Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. SIXTH PCI LIST ENTERS INTO FORCE, ACCELERATING THE HYDROGEN RUSH With the amended TEN-E Regulation in force, time has come for its baby: a new, sixth list of Projects of Common Interests (PCI). These projects enjoy a “streamlined” environmental impact assessment, accelerated permitting, and access to EU subsidies. The new list features many hydrogen projects, confirming the recent European rush towards this gas. While renewable hydrogen will play a crucial role in the energy transition, it is not a silver bullet, and there is a strong argument to avoid excessive use in buildings and focus on use of hydrogen in hard to decarbonise sectors instead. The fossil fuel industry missed this memo and jumped on the hype, which means a lot…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. URSULA 2024 SAYS OPEN TO DEAL WITH CONSERVATIVE ECR GROUP AT FIRST EU DEBATE Six weeks before the elections, EPP lead candidate and current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was already forced to show her colours on potential cooperation with hard right conservative groups such as the ECR. At a first debate amongst eight “Spitzenkandidaten” in Maastricht on 30 April, she defended her legacy and launched her Ursula 2024 campaign. Pushed about the likeliness of her tying up with the ECR, she indicated being open to a deal with the group, depending “on how the competition of the Parliament is and who is in what group”. The ECR group is composed of Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, Andrzej Duda’s Law and…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. THE LAST EP PLENARY SESSION: FINAL VOTES, GOODBYES, AND FLYING DOVES MEPs gathered for a final time in Strasbourg before the European elections in June, with a record-breaking agenda of 90 final votes. All files where an agreement with Member States was reached in trilogues were approved as planned. MEPs approved the deal on the CSDDD, ending the seemingly never-ending saga of unexpected twists and turns and additional political trilogues. They also endorsed the packaging rules in the PPWR, the AI Act, and rules on ESG Ratings. On initiatives where negotiations with the Council have not started or have not advanced enough, the Parliament closed its position at first reading, including on genomic techniques and plant reproductive material rules. Some initiatives,…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. FORGET ABOUT CMU, HERE IS THE SIU, SAYS ENRICO LETTA A decade after the birth of the Capital Market Union as the ugly twin sister of the Banking Union, it's time to move on and transform the "incomplete” project into a Savings and Investments Union, according to former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in a report discussed by European leaders this week. The report mentions that private savings total a "staggering" 33 trillion euros and that these are mostly held in currency and deposits. Even worse, 300 billion a year is "diverted" into non-EU investments, mostly American, because the EU can't get its act together and remove fragmentation in markets. For finance and the two other priority sectors (energy and telecoms),…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. PARLIAMENT APPROVES NEW GAS AND HYDROGEN RULES After months of intensive work and almost never-ending trilogues, MEPs this week approved the EU’s new gas and hydrogen legislation with a wide cross-party majority. Beyond replacing our reliance on gas with a potential reliance on hydrogen, it brings a few positive additions including the requirement to draft decommissioning plans. Gas Distribution System Operators (DSOs) together with other stakeholders will need to draft plans on how to decommission unused infrastructure in case of future reduction in gas demand. The prioritisation of hydrogen in hard to decarbonise sectors is another positive aspect of the rules, as well as the establishment of the European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen (ENNOH), separately from gas operators, to…

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…