Good morning from Brussels.
Plummeting. Elon Musk's public behaviour is getting out of hand, and his most successful business appears to be suffering as a result, writes Nicholas Wallace. Tesla's sales are plummeting in Europe: last month they fell 76% in Germany, 55% in Italy and 45% in France, according to Reuters news agency. This is despite growing demand for electric vehicles, which Musk's Tesla helped to popularise.
Other car companies have taken a hit – Volkswagen's car sales have been struggling to keep up with its currywurst business, for example. But electric car sales have been recovering – just not Tesla's, independent car industry analyst Jürgen Pieper said.
“We see a pretty strong recovery of demand for e-cars right now in Europe especially, but Tesla's sales are falling steeply,” Pieper told Euractiv in an interview. Musk and Trump are clearly aware of the problem: on Tuesday they held a bizarre photo op at the White House, where Trump used his country's highest office to try and boost Tesla's sales. |
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| Click on the picture to read the story | [EPA-EFE/RONALD WITTEK] ] |
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Questionable urgency. The Commission wants to bypass the Parliament to fast-track the approval of a €150 billion financial instrument for defence – but it won’t be that simple, write Aurélie Pugnet and Nicoletta Ionta. In the wake of a US withdrawal as Europe’s favourite military ally, Von der Leyen's proposal would help member states free up money to ramp up defence spending.
Reeling. Tirana has blocked TikTok as of this morning. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama had confirmed the shut-down on 6 March, which was first announced at the end of December. The announcement followed a fight in a Tirana school, which led to the killing of a 14-year-old and another who suffered injuries, writes Théophane Hartmann.
Pharma autonomy & geopolitics. The European Commission's plan to secure control over the supply of critical medicines is out, but the questions are just beginning. Euractiv has learned that the Commission already had a suggested framework from a stakeholder group of its own creation, the Critical Medicines Alliance, for evaluating potential international partnerships. However, this week's proposal for a Critical Medicines Act made no mention of this, leaving industry in the dark over how exactly Brussels wants to secure Europe's pharmaceutical future, write Emma Pirnay, Sarantis Michalopoulos and Vasiliki Angouridi.
Food stockpiling. Trade disruptions, climate change, conflicts, are bringing renewed interest in Europe to be ready for emergencies, write Alice Bergoënd and Angelo Di Mambro.
New deregulation agenda. The European Commission is stressing that it is trying to change EU green laws to make them simpler, not to axe them, while national leaders have instead embraced the term deregulation, writes Nikolaus J. Kurmayer.
Meanwhile, Canada seems to be eyeing EU membership, with 46% of Canadians in favour according to a new poll, writes Magnus Lund Nielsen. |
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| THE HAGUE A narrow 73-71 majority in the Dutch parliament rejected von der Leyen's ReArm Europe plan, which calls on member states to increase defence spending by an average of 1.5% of their GDP. The opposition comes after Prime Minister Dick Schoof joined other EU member states in unanimously endorsing the Commission's plan last week. A majority in the lower house of the Dutch parliament backed a conservative motion on Tuesday for Schoof to withdraw his support and remove the Netherlands from the proposal. The motion by Joost Eerdmans, leader of the right-wing populist party, stated that "the Netherlands is fundamentally opposed to joint European loans and that defence spending must remain a national resource". Frans Timmermans, leader of the GreenLeft-Labour coalition, opposed the motion. /// PARIS Green industry leads France’s net plant openings while cars backtracks. France’s green industry led last year’s new plant openings and big expansions, while the automobile sector stood out for closures and downsizings, according to France’s latest “industrial barometer” published today. Read more. |
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| Click on the picture to read the story | [EPA-EFE/Mads Claus Rasmussen] |
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| NUUK Parties on both sides of the incumbent government gained ground, with liberal, cautious separatists outpacing the fervent independence party as Trump's renewed interest and the push for independence gained momentum. Read more. /// STOCKHOLM Northvolt bankruptcy raises pressure on EU's battery industry. The battery manufacturer Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in Sweden on Wednesday morning, dealing a blow to the EU's efforts to reduce its reliance on Chinese battery imports. Read more. |
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| Click on the picture to read the story | [Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images] |
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| ATHENS Greece will soon have a new age verification app called "Kids Wallet," as part of a larger push towards the EU to legislate more on protecting minors from online addiction. The move takes place as the Commission also gets ready to roll out European digital identity wallets featuring age verification. Read more.
