Welcome to Better Europe’s weekly update on EU Affairs.
VON DER LEYEN SLAPPED IN THE FACE ON TRADE DEALS
The Parliament’s fourth try to adopt a motion of censure against Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission failed as expected: with only 165 votes in favour and 390 against, it fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to dismiss the College. The motion, led by the far-right Patriots, was presented as a protest against the Commission’s management of the EU-Mercosur agreement. However, the more significant blow to von der Leyen’s authority had already been delivered earlier in the week: MEPs decided to delay the vote on the EU-U.S. trade agreement, and voted to refer Mercosur to the Court of Justice, delaying its final adoption by up to two years. To add insult to injury, the censure debate became very procedural as von der Leyen left Strasbourg for the World Economic Forum in Davos, leaving Maroš Šefčovič to take the hit. And in Davos, the focus was on other geopolitical issues: Trump’s waffle about Greenland and Zelenskyy flying in last-minute show that Europe’s trade and security decisions are not taken in Brussels, even if leaders hurried back for there for a non-event evening summit.
WILL PARLIAMENT BUY THE DIGITAL EURO?
Currency enthusiasts rarely get their fifteen minutes of fame in Brussels, but the digital euro has been steadily climbing up the agenda and next week could be its time to shine. On Thursday, the Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee will discuss its position, and across town, the Council is preparing to formally finalise its General Approach. Member States want to keep both the online and offline functionality; a subtle indication that they want something more robust than the ‘offline-only’ solution promoted by the large European banks who want to keep online payments inside their ecosystem. Academics are weighing in too, with an open letter warning lawmakers against ‘hollowing out’ the project. Their argument is simple: if acceptance is optional, privacy is diluted and holding caps are kept so low that you can’t pay your rent with the digital euro, the ‘digital version of cash’ becomes a symbolic exercise and we’ll end up locking in our dependence on foreign payment systems. As opposition inside the rapporteur’s political EPP group, is mounting, the question is: will Parliament buy it next week?
HERE COMES THE SOCIETAS EUROPAEA UNIFICATA
Amidst all the invasions and omnibus talk, you’d almost forget that the EU is still proposing new laws once in a while. One of these, a 28th regime for company law, is back in the picture ahead of a Commission proposal expected in March, as confirmed in Ursula’s Davos speech. In fact, Europe already has two harmonised company law regimes, operating as a 26th regime since 2004 and 2006: the Societas Europaea for large firms and the Societas Cooperativa Europaea for cooperative firms. However, nothing exists for the startups and scaleups, something that the Commission is keen to address. In a report supported by a wide Parliament majority, MEP René Repasi proposes a Societas Europaea Unificata (S.EU) that could even cover all private firms, but true to his German S&D background he warns that labour and tax matters must remain national – sounds reasonable and acceptable to Member States. But a “Whatsapp group” of tech bros want more: while their EU-INC campaign was name checked by Ursula (well, she said “EU Inc.”), they insist that the Commission must put forward a Regulation, not a Directive, and ideally also harmonise HR and tax rules – good luck with that.