Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. EU STOPS THE CLOCK ON SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS LAWS Good news – EU Member State representatives indicated their governments agree to the "stop-the-clock" proposal to postpone sustainability reporting for two years, a message that Europe's large companies have been desperately wanting to hear. The decision will save them a lot of resources that can be reinvested into competitiveness, which is desperately needed in view of sudden geopolitical winds of change. And even better news is that the rules on due diligence will also be postponed by one year, which should give a breath of relief of companies that are busy to survive and therefore not able to dedicate time and resources to checking their supply chains. After all, there is nothing wrong…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. FROM SEGRE TO SEJOURNE: SIXTY YEARS OF SIU Uniting Europe's capital markets. Sounds easy, turns out to be actually quite difficult. Almost sixty years ago, the EU published professor Claudio Segré's report on "the development of a European capital market" explaining why Europe's capital markets lacked integration. The reasons? Lack of a single currency, of course. But also: "disparities" in the supervision of financial institutions and tax obstacles. Fast forward sixty years later, after the attempts by Mario Monti in 1999 (Financial Services Action Plan) and Jonathan Hill in 2015 (Capital Markets Union) – again, the EU plans to address supervision and tax issues, with its rebranded Savings and Investment Union presented this week. No wonder some call it old wine…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. DIGITAL EURO RUNNING OUT OF CREDIT The ECB's digital euro project was already facing challenges, but last month's significant payment system outage has raised even more concerns. At the end of February, the ECB's TARGET 2 system that settles payments between banks suffered a major breakdown for a day. The outage, caused by an initial misdiagnosis of the problem, raised alarms about the central bank's ability to manage a complex, high-stakes digital currency. As MEP Markus Ferber put it: “this is a blow to the credibility of the ECB”. Others, such as Green MEP Rasmus Andresen, stressed that rebuilding trust is key – or the project could collapse before it even gets off the ground. Even digital euro fanboy MEP Jussi…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. PARLIAMENT STEPS UP ENGAGEMENT ON DEFENCE Next week's European Parliament plenary and its Wednesday morning debate on current affairs is firmly sandwiched between two European Summits – the one that happened this week, dubbed by some as the most important meeting since the Cold War, and the one happening in two weeks, originally meant to be the most important one of the year. It gives MEPs a unique opportunity to scrutinise the decisions that have been taken and will be taken, even though it's the Presidency and the Commission in front of them, and not individual ministers at a time where a lot of the geopolitical decision-making seems to be multilateral rather than European. In line with Parliament President Roberta Metsola's…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. EU ISSUES FIRST DEREGULATION EXECUTIVE ORDER While everyone in the Brussels Bubble is busy comparing leaked and final versions of the “Omnibus”, the Commission proposal to unravel the fragile political compromise on sustainable finance and responsible business agreed over the last legislature, a more significant democratic change is hidden behind in procedural subtleties. Just as Trump decided to rename an ocean because he felt like it, von der Leyen decided to scrap sustainability reporting and due diligence obligations for 99.9% of EU companies, with an impact assessment that only looks as costs and a stakeholder consultation that admittedly saw complaints from "a few" businesses that had to be resolved. Some financial supervisors say that speed is more important than accuracy when…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. THE CLEAN INDUSTRIAL DEAL: A PROCUREMENT POWER PLAY? A leak reveals that Brussels is about to rewrite the rulebook on public procurement. Next week, the European Commission will unveil its Clean Industrial Deal, a plan to use Europe's €2 trillion-a-year procurement market to boost local industry and accelerate the green transition. At the heart of the strategy? A "European preference" clause, designed to steer public contracts towards EU-made clean technologies. By 2026, procurement rules will be overhauled to prioritise sustainability, resilience and local production – a shift that could push European industry forward but also test the limits of international trade rules. It could help to align public spending with climate and industrial policy, a long overdue move to strengthen Europe's…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. MEPS TELL ECB TO CONSIDER GEOPOLITICAL RISKS AND CHALLENGE DIGITAL EURO While over the past years MEPs mostly battled over how much climate change should influence the European Central Bank’s policy decisions, this week’s discussion in plenary clearly moved on to a much broader set of geopolitical concerns. The debate was heated, with MEPs divided over whether the ECB should prioritise everyday citizens or prepare for geopolitical shocks. ECB President Christine Lagarde acknowledged these challenges, arguing for a cautious, data-driven approach. She also highlighted the role of the digital euro in strengthening Europe's financial autonomy, drawing the anger of some ECR MEPs who had tabled amendments to challenge the decision to develop a digital euro in the first place. Others insisted…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. EU TRADE MINISTERS PREPARE FOR TRUMP'S TRADE TANTRUMS In a diplomatic dance to dodge Trump's trade tirades, EU ministers for trade, the internal market, and industry huddled in Warsaw on Tuesday, seeking strength in unity against the U.S. president's “tariff” threats. Polish Economy Minister Krzysztof Paszyk set the tone: "We have to stick together, otherwise Trump's trade tornado will blow us away like yesterday's news. "The summit exposed familiar cracks in EU solidarity. While most members and the Commission support the Mercosur deal, France remains the party pooper. The EU is now eyeing Malaysia, India and Indonesia for trade talks, hoping to diversify and avoid putting all its eggs in one basket. "The US trade stance is changing by the hour,"…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. THE EU’S € 2 TRILLION QUESTION: WILL PUBLIC PROCUREMENT GO SUSTAINABLE? MEPs are setting the stage for a shake-up of the EU's public procurement rules, but fault lines are already emerging. While there's broad consensus on the need to cut red tape and make it easier for SMEs to bid, the real battle is over how much weight social and environmental objectives should carry. During an exchange of views in the Internal Market Committee on a forthcoming report, right-wing MEPs pushed for simplification, warning that excessive bureaucracy was stifling cross-border competition and innovation. EPP shadow Christian Doleschal called for higher thresholds and a streamlined system to encourage start-ups. Meanwhile, the Greens and S&D insist that procurement should be a lever for…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. TRUMP’S VOICE ECHOES IN DAVOS AS VDL TRIES TO SAVE TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Ursula von der Leyen wasn't afraid to throw down the gauntlet. The Commission President urged Europe and the U.S. to stand together against the looming threats of rising Chinese influence and geopolitical instability. Von der Leyen's message? It's time for the EU and the US to stop being the global good guys in an age of power grabs and backdoor deals. With China's growing presence in high-tech sectors like 5G and AI, Europe risks being sidelined in the next great tech race. Von der Leyen warned that China's growing influence could challenge the shared transatlantic democratic values. Meanwhile, Belgium PM Alexander…