Welcome to Better Europe’s weekly update on EU Affairs.
ALBANIA’S AMBITIOUS SPRINT TO ACCESSION
Sprinting toward EU membership this week, Albania officially opened its fourth negotiation cluster, covering transport, energy, trans-European networks and environmental protection. This brings the total number of clusters opened in less than a year to five out of six. The total number of EU acquis chapters completed increased to 28 out of 33, a pace that Brussels calls “impressive.” The Commission has praised Albania’s reforms, ranging from anti-corruption efforts to judicial modernization. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos noted that Tirana demonstrates how bold leadership can deliver tangible change. The remaining chapters, including agriculture and regional cohesion, are set to open by the end of the year, with the goal of concluding technical negotiations by 2027. If progress continues, Albania and Montenegro could be the first to join the twelve-star club. However, issues such as the rule of law, media freedom, election transparency, and respect for human rights (including the abandoned migrant centre deal concluded with Italy) could still take centre stage at the moment of truth, and any accession will have to be coordinated with the other Western Balkan six countries and the “Association Trio”: Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
BETTER REGULATION – THE COMMISSION STRIKES BACK
Remember the NGO Omnibus complaint to the EU Ombudsman back in May? Well, it’s the gift that keeps on giving – that is, the Commission keeps giving justifications for its not-so-evidence-based handling of the proposal. To justify accelerating the package at breakneck speed without simply admitting it’s the changed geopolitical situation, the Commission now comes up with fresh arguments as to why all of its decisions were in fact business as usual, in line with the famous Better Regulation doctrine. Our top three – first: it was evidence-based, because the changes would ease the compliance burden for large companies. Fair enough, but what about the poor SMEs? Second: thanks to intensive cooperation between the officials involved, the internal consultation could be limited to 24 hours. OK, then why do insiders complain they were taken out of the game? Third: two outreach meetings in 2024 helped to check the box of consulting stakeholders. Sure, but those meetings identified technical implementation problems at Level 2; how does that support a legislative review at Level 1? Our conclusion: nothing to see here people, please move on – the Commission “remains committed to its better regulation high standards and to working in a transparent, inclusive, and evidence-based manner”.
DRAGHI TAKES CENTRE STAGE
Europe’s handicap lies in its own rules, professor Mario Draghi told Brussels at a dedicated one-year anniversary conference for his landmark competitiveness report, From the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to industrial permitting, the former ECB chief and former Italian Prime Minister urged decision-makers to cut red tape and streamline procedures, presenting simplification as the key to growth. Underneath the rhetoric, though, lies a huge risk: loosening hard-won rules could weaken sustainability just as Europe needs guidance to steer its green transition, something which even Ursula von der Leyen herself admitted her State of the Union address last week. The challenge is also how the Commission implements these measures. In the financial sector for instance, disagreement at the legislative level and reluctance to move to central supervision for non-banks often means lengthy technical measures are needed, as this CEPS paper shows. Meanwhile, Draghi kept urging for more speed and consistency – you would wonder why already six lengthy packages of red tape were needed to cut “red tape”.