Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. ELECTIONS: RELIEF IN PORTUGAL, POPULARITY TESTS AHEAD ELSEWHERE Last Sunday, Portugal gave everyone in Europe a sigh of relief as centre-left António José Seguro won the presidency by a wide margin over far-right leader André Ventura. The relief is real, even if Ventura still got 33% of the votes, cementing his party Chega as a long-term player rather than a passing protest. Elsewhere, politicians in the Netherlands are campaigning for local elections on 18 March, which risk being turned in a stress test of the new government minority government to be installed in two weeks. France, meanwhile, has municipal elections on 15 and 22 March which will give a first hint of the Rassemblement national’s chances of seeing Marine Le Pen…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. THE ONLY WAY IS UP FOR DRAGHI AND LETTA All eyes are on two former Italian Prime Ministers next week, as they will address EU government leaders at a special Summit at Alden Biesen castle, on the Flemish countryside. More than a year after the Draghi and Letta reports on competitiveness and the single market, national leaders are going to hear on Thursday that the funding gap to address Europe's green, digital and defence needs is much bigger than the 800 billion a year presented before. It is a public secret that Draghi is frustrated at the lack of progress on his recommendations, with only 10% of his report implemented according to the Draghi Observatory. Von der Leyen has used a…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. PARLIAMENT STRIKES FIRST IN ECB WAR OF SUCCESSION Parliament has the European Central Bank on its mind. While Trump is trying to find a way to take the printing press away from his central bankers and force them to define the interest rates that he appreciates, MEPs still believe in soft power to nudge the ECB in line with their policies. In a report adopted this week, they welcome the independence of the ECB, stress the importance of physical cash, and suggest to take a cautious approach for setting interest rates to avoid overshooting. The political fork in the road on how agile interest rate policy should be is also reflected in the appointment of a new ECB Vice-President, a decision…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. THE POLITICAL MEETING THAT WASN'T Brussels observers described it as a 'political meeting' of EU agriculture ministers on EU food security and sovereignty, but nobody bought it. Behind the talk of farm budgets and 'listening to rural voices', the real topic was the deadlocked EU-Mercosur trade agreement and whether the Commission could secure its approval before a key Coreper meeting on Friday. So, the Commission sent its best negotiators to the meeting: Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Agriculture Commissioner Christos Stylianides, who were armed with promises of 'safeguards' and 'flexibility'. The party poopers? France and Poland, who warned that the deal could open the door to unfair competition and weaken Europe’s farming standards. Meanwhile, Italy is drifting towards a yes after…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. MERCOSUR: FARMERS 1 - FREE TRADE 0 25 years of political negotiations, 7,000 farmers taking to the streets of Brussels, and still no sign of this saga ending. As EU leaders prepared for a pivotal summit, thousands of farmers took to the streets to make their concerns heard. Protesters surrounded EU institutions to denounce a deal that they fear will allow cheaper beef, soy, and agricultural imports from South America into the EU. Inside the European Council, divisions were just as visible. While Germany and the Commission pushed hard for ratification, France, Poland and Italy successfully called for a delay. Despite last-minute safeguards and a €1 billion support fund promised by the Commission, member states appear increasingly uneasy. Together with the…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. SIMPLIFICATION SEASON CONTINUES Christmas comes early this year for Europe’s businesses, as the Commission this week presented its delayed Environmental Omnibus as a bold crusade against ‘administrative burden’ and, depending on whom you ask, a somewhat bolder crusade against environmental oversight. Brussels promises to save another billion euros a year by eliminating ‘unnecessary’ reporting obligations, primarily by no longer requiring companies to disclose sensitive information about chemicals, pollution or resource use. Highlights include: the deletion of the Substances of Concern in Products database, which would spare industry the inconvenience of reporting hazardous chemicals, over 38,000 livestock farms would be exempt from water and energy reporting, and environmental assessments for industrial sites, water discharges and chemical residues could be eliminated. While Commission…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. OMNIBUS IS MALADMINISTRATION Governing by omnibus is maladministration. You’ve heard it here before, but now the European Ombudswoman formally agrees in her damning conclusions on the Commission’s approach to deregulation. In her view, the first Omnibus package and two other laws were not just rushed; the Commission also crossed the line into maladministration, failing to meet the basic standards of law-making required under the Treaties. The Commission made a mistake by skipping impact assessments, limiting public consultation to industry mostly, and ignoring the climate consistency check required since 2021 under the EU’s own Climate Law. Does this stop Omnibus I? No, but it hurts the Commission’s image of a neutral evidence-based broker in the EU’s legislative process. It’s clear that Ursula…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. COP30 SHOWS DIVIDED EU CLIMATE FRONT Halfway through COP30 in Belém, the EU is failing to live up to its reputation as a climate leader. While 82 countries called for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, the EU didn’t sign due to opposition from a few reluctant member states. Germany and Denmark individually backed the demand, showing the internal fractures. At the same time, a lack of finance is hindering progress. Developing countries are insisting that the Global North must provide predictable and accessible funding and recognise its historic responsibility. Negotiators warn that no significant agreement will be reached without progress on financing. Trade tensions add another layer to the situation. At the heart of this dispute? The EU's Carbon…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. EPP GETS AWAY WITH DEREGULATION DANCE So, it’s official now: the EPP openly sides with the far right to ensure it can find the majority needed to dismantle EU sustainability rules. Just seven months ago, EPP leader Manfred Weber was still preaching the gospel of the cordon sanitaire, promising that the EPP would “never work with extremists”, unless they would magically align to his three pro’s: pro-Ukraine, pro-rule of law, and pro-Europe. Fast forward to today, and the only thing “pro” left is the pro-deregulation efficiency. The result is a CSRD shrunk to cover only the largest companies, the deletion of climate transition plans, and a CSDDD without civil liability. In short, a corporate sustainability framework that barely deserves the name.…