European Union

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Single sky reform: Council and Parliament reach a provisional agreement to improve efficiency of airspace management in the EU.

Cyber solidarity package: Council and European Parliament strike deals to strengthen EU cyber security capacities.

The US has threatened Austria's top bank with sanctions for doing business in Russia, following earlier talks with German lenders.

The US embassy in Russia warned that "extremists" had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow, hours after Russian security services said they had foiled a planned shooting at a synagogue by a cell from the Afghan arm of Islamic State.

Turkey is ready to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday (8 March) after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Istanbul.

A draft Eurogroup statement, obtained by Euractiv, outlines multiple “imperative and urgent” reforms that ministers want to be “taken forward” by the next European Commission

France organised a follow-up teleconference bringing together foreign and defence ministries to discuss the war in Ukraine. However, they 'learned their lesson' and did not invite Slovakia meeting because of its pro-Russian stance.

Something is really not going well between the EU centre-right and the liberals, who are expected, together with the socialists, to form a pro-EU coalition in the European Parliament after the elections in June.

In our pursuit of gender equality, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is committed to exposing the hurdles faced by women in local and regional politics.

As Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is meeting former US President Donald Trump on Friday in Florida, opposition liberal Hungarian MEP fears that this does not bode well for the outcome of the war in Ukraine and NATO in general. 

Ukrainian municipalities battle at a local level to keep contact with citizens and ensure services continue, despite continuous shelling. Municipal representatives spoke with Euractiv, telling their civic story as Ukraine enters its third year since the Russian invasion.

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

The Portuguese go to the polls on Sunday after eight years of socialist rule — what can we expect? What is shaping these elections and what are the citizens worried about?

To understand the obstacles women face when participating in politics, national authorities need to generate more gender-disaggregated data, Policy and Campaign Officer for the European Women’s Lobby, Jéromine Andolfatto, told Euractiv.

Written by Clare Ferguson.

Parliament is set to mark International Women’s Day in Strasbourg this year, with a debate on the Council decision inviting EU countries to ratify the 2019 International Labour Organization’s Violence and Harassment Convention on Tuesday. A European Commission statement is expected on its communication on pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews due for adoption that same day. There will also be a Question Time session at which the Commission is called to answer Members’ questions regarding EU governments’ action to combat foreign interference, including from Russia. On Tuesday morning, Members are set to hear Council and Commission statements on the preparation of the European Council meeting of 21 and 22 March 2024. The following day, Members are due to hold a ‘This is Europe’ debate – the last of this term – with the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo.

In a debate expected on Tuesday afternoon, Members are set to consider a provisional agreement on changes to the EU’s financial rules. The new rules are needed to align with changes introduced by the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF), aimed at ensuring more transparent, digital and value-based EU funding. Members will then debate Parliament’s guidelines for the 2025 EU budget, which the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) report insists should be people-centred, prioritising investment to improve people’s lives and EU competitiveness. The guidelines adopted will set out Parliament’s position ahead of the Commission’s adoption of the draft 2025 budget.

Protecting our environment

Most people today want to contribute to a more sustainable way of life, but the European Commission finds that unscrupulous firms take advantage of consumers. Fully 53 % of the environmental claims the Commission looked at in the EU were vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40 % were unsubstantiated. To counter this fraud, on Monday evening Parliament is due to debate a report on a proposal to regulate ‘green claims‘. The report from the Committees on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) sets a timescale for verification of environmental claims and labelling schemes, which must be tailored to the complexity of the claim and company size. The committees consider the verification system should be simpler.

Despite our efforts, we still waste nearly 60 million tonnes of food a year in the EU – more than half of it at home. On Wednesday, Members are expected to vote on a proposal to accelerate the fight against food waste and push textile producers to act to reduce clothing waste, by amending the Waste Framework Directive. The ENVI committee report on the proposal would raise binding reduction targets to 20 % by 2030, in food processing and manufacturing, and to 40 % per capita in retail, catering, food services and households.

