The EU faces crucial weeks. Brussels newspaper correspondents can almost always write this sentence, because something important is almost always being initiated or concluded in the legislative and negotiating machinery. When Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gives the opening speech at the SZ Economic Summit this Monday – after a trip to Washington and meeting with President Joe Biden – it will be no different: The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the body of member states, will soon begin Negotiations on the climate protection laws that the Commission presented in the summer.
The legal acts are intended to implement the ambitious climate protection goals of the EU. They are correspondingly painful and controversial. In addition to the Green Deal, the climate and environmental protection program, digitization is the second focus that von der Leyen set when she took up the post two years ago. One of the most important pieces of legislation in this area is the Digital Markets Act, which aims to make it easier for the Commission to tackle anti-competitive practices by powerful internet platforms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Here the Council of Ministers and Parliament want to tighten their negotiating positions in the coming weeks – again an important preliminary decision.
On the side, Brussels still has to deal with various internal and external crises: for example the consequences of the pandemic, rising energy prices, the influx of refugees from Belarus, the dispute with Poland over the dismantling of the rule of law or the wrangling with Great Britain over customs rules for Northern Ireland. The agreement on a trade agreement with the British was only reached on Christmas Eve last year. Without the agreement, tariffs would have been introduced in January. Now there is a great risk that this time it will be the Northern Ireland dispute that prevents a peaceful and undisturbed Christmas for Brussels officials – and journalists.
With many media, including the one Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Brussels office is part of the foreign policy department. But in terms of topics and day-to-day work, the Brussels branches certainly have more in common with the capital city offices in Berlin than with traditional foreign correspondent locations, for example in Southeast Asia or the USA. The aim in Brussels is to support legislation and to analyze and comment on political conflicts that have a very specific impact on citizens and companies in Germany. This is rarely the case elsewhere abroad.
The “Space Egg”, the summit building, is actually quite pretty
The figure that is sometimes quoted, in Germany 80 percent of the laws ultimately came from the European Union, is far too high, but it is clear that more and more important decisions are made in Brussels than in some German capital. Appropriately enough, the permanently congested multi-lane street that runs right through Brussels’ European Quarter is called Rue de la Loi, Straße des Rechts. The headquarters of the EU Commission, the Berlaymont building, is located here. Von der Leyen has her bright and modern office on the top 13th floor – plus a small apartment.
Directly across from the bulky Berlaymont block is the council building, where the member states’ councils of ministers and working groups meet, as well as the summits of the heads of state and government. Chancellor Angela Merkel received one as a farewell present after what was probably her last top meeting in October glass plasticthat, with some imagination, is supposed to represent the summit building. This is called the “Space Egg” in Brussels because it looks like an egg has fallen from the sky into a house. It’s actually pretty pretty.
The Brussels branch of the European Parliament and the permanent representations of the member states are within walking distance: the EU embassies, which often employ more civil servants than some ministries in the home capital. In addition, there are countless lobbyist offices of associations and companies – and of course many good to very good restaurants to adequately cater for parliamentarians, diplomats, top officials and lobbyists.
This Brussels bubble, the legislative and money-distributing machinery of the EU, has become even more powerful since von der Leyen’s inauguration. This has above all to do with the pandemic – and with the fact that nation states alone would be overwhelmed with important challenges of our time such as climate protection or digital change. “Europe will be forged in crises,” predicted Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the EU. And this political construct will then be the sum of all the answers to those crises, the Frenchman predicted.
More money, more debt, more power
Brussels’ bold response to the pandemic was a twelve-digit number: the member states decided to set up a € 806 billion Corona aid fund, in addition to the usual EU budget. The Commission thus supports governments in reforms and investments. Money means creative power – and never before has a Commission President had anywhere near as much of it as von der Leyen as the first woman at the head of the authority. In the rule of law dispute with Poland, the Commission is already using the corona pot as leverage. The promised 24 billion euros in grants for the country are only to be released if Warsaw implements certain reforms in the judicial system.
In order to fill the pot, the authority is taking on debts on a large scale for the first time. So that these can be repaid more easily, the EU is to receive new sources of income, such as a controversial tax for digital companies: another long step towards more European integration.
The climate crisis also gives the EU level more power. In the summer, the Commission presented a comprehensive and complex legislative package aimed at drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The rules of the game for the green restructuring of Europe’s economy and society are therefore being written in Brussels and Strasbourg, in arduous negotiations between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also spoke at the climate conference in Glasgow.
(Photo: Yuri Mikhailenko / imago)
For von der Leyen, this is arguably the most important project of her term in office. But the environment for these debates has deteriorated. The global climate protection conference in Glasgow has just shown again that other economic powers like China are less ambitious. That should encourage those critics in the EU who warn against rushing forward. In addition, the quarrels over the high electricity and gas prices are giving skeptics a boost. Because the Brussels climate protection package will also increase the prices for fossil fuels.
What will the German do after 2024?
The proposal to extend the EU emissions trading system to heating and transport is particularly controversial. Then sellers of petrol or oil and gas for heating would have to acquire pollution rights – just as electricity suppliers and many industrial companies are already doing. These companies must be able to produce tradable carbon dioxide certificates when they release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The expansion to gasoline and heating, planned for 2026, would make prices more expensive for consumers. Many governments consider this to be political poison – and the anger of recent weeks over the high electricity and gas prices reinforces these doubters.
Von der Leyen’s term of office ends in 2024. The expansion of emissions trading and many other planned initiatives will not be implemented by then. The big question is whether the 63-year-old wants to run for a second term – and whether the CDU politician would have the backing of the red-green-yellow government that is currently forming in Berlin. Crucial questions, crucial weeks, as always.