European Union

In this press kit, you will find a selection of the European Parliament’s press releases that show MEPs’ priorities in relation to topics on the summit agenda.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

EU action on tackling deforestation is urgently needed, as rising demand for commodities is exacerbating pressure on land worldwide. To have an impact on deforestation rates, the EU cannot act alone nor focus exclusively on cleaning its own supply chains.

Written by Suzana Elena Anghel.

On 30 and 31 May 2022, EU Heads of State or Government will meet for the fourth time since the outbreak of Russia’s war on Ukraine, to discuss developments in and support for the invaded country. Three other inter-connected topics – security and defence, energy and food security – will also be on the agenda. EU leaders are expected to take stock of the defence investment gaps analysis presented by the European Commission and the High Representative/Vice President of the Commission (HR/VP), Josep Borrell, and to give further guidelines. Their debate on energy could be a heated one as Member States agree on the main principle – cutting off the EU’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels – but disagree on the method and pace. With respect to food security, EU leaders are expected to consider the disruptive impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine on food supply chains and on prices in the EU and its neighbourhood.

Background

On 10-11 March 2022 in Versailles, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, announced that the EU leaders would meet in the course of May 2022 to follow up on their Versailles agenda. As is traditionally the case, the meeting will open with an address by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. Subsequently, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will again join the meeting by video-link. In preparation for the special meeting of 30-31 May, for which conclusions are due to be issued, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, met with several of his colleagues, including Emmanuel Macron and the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki. Such bilateral meetings allow President Michel ‘to prepare the ground’ and work towards building consensus.  

European Council meeting Russia’s war on Ukraine

This meeting of EU Heads of State or Government will be the fourth since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The leaders are expected to reaffirm their solidarity, support and assistance to Ukraine and its people, to support Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, and to call, once again, on Russia to comply with international law and cease hostilities. Enlargement will most probably not be discussed, as the topic is expected to come up for discussion at their meeting of 23-24 June 2022. The EU leaders have constantly expressed their support to Ukraine’s European aspirations and choice, a key political message, which is much anticipated today given rising sensitivities in Kyiv following President Macron’s proposal of a ‘European political community’. Sanctions will be another unity-testing issue for the European Council, as several leaders have called for more bold action, including an ambitious ban on fossil fuels.

President Michel pointed to the global consequences of Russia’s war on Ukraine, stressing that it has led ‘to one of the biggest refugee crises since World War Two, to rising food and energy prices’. Visiting Moldova, he praised the efforts of frontline countries to cope with the influx of refugees. Visiting Odesa on Europe Day, he praised the Ukrainian people’s courage, telling them: ‘You are not alone. We stand with you’.

Security and defence

EU leaders are expected to give further guidelines for the deepening of European defence cooperation, based on the joint communication on the defence investment gaps analysis prepared, at their request, by the European Commission and the HR/VP. The analysis stresses the negative effect of ‘years of defence underspending, which has led to an accumulation of gaps and shortfalls in the collective military inventories as well as reduced industrial production capacity’. It distinguishes between short-term actions, including replenishing, replacing and reinforcing capabilities, and medium- to long-term action, which requires the development of the next generation of air, land and maritime weaponry as well as of ‘space-based earth observation and critical enables’, which would make the EU fit to address, in cooperation with partners in NATO, growing multifaceted threats. It also praises the decisions of EU Member States to increase defence spending and calls for a coordinated approach to avoid repeating ‘past mistakes’, including duplication and waste. Several countries, including Germany, Lithuania and Poland have announced an increase in their defence spending, up to or beyond 2 % of GDP.

A new ‘short-term EU instrument to reinforce defence industrial capacities through joint procurement’, benefiting from EU financial support by up to €500 million from 2022 to 2024, could be introduced, and would require the speedy approval of the co-legislators. Furthermore, the European Defence Fund, currently allocated €8 billion under the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), could have its budget strengthened at the forthcoming mid-term review of the MFF. When addressing the informal meeting of EU leaders in Versailles, President Metsola stressed that the EU ‘must go beyond the European Defence Fund and make the EU budget work for our security and defence policy whenever it adds value’.

The Commission and the HR/VP have invited the European Council to endorse the recommendations put forward in the defence investment gaps analysis. It remains to be seen how the European Council will proceed. Faced with a similar request in 2019 regarding a joint communication on EU-China relations, EU leaders decided to choose which recommendations they wished to endorse.

Energy

EU leaders have committed to phasing out the Union’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, and tasked the Commission with presenting an ambitious plan by May 2022. In its RePower EU plan the Commission has put forward several actions, including energy saving, supply diversification, and means to accelerate Europe’s clean energy transition, as well as ways to combine energy infrastructure investments and reforms. The plan gives a glimpse of the investments required to enable the EU to end its dependency on Russian fossil fuels, but fails to confirm a date by which the Union would completely phase out Russian fossil fuels. At the Versailles summit, the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, indicated 2027 as target date.