The Industrial Emissions Directive sets rules on industrial pollution in the EU, including from industrial farming. On Tuesday, Members are set to vote on a provisional political agreement to update the rules. The ENVI committee succeeded in substantially amending the proposal, to include mining and battery production, placing ‘best available technique’ principles at the heart of granting permits, and setting binding environmental performance limit values for water. However, to lighten the administrative burden, governments must put e-permitting in place by 2035. ENVI Members also successfully introduced a 2026 deadline to reassess the need to address cattle farm emissions (currently excluded), and those from imported agricultural products.

Protecting EU businesses and consumers

The EU Toy Directive helps to ensure toys sold in the EU are safe for our children. However, to improve this protection and reduce the number of unsafe toys still sold in the EU, the legislation is now up for revision. Members are set to consider an IMCO committee report on Wednesday afternoon, which seeks to make digital product passports available for 10 years, for example, and link them to the Safety Gate Portal – allowing us all to report risks. The committee also proposes that the Commission provide small businesses with assistance to comply with the stricter toy safety rules.

A central EU customs authority could offer traders lower compliance costs and ensure a more efficient, fraud-proof customs union. In a vote scheduled for Wednesday evening, Members are due to vote at first reading on proposals to establish an EU customs data hub and an EU customs authority. While the IMCO report on the file is generally supportive of the proposal, it would like to see a faster process and a platform allowing people to report non-compliant goods.

A vote on a political agreement, reached in trilogue negotiations with the Council on an EU design package, is scheduled for Thursday morning. The two files seek stronger protection for product design against counterfeiting in the EU. Endorsed by the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), the agreement should future-proof design protection, protect registered designs for five years, renewable to a maximum 25 years (for a fee), liberalise the spare parts market, and give EU governments three years to transpose the EU rules into national law.

In crises like the recent pandemic, it is particularly useful to help companies obtain licences to produce products subject to patents – for new technologies, for example. Members are set to vote on Wednesday at first reading on a proposal clarifying rules for the compulsory licensing of patents. A JURI committee report proposes a number of changes. Voluntary agreements should have greater priority than compulsory licensing, and licensees, not the rights-holder, should be responsible for any liability linked to the product. The Commission should have to identify all rights-holders, who would be paid for compulsory licences used within a set timeframe. When necessary, the JURI Members consider the Commission should compel rights-holders to disclose (against remuneration) trade secrets and know-how.

Protecting our democracy and the rule of law

In a year of elections, ensuring journalists and media services are free from political and economic interference is particularly urgent. On Tuesday, Members are set to debate a provisional agreement on a regulation setting the first-ever EU rules on media freedom, pluralism and protecting journalists – the European media freedom act. Under the new rules, governments must respect editorial freedom and exempt journalists from identifying their sources. Media companies will have to make their ownership structures public and EU countries will investigate cases where media outlets become too concentrated. To protect journalists from government spying, Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) succeeded in eliminating ‘protecting national security’ as grounds for surveillance and ensured that all public authorities have to publish information about their annual advertising expenditure, including online.

Europol estimates the proceeds from organised crime in Europe at around €139 billion per year. Little of this money is confiscated. On Wednesday, Members are set to vote on a provisional agreement, reached after three rounds of trilogue negotiations with the Council, on a directive covering freezing and confiscation of criminal money. The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) proposed a wider scope for the directive and using confiscated property in the public interest. LIBE Members proposed Member States help freeze property to facilitate confiscation and that profiting from circumventing EU sanctions be treated as criminal gains. EU countries should also strengthen their asset recovery offices, including to deal with cross-border cases.

Parliament is set to vote on Tuesday on a political agreement reached with the Council on a proposal to harmonise criminal offences and penalties for violating EU sanctions, such as arms embargoes. The agreement, endorsed by the LIBE committee, envisages criminalising the commission of certain crimes involving serious negligence and maintains fines proposed by the Council at 1 % or 5 % of companies’ total worldwide turnover (or €8 million or €40 million respectively), a choice left to Member States.

