29Mar 2023 by Maja Bartczak

EU Friday – 29 March

EU Friday

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. COMMISSION SIGNS ANOTHER MOU TO ENSURE ACCESS TO RAW MATERIALS More electric cars and more technology to facilitate the green and digital transition means more raw materials. In the European Commission’s vocabulary, this all equals more Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with third countries. So far, the EU has signed a dozen MoUs, and more are about to come with the next third country lined up being Australia. Signing MoUs is the Commission’s MO to secure strategic partnerships on critical raw materials needed to turn Europe into a climate neutral continent by 2050, through more solar panels and windmills, electric cars and trucks. The MoUs are a political commitment of no binding legal nature, accompanied by a roadmap developed in cooperation between…

22Mar 2023 by Joost Mulder

EU Friday – 22 March

EU Friday, Uncategorized

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. SPRINT AHEAD OF ELECTIONS: DEADLINES EXPIRE, ANOTHER GERMAN SPITZENKANDIDAT With a little more than two months left to the next European Parliament elections on 6-9 June, the second deadline to reach inter-institutional agreements on legislative proposals (trilogue deals) expires today. Initially planned for 15 March and now extended to 22 March, agreements before the second deadline can still be formally endorsed by the current Parliament in committee and its last plenary in April. However, legal-linguistic changes would however be to be formalised by the next Parliament. Any agreement reached as of next week will go into trilogue negotiations in the autumn for approval in what is technically referred to as an “early second reading”. Moving matters to the next mandate can…

15Mar 2023 by Maja Bartczak

EU Friday – 15 March

EU Friday

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. PARLIAMENT ADOPTS ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS DIRECTIVE As the final, final, really final Council negotiations on the due diligence rules are taking place today, one would forget that many other agreements that were said to be at risk are actually endorsed without much of a fuss, at least in the Parliament. Along with the Nature Restoration Law a few weeks ago, the Parliament's plenary this week endorsed the final agreement on another key piece of environmental legislation, the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The new legislation sets rules for renovation targets of buildings, both on the public and private side. It also introduces a phase-out of fossil fuel heater subsidies as soon as next year, ending another major dependence on…

08Mar 2023 by Maja Bartczak

EU Friday – 8 March

EU Friday

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. COMMISSION PROUD OF ACHIEVEMENTS AS PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN UP FOR RE-ELECTION One day before the formal confirmation of Ursula von der Leyen as the EPP’s lead candidate for Commission President, the European Commission on Wednesday published “The story of the von der Leyen Commission”, a 56-page document showing how the Commission ensured “Keeping our promise to Europe”. The timing of the paper raises eyebrows, even if a similar document was published together with the incumbent President’s last state of the Union speech last autumn. In fact, the Code of Conduct of Commissioners prevents standing Commissioners to use any human or material resources for electoral campaigns, but here’s the catch: unlike some other Commissioners, von der Leyen is not running for…

01Mar 2023 by Joost Mulder

EU Friday – 1 March 2024

EU Friday

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. MEPS CHOOSE NATURE BY APPROVING AGREEMENTS ON NATURE RESTORATION, ECOCIDE After months of negotiations and twitter wars between the European institutions, the inter-institutional agreement on the Nature Restoration Law was finally approved by the European Parliament. It is the second time that this file survives a rejection vote, following a much tighter vote last summer in Parliament’s plenary to enter into negotiations. Back then, the report was among the first to hint at what we might see in the coming months: a more right-leaning European Parliament after the elections. The negotiated deal successfully sets targets to restore at least 20% of the EU’s degraded land and sea by 2030, and 60% of habitats in poor condition by 2040. On the same…