- Luxembourg’s Environment Minister Dieschbourg criticizes taxonomy
- Spying affair in Poland: EU Commission calls for investigation
- Health policy outlook 2022
- Data protection fines against Facebook and Google
- Fraud with cryptocurrencies increases rapidly
- Heating costs: Lindner holds out prospect of help
- Profile: Bernd Lange
Spain and France have been complaining for some time now, but now the energy price crisis is also hitting Germany with force. Many industrial companies are suffering, and millions of households are receiving mail from their power and gas suppliers: prices are rising drastically. Those who moved into a new home or have their contract canceled by their supplier now even have to fear that they will have to pay double or triple. German Federal Minister of Finance is now considering to aid those who have been hit particularly hard. At the EU level, the German government has so far staunchly refused to intervene in the power markets. I’m curious to see how long this will hold true when the discussion back home are beginning to heat up. You’ll find more on this in our news section.
The debate about the EU Commission’s plan to classify nuclear energy and nuclear power as sustainable, at least for the time being, has been heated. In today’s interview, Luxembourg’s Minister of Environment Carole Dieschbourg spoke with Charlotte Wirth and explains why she considers the draft taxonomy to be a “clumsy attempt at greenwashing”. And she announces: Luxembourg will join a lawsuit by Austria if the taxonomy is adopted in this form.
The unbelievable events in Poland have received little attention in Germany: In the neighboring country, opposition politicians and a prosecutor were spied on with the help of Pegasus spy software. Who is behind it? Just imagine if spy software previously procured by the German government was found on the cell phones of CDU or Left Party members of parliament. The worst thing is that the PiS government could be behind it. And what is the EU Commission doing? Falk Steiner reports on the current state of affairs.
Undine Ruge will have considerable influence on how the German government deals with this and other problems: the former deputy to Uwe Corsepius is moving up to head the European Department in the Federal Chancellery, we have learned. She will report to Joerg Kukies, for whom Chancellor Olaf Scholz has created the new post of State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Finance, and Europe. In view of Kukies’s many responsibilities, the civil servant is likely to be given some room for maneuver.
As I already announced before Christmas: We are expanding our range of topics. So far, Europe.Table has mainly informed you about Green Deal projects and EU digital policy. In 2022, we will also be focusing on European health policy. For a long time, this policy field was a purely national matter, but that is no longer true. In this issue, Eugenie Ankowitsch gives you an overview of which health policy initiatives are coming up in the coming months.
Till Hoppe
Feature
Interview with Carole Dieschbourg: ‘this taxonomy is a no-go’
Ms. Dieschbourg, the taxonomy draft shortly before midnight on December 31 was certainly not a pleasant gift.
There is no way to sugarcoat it. The Commission did not send a good signal when it launched the taxonomy procedure on New Year’s Eve. Yes, Ms. von der Leyen promised that she wanted to deliver by the end of the year, and of course, we prepared for that. But the timing was not clear until the very end.
Its content certainly wasn’t pleasant either: You have fought hard to ensure that at least nuclear power is not included in the taxonomy.
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