Welcome to Better Europe’s weekly update on EU Affairs.
EU DEFORESTATION LAW FACES YET ANOTHER DELAY
EU agriculture ministers left Luxembourg demanding that Brussels hit pause on its deforestation law for everyone this time… at this week’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, most countries supported postponing the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) beyond its original start date of December 2025. The Commission had already proposed granting small companies more time and suspending penalties for six months, but member states said that wasn’t enough. They want to postpone the entire rollout and argued that the system to trace goods back to farms is nowhere near ready. On top of that, the Mercosur trade deal was back on the agenda: several ministers, including Slovakia’s Richard Takáč, cautioned that opening EU markets to cheap imports while tightening domestic standards risks exacerbating the existing unfairness experienced by European farmers. For now, the fate of the EUDR hangs on the Danish Presidency’s attempt to reach a compromise, further elongating the list of setbacks to the Green Deal.
DIGITAL EURO MOVES AHEAD
The digital euro is really getting up to speed, as the European Central Bank announced the next phase of the project, with the tabloid press opening another can of worms on how all our spending will be tracked and parroting commercial bank statements that their private digital means of payment will do. And next week, the Parliament’s economic committee will discuss the draft position by former Spanish central banker Fernando Navarrete. The timing of the report the euro’s status as legal tender, the rollout of the digital euro and its provision by payment service providers in non-euro countries is ideal: the ECB declared technical readiness for a potential first issuance in 2029, contingent on legislation passing in 2026. In parallel, the committee will also adopt a much-awaited draft report on safeguarding and promoting financial stability amid economic uncertainties, drafted by Belgian conservative Johan Van Overtveldt. As the digital euro progresses through the legislative process, important questions remain regarding sovereignty, privacy, innovation, and concerns about excessive private-sector influence on Europe’s payment system. So yes, the digital euro might be a controversial project, but it’s not without debate in Brussels.
DUTCH ABROAD TO DECIDE ON OPTIONS FOR JETTEN I GOVERNMENT
Following an impressive climb in polls over the last three weeks, D66 leader Rob Jetten is almost certain to take the lead in forming a coalition government in the Netherlands and become the next Prime Minister. While the final counting showed a neck-and-neck race with Geert Wilders’ PVV, almost all other political parties are not ready to repeat the failed experiment of a government lead by the extreme-right party. Jetten is likely to have two major options in forming a government, thanks to the votes from abroad which will only be reported on Monday. Following improvements in the postal voting system, “expats” now represent more than one seat in the Parliament and are known to voted significantly more for liberal parties like D66 and VVD than for the PVV. If they give Jetten an extra seat, a right-wing coalition with the VVD, christian-democrat CDA and right-wing party JA21 becomes a viable option, and an alternative that can be used to force the left-wing Groenlinks-PvdA into consessions for being a realistic alternative to JA21. Sounds familiar to Brussels insiders! The party led by former Brussels stalwart Frans Timmermans (who stepped down on election night) is still in the process of absorbing the Green party and the historic social-democratic PvdA into a single party, and suffered a major defeat in this week’s election. However, when the results come in on Tuesday, another term in opposition rather than taking their responsibility and join a government of national unity seems a no-brainer for any new leader of the group.