The Week ahead

The Socialists and the Greens voted last Wednesday against the centre piece of the Green Deal because they weren't ready for a compromise. The rejection of the modernisation of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) not only reveals how internally divided they are, but also delays the fight against CO2 reduction in Europe. It also weakens Parliament’s position vis-à-vis the position of the Council since EU Member States will now take advance in amending the law proposal. The EPP Group stands ready for talks with the pro-European forces. But, the Socialists broke it, so they must fix it.

“If the EU wants to be relevant in the 21st century, we must think bigger and act faster. For that, the EPP Group believes it is time to organise a convention to prepare Europe for the new realities of the decades to come”, stated the Chairman of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber MEP. The European Commission will propose a follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe next Friday. "The world and Europe have changed a lot in the last ten years; a debt crisis, migration, Brexit and a pandemic. Now war. Europe must be ready for the new geopolitical challenges. This is only possible with a revision of the Treaties. We must not miss this opportunity!", stated Paulo Rangel MEP, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group. The Group expects the European Council to decide to set up a Convention for a change of the EU Treaties at the EU Summit on 23-24 June.

For many years, the Soviet regime has conducted mass deportations of Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Polish, Ukranian, Moldovan, Czech, and Hungarian citizens. Today, these Soviet crimes are being repeated in Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of people forcedly deported to the Russian Federation as part of Russia’s brutal war. On Tuesday (14 June) at the Esplanade Solidarność in front of the European Parliament in Brussels from 14.00-19.00 hrs, MEPs will honour and remember the victims of mass deportations in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation by reading out their names. "Deportations have returned to the European continent. What seemed impossible is happening again. The Russian Federation has deported more than one million Ukrainians to its territory, including some 200,000 children who have been separated from their families. Today, the Soviet crimes that have not been condemned are being repeated", notes the initiator of the event, Rasa Juknevičienė MEP.

On Thursday, the EU‘s new flagship law aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech moves one step closer to entering into force. Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee is set to confirm the deal reached last month on the new EU rules for digital services (DSA). "We are introducing effective measures against illegal content online, strengthening the rights of users and making the new law more responsive to emergency crises, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EPP Group fought for proportionate rules that do not overburden small and medium-sized companies with bureaucracy and ensures that the internet remains an open space”, said Arba Kokalari MEP, who negotiated the Digital Services Act on behalf of the EPP Group.

On Tuesday, MEPs will vote on a new sustainability classification of investments. The so-called taxonomy delegated act could, amongst others, allow the classification of investments in nuclear energy and gas as sustainable, under certain conditions. The EPP Group is fully in favour of clearly defining what qualifies as sustainable, but regrets that the European Commission did not involve the European Parliament more before making its proposal. The taxonomy rules are very important to direct private money and investments in the right direction for the Green Deal by offering much-needed clarity to investors.