The Week ahead

Heads of the EU States and Governments will meet on Thursday and Friday at the regular June Summit, the last under the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. "We expect, just like during the Polish presidency, concrete decisions at the summit that will improve the security of the EU and our immediate neighbours. Our enemies will not change their plans to give us more time to prepare our defence. We need to act now to secure our future," insists Andrzej Halicki MEP, Vice-Chair of the EPP group in charge of Foreign Affairs.

The 2025 NATO Summit will take place in The Hague, the Netherlands, from 24 to 26 June 2025. During the summit, leaders will make decisions to continue adapting and strengthening the Alliance. "Increasing military spending is not an option, it is a key issue for our security and independence. We are at a crossroads, facing an imperialist Russia under Putin that marched into Ukraine and threatened European security. It is time for firmness, assertiveness, and leadership,"  says Nicolas Pascual de la Parte MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman on Security and Defence.

The EPP Group urges the European Commission to withdraw its proposal for the Green Claims Directive (GCD). Ahead of final trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council, scheduled for Monday, 23 June. The group has firmly stated it will not support any outcome of the talks. “This proposal would lead to greenhushing – when firms deliberately withhold or underreport info about their environmental efforts – and more paperwork for sustainable companies Second-hand shops, for instance, should not be required to seek pre-approval just to claim they are sustainable. Industry, environmental, and consumer organisations have all criticised the proposal, which lacks an impact assessment and contradicts the core principle of Better Regulation,” says Arba Kokalari MEP, EPP Group negotiator in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. "The proposed version of the Green Claims Directive is overly complex, costly, and lacks the necessary impact assessments to demonstrate its effectiveness. From Green Deal to real deal, that should be our main motto," said Danuše Nerudová MEP, the EPP Group's negotiator in the Environment Committee.

The EPP Group opposes the European Commission's draft Implementing Act on how deforestation risks are assessed. The proposed benchmarking system unfairly categorises countries without reflecting real circumstances and would create extra red tape for farmers, forest owners, and industry. On Tuesday, the Parliament's Environment Committee will vote on whether to block this plan. Not only do most Member States and several third countries already have their own well-functioning systems in place to protect forests, but this Act pushes a one-size-fits-all approach, reducing flexibility and increasing costs, points out Alexander Bernhuber MEP, who raised the objection on behalf of EPP Group. "As the EPP Group, we have repeatedly called on the EU Commission to introduce a zero-risk category to establish a balance in the classification of all states and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy," he added.