Protecting our cross-border freedom

Parliament has long called for EU rules to facilitate non-profit organisations to operate freely across borders. Although largely in favour of the Commission’s proposal, a JURI committee report, set for debate on Tuesday afternoon, highlights the need for stricter definitions in regulating cross-border associations. Such associations should be treated in the same way as other non-profits. LIBE Members propose a minimum of three people should sit on their boards. Such organisations should also pledge respect for European values, with funding blocked for those who breach them.

Finally, on Monday evening, Members are set to consider a Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) report on a proposal to revise the framework of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), assigning new roles on safety and sustainability and providing the means to carry out these revised objectives. The TRAN committee wants to see EMSA supervise European coast guard cooperation, support inspection training, monitor suspicious behaviour around pipelines and carry out other new functions. The committee demands that EMSA involve Parliament in appointing its executive director and that a Parliament representative sit on the management board.

• European Parliament Plenary Session March 2024
• International Women’s Day: Women in politics in the 2024 election year
• Question time: EU national action to combat foreign interference, including from Russia
• EU’s financial rules (recast)
• Parliament’s guidelines for the 2025 EU budget: Section III – European Commission
• ‘Green claims’ directive
• Toy safety
• Revised EU rules on industrial pollution
• European media freedom act
• Revised rules on the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)
• Compulsory licensing of patents
• Freezing and confiscation of criminal money
• Harmonisation of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of EU sanctions

Ursula von der Leyen did not forget about angered EU farmers during the launch of her election campaign for a second mandate at the European Commission on Thursday (7 March), but omitted all reference to the agricultural policies that she penned during her five-year term.

Twenty-two European countries wrote to the Commission calling for immediate initiatives to respond to the agricultural crisis, with the bloc's executive confirming its intention to table measures next week.

Plenary session, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Written by Andrés García Higuera.

The European automotive industry is striving to adapt to market changes driven by the dual green and digital transition. Electrification has become the main strategy for reducing CO2 emissions, especially in urban traffic. At the same time, the average size and weight of cars have greatly increased. Big electric cars are the trend, but are they really the solution? Could better planning and optimisation of resources help?

According to Eurostat, average passenger car occupancy for urban mobility is usually less than 1.3 persons. Therefore, it is very common in cities for heavy cars to carry a single person. To transport the weight of that one person (80 kilogrammes for instance) means moving a full 1 800 kg. This could even reach 2 500 kg for big electric or hybrid cars with heavy long-range batteries. No matter the source of power used, this can never lead to efficient and sustainable mobility. Weight rates are usually over 10 times more favourable for the average motorbike or scooter and, of course, even better for lighter vehicles such as electric bicycles or kick-scooters.

Reducing CO2 emissions in transport is a key goal of the European Green Deal. However, specifications for choosing a city car are often based on the rare long trips that would best be made with a rented vehicle. Meanwhile, traditional emissions tests using gas analysers focus on the percentage concentration of pollutants and overlook references to the total quantity. The low speed limits generally established in Europe today also help to reduce emissions. However, efforts to reduce emissions may be counteracted by a trend towards bigger sports utility vehicles (SUVs), which are less agile and efficient but more comfortable and useful for longer drives.

Some people find themselves spending long periods every day in traffic, so they see their cars as a prolongation of their living rooms, with comfortable seats, plenty of space and ‘infotainment’, including big screens. Large vehicles also account for longer traffic jams. When anti-lock braking systems (ABS) were first introduced in premium cars, accidents increased initially for that sector owing to driver over-confidence. The same effect is again being seen with modern driving assist systems. Since large vehicles are especially safe for their occupants at low speeds, this has a pernicious effect on driver attention, consequently increasing casualty figures for other road users. Every year there are fewer victims of car accidents – but not among pedestrians, cyclists and other light vehicle users. This translates into further restrictions on the use of light vehicles, then considered unsafe, to the point of banning e-scooters and restricting the use of motorbikes – while cars are allowed in crowded areas. An alternative way to interpret these casualty figures would be to consider large heavy cars a menace to other users of public thoroughfares.

The EU automotive sector has traditionally excelled at producing vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEs). The sector accounts for around 8 % of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) and for 12.9 million direct and indirect jobs. However, the green transition, digitalisation and global competition have fundamentally altered its business model. Electrification has become the main strategy for decarbonising the sector, mostly through the extensive use of critical raw materials such as lithium-ion batteries, which have to be quite large to propel big cars with extended ranges.

