- ETS 2: cracked, but not dead yet
- Renew calls for suspension of accession talks with Serbia
- EU battery regulation in final stages
- German government supports 2035 phase-out of combustion engines
- ECB: Climate change and Ukraine crisis drive energy price inflation
- Sanctions: Commission task force intensifies efforts
- Data protection: enforcement problems occupy LIBE Committee
- Commission proposal: Article X to regulate Messenger interoperability
- Activists accuse Facebook of double standards
- EU raises tariffs on stainless steel imports from India and Indonesia
With strong words, Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the German Bundestag today: Germany helped build a wall to isolate Ukraine and hand it over to Russia, Zelenskyy said during the live-broadcast. As an example, he cited Germany’s long holding on to the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline and the West’s refusal to allow Ukraine to join NATO. He concluded his roughly ten-minute speech with an appeal to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “Tear down this wall, support us.”
Due to rising energy prices – caused, for instance, by the Ukraine crisis – the camp of proponents of a second European emissions trading system (ETS 2) is currently shrinking. The introduction of a CO2 price in the transport and heating sectors would impose too high a social burden, the Greens and Social Democrats agree. The thing is: There is a lack of viable alternative proposals: A postponed introduction of ETS 2, an energy tax or an increase in fleet limits – all proposals have their drawbacks. Lukas Scheid analyzes the options currently available to the EU.
Serbia’s admission to the EU is a distant prospect as long as Belgrade refuses to join the Western sanctions against Russia. The problem: Serbia is fully dependent on Russian gas supplies. Falk Steiner explains why Serbia is struggling to engage with the West.
The EU Battery Regulation took a big step forward yesterday. The general orientation is in place, now a first reading for the trilogue with the EU Parliament is to be scheduled as soon as possible. Read more about the planned contents in the news section.
There was clear criticism of the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation at a hearing in the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee. Data protection law may be harmonized at the European level, but national administrative law is decisive when it comes to implementing data protection procedures – which means that different rules apply to procedures in almost all member states.
Lisa-Martina Klein
Feature
ETS 2: cracked, but not dead yet
Skepticism is growing in the EU Parliament about a second emissions trading system for road transport and heating (ETS 2). Greens and Social Democrats now agree that the social burden of a sectoral expansion of CO2 pricing would be too high. And at the meeting of EU environment and climate ministers in Brussels on Thursday, many countries also expressed strong concerns about the idea of introducing a CO2 price for certain fuels by 2026.
In addition to the permanent opponents of the European climate protection plans, such as Poland or Hungary, countries like Spain and Ireland also criticized the plans of the EU Commission. Spain called it a contradiction that some countries want to set a price signal with the ETS 2 in order to reduce emissions in the two sectors, while they talk about tax cuts in the current situation to relieve consumers when it comes to heating and buying fuel.
Ireland criticized a lack of flexibility for those countries that have already introduced a CO2 levy on fuels. Similar to Germany’s fuel emission law, Ireland, like Portugal, already has a national CO2 price for buildings and road transport. The revenue is used to finance additional climate protection measures as well as social compensation. Portugal puts some of this money into the expansion of public transport, for example.
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