns. Siemens is already using these technologies in the digitization of factories, energy systems and in mobility.

Lehmann-Brauns warns, however, against transferring consumer-oriented regulation “undifferentiated” to industrial B2B relationships. “These markets function quite differently when it comes to the power relations between the players,” he points out. “The electrical or mechanical engineering industries do not have these power asymmetries, nor do they have monopolies like the consumer Internet.” Regulation based on the one-size-fits-all model would jeopardize the potential of Europe’s industry, he says.

Digitization of administration would be helpful

In contrast, Lehmann-Brauns hopes for EU activities in the three areas mentioned by Breton:

In education and training
In technology, by having a good research policy that feeds into key industrial technologies and supports the transfer of knowledge from academic institutions to the industry
In the expansion of digital infrastructure – including 5G and 6G

And like Klöß from Bitkom, Lehmann-Brauns from ZVEI also thinks that “consistent digitization of public administration would certainly also be helpful.”

This is something that (German) policymakers also have in mind: “Participation is extremely important for our democracy. And the digital space offers many opportunities for this,” says Brake of the BMDV. “I’m thinking of digital townhall meetings, for example.” And so he urges, “We shouldn’t limit our projects in Europe to the industrial metaverse.”

IRA: Von der Leyen announces new investment policy

The US Inflation Reduction Act requires Europe to change course on investment policy, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In order to mitigate competitive disadvantages, EU regulations on public investment must be relaxed, she said yesterday in a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Furthermore, Europe needs additional funding to promote clean technologies and to cooperate with the US, for example, in setting industry standards and the purchase of critical raw materials. Cooperation with allies in a “critical raw materials club” on procurement, production and processing could break China’s monopoly.

Trade Committee chairman to sue US at WTO

Under the IRA, conditions for tax credits and subsidies are that companies use US products or produce in the US. The head of the trade committee in the EU Parliament, Bernd Lange (SPD), no longer expected a solution in the negotiations on Sunday. He assumes that some minor changes on the implementation of the US law could still be agreed in the talks between the EU and the US, but not “that much will change substantially,” Lange told the newspapers of Funke Mediengruppe. The EU would therefore have to file a complaint with the WTO quickly in the next few months.

The European-American Trade and Technology Council meets today. With regard to the meeting, the economic expert in the EU Parliament, Markus Ferber (CSU), previously told Funke newspapers that if the US did not make concessions to Europe at the meeting, the EU Commission would have to think about activating European trade protection instruments.

Commission president also wants to promote mass production

To finance this, von der Leyen proposed to first expand REPowerEU. The program enables investments in energy efficiency, renewable energies and infrastructure in particular. In the medium term, money should then be made available for upstream research, innovations and strategic projects via the Sovereignty Fund she already proposed in September.

Currently, there is a strong focus on avoiding distortions in the EU’s internal market, but a response to increasing global competition for clean technologies is now needed. The Commission will rethink how to support the entire value chain up to mass production, including through public investment. dpa

Independence in solar sector would cost $44 billion

To reduce dependence on China in the solar sector, Europe would have to invest billions of dollars. According to an as-yet unpublished calculation by the think tank BloombergNEF (BNEF), it would cost 44 billion US dollars to meet the demand for solar modules in 2030 from European production alone.

A recent Nature study also shows the cost savings from globalized solar supply chains. As a result, Germany alone would have had to pay around seven billion US dollars less for solar modules between 2008 and 2020 than in “a counterfactual scenario in which domestic manufacturers supply an increasing proportion” of modules manufactured in Germany. If the PV industry were to undergo a strong de-globalization with national supply chains, prices for solar modules would increase by between 20 and 25 percent by 2030, according to the researchers.

‘Almost impossible without Chinese equipment’

In addition, BNEF analysts note a lack of expertise and equipment in the West.

There is a lack of expertise in the operation of factories for solar ingots (semiconductor material for solar wafers) in the West
Inputs such as certain glasses for photovoltaic systems are not available
China is also a leader in manufacturing production equipment for the solar industry. Building a solar industry without the use of Chinese equipment is “almost impossible,” BNEF analysts write.

Overall, the entry barriers to the production of polysilicon, solar ingots and wafers are very high. So far, the EU is hardly making any efforts to bring production back to Europe – unlike the USA. There, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) also provides billions in subsidies for the solar industry (Climate.Table reported). Decommissioned US polysilicon factories could be restarted as a result. Subsidies for wafer and ingot production are also “particularly high,” BNEF said. According to Johannes Bernreuter, a polysilicon expert with the consulting firm Bernreuter Research, the IRA “now seems to be increasing political pressure on the EU, at least.” nib

Council wants to expand gas price cap

The EU member states want to lower the requirements for the gas price cap and thus ensure that extraordinarily high prices such as those of last August do not happen again. Therefore, the market correction mechanism is to be triggered as soon as TTF derivatives are traded for more than 264 euros for five trading days. This was stated in the first revision by the Council on Thursday, published by Contexte.

The Commission suggested ten trading days and 275 euros. However, this would not have activated the mechanism even last summer. Accordingly, however, it should also be possible to disable the cap again more quickly – as soon as it falls below 58 euros above the EGSI as LNG index for five days.

However, the values are likely to be adjusted once again; The Czech presidency has put them in brackets due to “methodological uncertainties”.

