Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. MEMBER STATES KEEP RETAIL INVESTORS IN THE DARK ON SUSTAINABILITY IMPACTS As Parliament prepares to formalise its positions on their legislation where it could not yet start negotiations with the Council, the Belgian Presidency is keen to use April and May for internal decision-making between Member States. One of the major initiatives discussed is the Commission Retail Investment Strategy, which saw a lukewarm proposal to ban some kickbacks paid for financial advice where actually no such advice is given. In a full day meeting next week, national officials will discuss alternative "value-for-money" experiences in Germany and Denmark, along with two Belgian drafts on disclosure of information to consumers and on how to test whether a product is suitable for a given…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. INSTITUTIONS STRUGGLE TO FINALISE AGREEMENTS, AS OPPORTUNISM GROWS As the countdown to the Parliament elections goes on, EU institutions face an institutional crisis on their main method of decision-making in trilogues: provisional deals agreed in trilogue are increasingly blocked last-minute by national governments, driven by their own national electoral concerns and populism. In December, a last-minute opposition led by France blocked the adoption of the Platform Workers Directive, on which a provisional agreement was already agreed between the Parliament and the Spanish Presidency. Now, it is the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive which is at great risk, after Germany, Italy and several countries indicated to the Belgian Presidency that they would either abstain on or oppose the provisional agreement reached by…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. COMMISSION PLAN FOR 90% CARBON REDUCTION RELIES HEAVILY ON NET ZERO TECH The Commission’s 2040 climate target announced this week in Strasbourg, unlike the 2030 and 2050 goals, will not be enshrined in legislation. It heavily relies on two optimistic assumptions: full and effective implementation of the existing legislation, and speedy and successful roll out of “net zero” carbon technology, including carbon capture and storage. As expected, the Commission recommends 90% net greenhouse gas emissions reduction compared to 1990. Yet, it does not propose new policy measures, and it does not set any new sector-specific targets either, arguing that an extension of the current policies would already lead to an 88% reduction. As Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra put it: “Tacking…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. COMMISSION TO FOCUS ON CURRENT LEGISLATION TO MEET CLIMATE TARGET The Brussels bubble is eagerly awaiting the Commission’s official communication on the 2040 climate target due next Tuesday in Strasbourg – a leaked copy suggests that the headline figure will indeed be 90% of net greenhouse gas emissions reduction compared to 1990, building on the current 55% target for 2030. A 90% target would be in line with advice from the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change and the Commission’s own impact assessment. However, to meet the ambitious target, the Commission seems to simply rely on full implementation of existing legislation, along with an increased level of ambition in the adjusted National Energy and Climate Plans which will need to…