Welcome to Better Europe’s weekly update on EU Affairs.
FINANCE MINISTERS PRESENT THEIR ABC FOR CAPITAL MARKETS IN EUROPE
In the coming days, Finance Ministers will be putting their ideas on the table for a refresh of the Commission’s Capital Markets Union project. Meeting in Ghent for informal Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings, it will be hard for ministers to avoid the draft shopping lists that will be finalised later this semester by Enrico Letta to reboot the internal market, and by Mario Draghi on competitiveness. On top of that, bankers are in town for their regular Eurofi school trip, using bilateral meetings with politicians to indirectly influence the EU’s financial regulatory agenda for the next mandate. Ministers are expected to promote an “ABC” for capital markets: revise the financial supervision Architecture by introducing opt-in EU-level supervision; help Business to attract more, cross-border, and private funding, including by improving the sustainable finance framework; and better engage Citizens. On the latter, Belgian Finance Minister Van Peteghem at a conference on Tuesday already gave some indications of what average citizens could see soon: better and fair investment products, that are easily comparable, and a citizen’s savings account with decent interest rates modelled after the French Livret A which finances social housing, SMEs, and recently also the defence industry.
COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN CONFIRMS SHE WANTS A SECOND TERM
In 2019, no one knew her name in Brussels, but after five years she has joined the ranks of the most famous Europeans. Kicking off the new week, Ursula von der Leyen on Monday announced she will run for a second term. For now, she remains a sole candidate of her centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), who are set to confirm her nomination at their congress on 6-7 March in Bucharest. Von der Leyen’s plan for the second term, in light of geopolitical developments, is clear: make Europe more competitive and strengthen its military capacity, a familiar topic for the former German Minister of Defence. However, many potential roadblocks appear ahead of the current Commission President in her campaign for a second term. Amidst a more right-leaning European Parliament after the elections and her own Green Deal legacy, the current President will have to balance between a more competitive and military powerful Europe (objectives of the right-leaning part of the political spectrum) and the green policies and laws important to left-leaning parties. Von der Leyen is the only right-wing candidate as the ECR and ID oppose and boycott the Spitzenkandidaten process.
PARLIAMENT INTERGROUPS CONSIDER THEIR FUTURE AS FINAL MEETINGS TAKE PLACE
The 27 European Parliament “intergroups” are using the last weeks in Brussels and Strasbourg to hold their last meetings of the mandate, and promote their renewal after the elections. Members of the European Parliament meet in these groups to discuss topics that do not always fit within the 20+ committees of the European Parliament, although in many groups the number of MEPs attending is extremely limited, with most participants being outside lobbyists. Some groups cover topics that are not an EU competence and therefore more of a personal interest to MEPs, e.g. the intergroups those on Traditional minorities and on the Western Sahara. Others aim to provide a horizonal perspective on EU policy areas, such the “Sustainable, long-term investments & competitive European industry intergroup” which added sustainable finance to its name and mandate in 2019 and organises debates up to a dozen times a year covering topics from critical raw materials to energy systems. The battle for new and renewed groups will take place this summer when political groups have to indicate which groups they are prepared to support.