The price cap will also apply to a wider range of derivatives – not just the front month, but also the front quarter and all included monthly contracts, “not only to target the most used and liquid markets, but also to prevent arbitrage and minimize circumvention of the mechanism,” it says in justification.

Member states have scrapped the requirement to inform the Commission about the status of gas and electricity savings as soon as the market correction mechanism is triggered. Poland even appealed to the ECJ last month over an earlier Council decision on gas savings. ber

German SPD criticizes short deadline for hydrogen legislation

SPD MEP Jens Geier harshly criticizes the expected date for the publication of the Commission’s delegated act on hydrogen. Choosing December 15 is a “sign of a lack of appreciation towards the stakeholders,” Geier said at a press briefing in Berlin on Friday.

This is the penultimate working day of the Parliament before the Christmas break. The usual deadline for associations to comment of four weeks falls in the Christmas period, criticized the rapporteur of the gas internal market directive. After working on the legal act for a year, the Commission could now have presented it in mid-January, Geier said.

Content-wise, however, the draft that surfaced last week was the best he has seen so far, said the Chairman of the Europe SPD. Positive is the extended temporal and geographical decoupling of green electricity and hydrogen production. ber

Euro 7 dossier goes to ECR

Czech MEP Alexandr Vondra (ECR) will be the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Euro 7. Vondra will thus be the lead negotiator in the responsible Environment Committee ENVI. Shadow rapporteur for the EPP will be Jens Gieseke (CDU). In early November, the Commission presented its proposal for the next stage of pollutant regulation for passenger cars, vans, buses, light and heavy commercial vehicles. On the Council side, the first trilogues will be held under the Swedish Council Presidency. The dates have not yet been set. The introduction deadlines, limit values for vans and commercial vehicles are likely to be particularly disputed between the co-legislators. The test conditions for passenger cars will also be a topic for discussion. mgr

Ecofin: probably no fiscal reform yet

According to insiders, the German government does not believe that there will be a quick agreement in the EU on a reform of the European debt rules. There will be an intensive exchange of views on this at tomorrow’s meeting of European finance ministers, German government circles said in advance. “There are voices that are very optimistic that something could already be reached there in March.” The German government does not share this optimism, however. Too many questions would remain unanswered. There are also no legal proposals from the EU Commission yet.

German Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP) already expressed skepticism. Contrary to the plans of the Brussels authority, he insisted on uniform rules. The EU Commission wants to tailor debt rules more closely to the needs of individual countries. The core element is to be medium-term financial plans of respective states, which can be negotiated individually. In return, the rules are to become simpler, more transparent and easier to enforce.

Negotiations on Hungary deadlocked

According to diplomats in Brussels, the EU finance ministers will also not reach a decision this Tuesday in the dispute with Hungary over the rule of law requirements. The positions of, for example, Italy and various states in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States are currently unclear. It is therefore likely that the package will be put on the agenda again at a special meeting of EU finance ministers before the European Council, which is scheduled for Dec. 15-16. But it is also possible that the EU heads of state and government will discuss the package directly. rtr/cr

Annika Thies – European networker at DESY

Trust, cooperation and autonomy of employees – these values are important to Annika Thies when leading her team. Since June of this year, she has headed the EU project office of the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), focusing on a “post-heroic leadership style” without micromanagement. The office supports scientists from application to accounting and final report. The first few months were hectic and time-consuming for the 49-year-old, but all in all, she says, it was a pleasant arrival. “I’m lucky to have a very fit and sympathetic team.”

Into the research landscape by coincidence

Time management is often challenging, but Annika Thies has experience with demanding tasks: Previously, she worked as a director in the Brussels office of the Helmholtz Association and as a legal expert for the European Commission. For the latter, the Flensburg native was involved, among other things, in setting up a separate legal form in the field of research infrastructures. She came to this specific area of law more by chance than anything else. At the beginning of her career, she says, a friend told her to apply for a job at the German Aerospace Center. “I thought it was great from the start because it’s not a classic legal job like lawyer, but with a strong international focus.”

She even specifically chose to study law in Trier because of the specialized foreign language training offered there. It was clear to her from the start that she wanted to work in the international field. What fascinates her most about law is how it can facilitate cooperation. Especially when it comes to European research collaboration. “When the rules are clearly negotiated and laid down, there are far fewer misunderstandings and collaborations run more smoothly.” Law, she says, is particularly helpful in finding that basis and putting it into a framework.

Promotion of European cooperation

One project that is particularly close to Annika Thies’ heart is LEAPS: League of European Accelerator-based-Photon Sources. This is an association of 16 European institutions leading in the field of synchrotron and free-electron lasers. The goals of the alliance are, among others, to promote research and to strengthen exchanges with organizations and stakeholders. This project was also one of the main reasons that appealed to the legal expert about the DESY job offer. “Because it’s very strategic here at the European level and has a director in Helmut Dosch who is himself strongly committed to European cooperation.”

At the DESY location in Hamburg, she particularly appreciates the international aspect, which reminds her a lot of Brussels. “The proximity to the water is a very big plus”. She has also decided to take a sailing course. She finds the necessary balance to her duties as director as a contralto singer in a choir or during a walk along the Elbe river. Kim Fischer