Easy methods to make sense of Brussels’ new tangled fee net

Good morning. A scoop to begin: The EU’s outgoing competitors chief Margrethe Vestager has warned an overhaul of the bloc’s merger guidelines would open a “Pandora’s box”, in a sideswipe at plans for her newly-announced successor to rethink the bloc’s antitrust rules.

Right now, the EU’s Dutch commissioner offers us his tackle the new-look fee introduced yesterday, and our Berlin staff experiences on Friedrich Merz lastly asserting his bid to be the subsequent German chancellor.

Spider’s net

Linking up, going hand-in-hand: that’s the key change within the new European Fee introduced yesterday, in line with the (re)minted Dutch commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, write Alice Hancock and Andy Bounds.

Context: Ursula von der Leyen introduced the names and portfolios of her new commissioners yesterday, lining up six govt vice-presidents overseeing 20 commissioners — many with overlapping duties. Our pals at Politico have made a helpful chart.

Hoekstra, a member of von der Leyen’s centre-right European Individuals’s occasion, has proved himself a loyal foot soldier for the European Fee president. He was rewarded with a second time period as local weather, internet zero and clear development commissioner.

The previous Dutch finance minister, who will even have accountability for taxation, will report to 2 govt vice-presidents, the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera in control of competitiveness and the French liberal Stéphane Séjourné, who will head up industrial coverage.

The tangle of political allegiances shouldn’t be an issue, Hoekstra mentioned: “I come from a country where working together across party lines is essential.”

“My view has always been that our job is to fix the large problems for Europeans, and they don’t care at all about small politics and the things unfortunately we preoccupy ourselves with too much. They care about delivery.”

Which means intertwining local weather coverage “much more firmly together with the whole domain of the economy, industry, innovation [and] tax”, Hoekstra mentioned. “That is the step change, that is the watershed element in the approach of this commission.”

However meaning a number of commissioners have a couple of boss, and coverage areas reminiscent of sustainability are break up amongst varied fiefdoms.

“It’s more complicated in the sense that you have a lot of cross-links . . . but it actually reflects the reality that we need to have policies that are overall co-ordinated,” a senior fee official mentioned.

Extra sceptical observers famous that the overlaps had been to von der Leyen’s benefit, on condition that they strengthen her function as the final word choice maker.

One EU diplomat famous that whereas she had given large European nations vice-president posts, she had put in “loyal henchmen” reminiscent of Hoekstra underneath them to supervise the “meaty bits” of coverage implementation.

Chart du jour: Cold and hot

Though air-con accounts for 4 per cent of greenhouse fuel emissions, customers are more and more choosing it, writes Lex.

Worthy opponents

When Friedrich Merz lastly introduced he was working because the centre-right chancellor candidate in Germany’s nationwide election subsequent yr, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats breathed a sigh of reduction, write Man Chazan and Gideon Rachman.

Context: The SPD, which is presently polling at simply 15 per cent, approach behind Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) on 33 per cent, has little probability of successful the Bundestag election scheduled for September subsequent yr. However many within the occasion are satisfied that if it involves a duel between Merz and the incumbent, Scholz will prevail.

“Merz has no government experience at all,” mentioned Nils Schmid, the SPD’s international affairs spokesman. “And he’s also got a very short fuse. I’m sure we can beat him.”

The massive worry amongst Social Democrats had been that it wouldn’t be Merz working because the centre-right’s candidate for chancellor however Hendrik Wüst, prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. However he introduced earlier this week that he wouldn’t be working.

“Wüst would have been a lot more challenging for us,” mentioned Johannes Fechner, a senior SPD MP. Wüst is seen as a centrist excited by social points — “not like Merz, a pro-business technocrat who just wants to shrink the welfare state”.

Certainly, since taking the helm of the CDU in 2022, Merz has labored onerous to maneuver it in a extra conservative, business-friendly path, away from the fuzzy liberalism of Angela Merkel, who gained an influence battle in opposition to him within the early 2000s and went on to rule Germany as chancellor from 2005-21.

However Merz’s critics assume he has gone too far. “He runs the risk of losing some of the Merkel voters,” mentioned Schmid.

Merz additionally polls badly amongst younger folks and girls, lots of whom see him as a Nineties man. “The next election will be about shaping the future with Olaf Scholz, or going back to the past with Friedrich Merz,” mentioned Dirk Wiese, one other senior SPD MP.

What to observe right now

1. European parliament debates floods, organised crime, Hungarian visa scheme and mpox.

2. Inaugural session of Turkish-Swedish ministerial safety talks in Ankara.

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