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MADRID Sánchez: EU defence aid should go to the Baltic and Nordic countries. Future EU defence direct subsidies should prioritise the Baltic and Nordic countries over the bloc's southern partners, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday after meeting Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Helsinki. These European partners – namely the Baltic states, Sweden, and Finland – are closer to the threat as they share the EU’s longest border with Russia, he argued. Drawing a parallel with the COVID-19 crisis, Sánchez recalled how he had pushed for European aid to go to countries hardest hit by the pandemic – including Spain – and said he was applying the same logic now, but with the challenge of defending Europe. During last Thursday's extraordinary Council meeting in Brussels, Sánchez argued in favour of direct transfers or subsidies for defence, pointing out that Madrid wanted the EU to provide direct subsidies as well as loans to boost the sector. (Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es) /// LISBON Portugal’s attorney general opens investigation into PM's family business. The attorney general announced on Wednesday that the Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a preventive investigation into the prime minister and Luís Montenegro's family company, Spinumviva. Read more. |
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| WARSAW Tusk keeps digital tax question open after US’ rebuke. "Maybe we do, maybe we don’t," Polish PM Donald Tusk said about imposing an income tax on big tech companies, a proposal previously raised by his deputy, which faced strong opposition from Washington. Read more.
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PRAGUE Czech conservatives to break cordon sanitaire to weaken EU car emission rules. Czech MEPs from the far-right ODS party are pushing to relax EU car emissions rules, hoping to secure votes from right-wing groups – including Patriots for Europe – despite their political isolation under the cordon sanitaire. The Commission recently proposed to extend the measurement period for car emissions from one to three years. ODS, however, wants to extend the period to five years. “We just need to break through the cordon sanitaire, but I believe it is gradually crumbling and will eventually disappear,” ODS MEP Ondřej Krutílek told the Czech press today. According to Czech conservative MEPs, the Parliament is now “far more realistic” than the Commission and there is a majority among MEPs for further easing of regulations. (Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)
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BRATISLAVA Slovak foreign minister: Russia should respond to ceasefire proposal without delay. Juraj Blanár has welcomed the ceasefire proposal that emerged from negotiations between the United States and Ukraine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Read more. |
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| SOFIA
European Prosecutor representative in Bulgaria to face anti-corruption review. The Bulgarian representative in the European Prosecutor's Office, Teodora Georgieva, will be subject to an anti-corruption check, the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office has announced. Read more.
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BUCHAREST
Romanian far-right devise strategy to secure a presidential candidate. The leaders of the far-right parties AUR and POT, George Simion and Anamaria Gavrilă, announced their strategy for the upcoming May presidential elections after a meeting with Călin Georgescu today. This move follows yesterday's decision by the Constitutional Court to uphold the Central Electoral Bureau's ruling, which barred Georgescu, a pro-Russian and ultranationalist politician, from running. In response, Simion and Gavrilă, who had previously backed Georgescu, declared that they would both enter the presidential race. Gavrilă clarified that once their candidacies are validated, one of them will withdraw. Given Simion’s history of controversial statements and public incitement, there’s a possibility that his candidacy could be challenged and invalidated. By fielding two candidates, extremist forces are ensuring they will have at least one representative in the presidential race. (Catalina Mihai | Euractiv.ro) |
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| EU: Eighth summit between the EU and South Africa leaders takes place in Cape Town, South Africa; Agenda highlights include trade & investment, critical raw materials, energy, and more; European Council President Antonio Costa, Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen meet with South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa; Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera receives Competition and Markets Authority CEO Sarah Cardell; Meets with European Aluminium Director General Paul Voss; Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos on official visit in Tirana, Albania: meets with Republic of Albania President Bajram Begaj; Participates in joint press conference with Prime Minister Edi Rama; Agriculture and Food Commissioner Christophe Hansen participates in Parliament’s plenary debate on Agriculture and Food Vision; Parliament’s plenary debates Action Plan for Affordable Energy, European Schools Alliance, and more; Votes on social and employment aspects of restructuring processes, and more. |
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| *** [Edited by Vas Panagiotopoulos, Charles Szumski, Daniel Eck, Sofia Mandilara] |
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