- Strong criticism of the Single Market Emergency Instrument
- Albania’s Prime Minister Rama: ‘EU accession will not be easy’
- Taxonomy: Greenpeace threatens legal action
- ECB wants to take climate score into account
- Study: EU wastes more food than it imports
- Baltic states and Poland restrict entry for Russians
- EU cuts funds for Hungary: Poland to ‘strongly oppose’
- Terry Reintke to run for Green group leader in EU Parliament
- Exploratory mission for conservative Ulf Kristersson in Sweden
- Heads: Christian Johann – The bridger of gaps
with the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI), the EU Commission intends to learn the lessons taught by the pandemic. The emergency instrument enables the Commission to make deep interventions in the single market in the event of a crisis. “We don’t want a planned economy,” said the responsible commissioner, Thierry Breton, when presenting the proposal. However, that is precisely the accusation of the critics. The crisis measures would have “strong interventionist and planned economy features,” said Wolfgang Niedermark, a BDI’s executive board member. Also harsh in criticizing the proposal is Matthias Kullas, an internal market expert at the Center for European Policy. Berlin, on the other hand, welcomes the plans. Markus Grabitz knows the details.
“In the end, it depends on us how quickly we will meet all the conditions,” says Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania since 2013, about his country’s accession process to the EU. In an interview with Hans-Peter Siebenhaar, he talks about Brussels’ role in reforms in Albania, the impact of climate change on energy supplies, and the influence of China and Turkey. When it comes to freedom of the press, the news coming from the Balkan country are worrying – but Rama rejects accusations to that effect. “I am not an enemy of free media,” he says in an interview.
The Commission’s decision to include nuclear power and natural gas projects in the environmental taxonomy continues to cause heated debate. At the beginning of July, a veto motion by several MEPs to prevent the inclusion failed. Greenpeace is threatening to take the matter to the European Court of Justice. Read more in the news.
Sarah Schaefer
Feature
Strong criticism of SMEI emergency instrument
Wolfgang Niedermark, a BDI’s Executive Board member, sees disproportionately profound intervention in the economy: “The EU Commission is shooting far beyond the announced goal of ensuring a functioning single market in times of crisis.” The crisis measures have “strong interventionist and planned economy features,” he said.
Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton had already tried to dispel precisely these concerns when presenting the proposal: “No, we do not want a planned economy. We want exactly the opposite. It’s about ensuring the smooth functioning of the internal market even in crises.”
The Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI) is one of the key measures that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has planned for the coming months. With the emergency instrument, the Commission wants to draw the consequences of the Covid crisis. In the process, supply chains were threatened because member states went it alone nationally, did not allow medical personnel to leave the country, or prohibit the export of masks and respirators. “I was on the phone for days trying to reopen the borders and clear supply routes for strategically important products,” Breton said.
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