With the start of the new year, Germany and France have taken over the presidencies of the G7 and the EU. The governments in Berlin and Paris want to conduct the presidencies in close coordination, as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) also stressed. But the old year wasn’t quite over yet when mail arrived from […]
The building sector is one of the largest energy consumers in the European Union and is responsible for a good third of total emissions. With a recast of the Buildings Directive, the Commission wants to finally bring the “sleeping giant” into line with its Green Deal targets. In view of record-high energy prices, however, the […]
As the last of the three traffic light parties, the Greens have now also approved the coalition agreement. Around 86 percent of the approximately 125,000 Green Party members favored the coalition agreement. “That’s quite a massive result,” said the future Minister of State for Culture in the Chancellery, Claudia Roth.And another long-awaited step towards a […]
It is exciting these days to see the Union (CDU/CSU) in an exceptional situation – in the role of opposition parties. Understandably, CDU/CSU politicians are feverishly looking for topics to hit the traffic light parties, which intend to maintain professionalism and harmony, where it hurts. Now Hendrik Wüst, Armin Laschet’s successor as Minister-President in NRW, […]
Broad approval from the SPD and FDP: During the weekend, delegates from both parties greenlit the coalition agreement of the traffic light alliance at special party conventions. For the Liberals, 92.2 percent of the delegates voted in favor; for the SPD even 98.8 percent.The result of the Greens’ member survey is still to be presented […]
Sebastian Kurz has done many things differently from his predecessors. He has repositioned his party, the ÖVP. He was only 31 when he became Austria’s chancellor. Independent observers also see him as an exceptional political talent. To his admirers – including Bild (“We need someone like that!”) – he is seen as a modern conservative.And […]
With all the farewell interviews, political obituaries, and reviews of the “Merkel years” that could be read, seen, and heard in recent months, one could almost feel that the Chancellor’s long-announced departure was permanent. But now Angela Merkel is really leaving. Yesterday, the German Armed Forces said goodbye with a Great Taps. At the Chancellor’s […]
Three to four percent of EU-wide emissions are emitted by ships either arriving or departing from European ports. In the future, this share is likely to increase if nothing is done to decarbonize shipping. With the FuelEU Maritime Regulation, the EU Commission now wants to change this, but the proposal is not as ambitious as […]
It is the EU’s largest democratic experiment to date: the “Conference on the Future of Europe”, a project near and dear to French President Emmanuel Macron. After its launch in May this year, the buzz around the Future Conference had died down, but now the project is gaining new momentum. As Eric Bonse reports, this […]
Only eleven months after the Commission’s presentation, the Council has adopted its negotiating position on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA). The Slovenian Presidency could hardly save itself from praise from Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, and the representatives of the 27 member states. The meeting of […]