Potential impacts and developments

Japan has been restricting car size in crowded areas since 1949, with the popular ‘Kei’ cars representing 40 % of the Japanese car market today. This Japanese regulation began with strict limits that have since evolved to set engine capacity at a maximum of 660 cc, vehicle length at 3.4 metres and total weight at 700 kg. Car ownership in Tokyo is restricted to corresponding parking spaces, following the idea that public thoroughfares are for public use, not for people to use for their exclusive benefit.

The high level of European industry specialisation in producing high quality ICEs accounts for its leading position in the market. However, electric vehicles do not require the same level of know-how, opening the door to other players. China became the top global car exporter in 2023, exporting mostly to Europe and Asia. China also dominates production of almost every raw material, technology and component used to make electric vehicles. Batteries require very polluting production and recycling methods, and they need to be charged.

Given the current electricity mix and the optimistic figures available, the equivalent emissions of a large electric car in Europe are of about 4 litres/100 km – not significantly lower than the emissions from a small ICE car (or Kei car). This figure is an average that results from considering: a total equivalent rising from 84 grammes CO2/km for some (partisan) sources to 125 g CO2/km considering the charging process alone for others; and that petrol produces 2.3 kg of CO2 per litre burned (i.e. divided by 23 to convert gCO2/km to l/100 km). In terms of the efficiency in transporting one person, a simple moped could do far better, not to mention public transport. Battery production process emissions are usually underestimated, considering that China produced the highest CO₂ emissions in 2022, accounting for nearly 31 % of the global total.

Anticipatory policymaking

On 4 October 2023, the European Commission initiated anti-subsidy investigations into EU imports of battery electric vehicles from China and is already considering provisional countervailing tariffs for five years. Although replacing one means of propulsion with another is clearly not enough, modest size electric cars are undoubtedly part of the solution. Even so, most European companies still lag behind in electric vehicle innovation. A smooth transition to alternative propulsion methods should be based on securing access to affordable batteries and semiconductors, improving innovation capacities in new technologies, reducing costs, and adopting a more circular approach – particularly on critical raw materials.

No European compact car qualifies as a ‘Kei’ car. As a result, 40 % of the Japanese car market is closed to competition from European manufacturers, and this share is increasing. The European Union regulation classifying vehicle categories already accounts for light four-wheelers or microcars (L7) and could be extended to include considerations regarding preferential access to urban areas. The various EU emission limits, such as the new Euro 7 regulation, propose values in g/km (not just concentrations) and revise measuring standards. The EU adopted an amendment to the EU light-duty vehicles (LDV) CO2 standards for new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles in April 2023, in line with the EU’s increased climate ambition. In July 2023, the European Commission tabled a package of three proposals for the greening of freight transport. These include CountEmissionsEU, a proposal for a single methodology to calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, this only refers to transport services. The European Commission also added a proposal for a regulation addressing the whole life cycle of vehicles, from design to end-of-life. With a view to ending the trend towards ever bigger and heavier vehicles, the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism is considering a proposal to overhaul the EU’s 2006 agreement standardising driving licence rules between Member States.

Promoting electric cars may lead to market distortions that run counter to European industrial interests. While complementary measures such as those contemplated in the critical raw materials act take effect, and besides the obvious move towards public transport, one way to allow the EU car industry to adapt while still reducing CO2 emissions could be to limit the size, weight and engine capacity of urban vehicles. An improved vehicle-to-passenger weight rate could hugely increase energy efficiency in urban transport.

Since light vehicles are especially suited to electrification – as increased use of bicycles and scooters can attest – and other alternative propulsion methods, it may become appropriate to let the market and European industry adapt at its own pace, with some institutional encouragement and support, to such new conditions of improved mobility efficiency.

Read this ‘at a glance’ note on ‘What if the problem with cars was not their method of propulsion?‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Listen to podcast ‘What if the problem with cars was not their method of propulsion?‘ on YouTube.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Accept YouTube Content