The energy debate is likely once again to be heated, as the degree of dependency on Russian fossil fuels differs greatly across Member States (see Figure 1). Lithuania, which has built the necessary infrastructure in recent years, announced it is now free of Russian gas imports. Other Member States, including Estonia, will stop Russian gas imports by the end of 2022. Certain EU countries, such as Hungary, continue to be highly dependent on Russian gas and oil imports, and have thus far opposed a ban on Russian oil imports.

Figure 1: EU imports of natural gas and crude oil from Russia (share of total imports, 2019) Food security

Russia’s war on Ukraine is disrupting global food markets, with the two countries being the main exporters of cereals, and Ukraine also dominating sunflower oil exports. EU leaders included food security in their Versailles agenda and considered the topic at their meeting of 24-25 March 2022, focusing on food affordability and security. The former is of direct interest to the EU, as global market prices will continue to rise affecting EU consumers’ purchasing ability. The latter poses a broader security concern in the EU’s neighbourhood, which could experience further unrest as a result of supply chain disruption.

Read this ‘at a glance’ on ‘Outlook for the special European Council meeting of 30-31 May 2022‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

The bold proposals set out by the European Commission to get a grip on the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet are probably some of the most aggressive measures so far in the battle to protect children online, writes Dan Sexton.

Polish MPs last Thursday dissolved a new judicial Disciplinary Chamber which the EU Court and EU Commission had said undermined judicial independence. The move is meant to see Commission president Ursula von der Leyen approve the disbursement of EU recovery funds when she visits Warsaw 2 June, Polish media reported. But critics say the Polish change was superficial and did not address wider problems of abuse of rule of law.

The EU is in talks with Danish firm Bavarian Nordic and US company SIGA Technologies for joint purchases of monkeypox vaccines and antiviral drugs, according to a report in Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter Friday. "It will go quickly. We should have a contract ready in a week or so and maybe some limited deliveries in June," Sweden's vaccine coordinator Richard Bergstrom said. The virus normally causes fever and skin lesions.

Italian far-right populist Giorgia Meloni has come out in favour of supplying arms to Ukraine in a bid to make her a more internationally acceptable candidate for future prime minister, The Times reported Saturday. "Italy should not abandon its international allies," she told paper. "I think Italy should show it is a faithful, solid and credible ally, above and beyond the Ukrainian cause, which I support," she said.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin, French president Emmanuel Macron, and German chancellor Olaf Scholz held phone talks Saturday, in which Putin discussed releasing Ukrainian grain shipments to ease world food prices, and also spoke of boosting Russian fertiliser exports in return for Western sanctions relief. "Russia is ready to help find options for the unhindered export of grain, including the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports," the Kremlin said.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued to oppose Finland and Sweden's entry into Nato despite high-level talks last week over Turkish allegations the two EU states harbour Kurdish "terrorists". "For as long as Tayyip Erdoğan is the head of the Republic of Turkey, we definitely cannot say 'yes' to countries which support terrorism entering Nato," he said on Saturday, Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber reported.

A loophole in the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) could undermine EU countries' efforts to impose stricter rules on alcohol advertising, threatening a key objective of the EU's Beating Cancer Plan. 

Colombians clamoring for "change" gave a leftist ex-guerrilla a historic lead Sunday (29 May) in a first round of presidential elections that will culminate in a runoff against a populist outsider in June.

A small charity broke ground this year on a clinic in northern Burkina Faso to care for thousands of women and children who have fled Islamist insurgents wreaking havoc along the fringes of the Sahara.

There is a unique opportunity to achieve a quantum leap in the way Europe supports its defence technological and industrial base, write Alessandro Profumo and Jan Pie. Alessandro Profumo is President of the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association (ASD Europe)...

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about EU auditors combing wine subsidies in Croatia, Spain sending anti-aircraft missiles to Latvia in the framework of NATO, and so much more.

While bickering over the Russian oil embargo exposed EU divisions ahead of bloc leaders’ meeting in Brussels on Monday, Italian industry warns that a gas cut could prove devastating for the country’s economy. If Italy stops Russian gas purchases in...

Russian forces intensified their attacks with barrages of heavy artillery to capture a key Ukrainian city in the southeastern region of Donbas on Sunday (29 May), whose full takeover Moscow's top diplomat said was now an "unconditional priority".

The Delvina Gas Company has applied to the Albanian authorities to complete works to explore the Delvina Field for natural gas in a bid to gasify the country further. An agreement was first signed to explore the region in 2007, but the...

Montenegro is not against joining the “Open Balkan” initiative, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Goran Đurović said. On Friday (27 May), Đurović met with his Serbian counterpart in Belgrade. “Any initiative that leads to the removal of barriers, faster movement...

There will be no ethnic Albanian MPs in Serbia’s parliament after Shaip Kamberi failed to win a seat in a repeat round of voting following April’s general and local elections. The elections in Serbia on 3 April showed a devastating result for Albanians, who...

SOLIDAR and FEPS call on leaders in Europe to put in place transformative action aimed at making our societies and economies peaceful, equitable and climate-neutral, starting with ensuring a rapid and just energy transition and building a stronger social Europe.