Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. PLEASE DO NO SIGNIFICANT HARM WITH MY TAX SPENDING The EU has spent years lecturing the private sector and its member states about the holy principle of Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) – it’s not sustainable to do something good while harming another sustainability objective. Like building a hydropower energy plant that requires some deforestation to build an artificial lake powering the plant. So, the EU’s bible of sustainable finance, the Taxonomy Regulation, tells banks, investors, and companies how to measure the “alignment” of their investments with the EU’s environmental goals. Yet when it comes to the EU’s own budget, the DNSH commandment suddenly becomes optional. The EPP now wants to remove these environmental safeguards from the next EU’s multi-year budget,…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. IRISH PRESIDENCY TO THE RESCUE This week, Ireland took over the rotating EU Council Presidency. And because headmistresses Ursula von der Leyen was busy in Armenia, the College of Commissioners turned their Brussels meeting into an end-of-year school trip. Instead of adopting the public procurement package with Ursula, they chartered a plane to Cork to kick off the Irish Presidency in style. Ireland’s Presidency programme includes the usual gems: advance the Savings and Investment Union, complete the Banking Union, push for a more integrated capital market, and give the Digital Euro another nudge forward. But what do citizens really care about? According to the latest Eurobarometer, the top challenges EU see ahead are defense and security, and energy independence -- and…