Week ahead: Poland threatens EU and energy ministers meet again to discuss price hike

Last week’s European Council was dominated by two issues. Energy prices and the rule of law crisis in Poland. 

One of the most pressing issues for EU member states has been the hike in energy prices. Energy ministers will gather again in Brussels for an extraordinary Council on Tuesday (26 October) to consider what can be done. Despite the measures the Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson outlined (13 October) there are calls for the European Commission to do more, in particular it will intensify its outreach to different suppliers and speed up work on interconnectors. The issues are even more pressing in some of the countries in the EU’s neighbourhood who are dependent on gas from Russia, in particular Moldova. Good timing for the EU-Moldova summit on Thursday (28 October). 

While the rule of law in Poland did not appear in the conclusions of the European Council it was discussed at length (21 October), with almost all European leaders condemning the current situation and describing the independence of the judiciary as “absolutely fundamental”. On the following day, the Polish prime minister met with French presidential candidate, far-right politician Marine LePen, who has previously supported Frexit and France leaving the eurozone. The meeting is an indication of how far away from European norms Poland has moved. It is now accusing the EU of blackmail, as the European Parliament urges the European Commission to take prompt action in applying ‘rule of law conditionality’ to any funding. At the same time, Poland’s prime minister is threatening to act as a blocking vote in Council if the EU finally gets tough.

Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. pic.twitter.com/RHft0lc38p

— EPP Group (@EPPGroup) October 22, 2021

European Union Military Committee (EUMC) and the EU chiefs of defence will meet (25-26 October) to discuss better co-ordination in security and defence, as well as better co-ordination between the EU and NATO. 

EU-African Union: Foreign affairs ministers of the European Union and the African Union will meet in Rwanda for the second time in this configuration since January 2019. The discussions will focus on the response and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There will be an informal meeting of economic and finance ministers by video conference on Friday (29 October), with a view to an exchange on recovery and resilience plans for Estonia, Finland and Romania. The meeting takes place ahead of the G20 summit in Rome.

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The G20 (30-31 October) will - among other things - be a precursor to the COP26 meeting in Glasgow. The summit will also look more broadly at the recovery from the pandemic.

European Commission

Executive Vice President Dombrovskis will make an announcement on the Basel III Capital Requirements Regulation. Wednesday's proposal will revise the capital requirements directive and regulation so that the EU's banking rules are in full conformity with Basel III  (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision standards) with the aim of making the sector more stable in the face of a crisis. The Commission will propose common supervisory data to improve supervision and improve comparability between European banks. The move could be another trust enhancing measure on the EU’s way towards a European Banking Union.

In addition, Executive Vice President Vestager is set to launch a review of competition policy and Commissioner Jourova will put forward a Directive on Sustainable Corporate Governance. The aim of the Jourova proposal is to enable companies to focus on long-term sustainable value creation rather than short-term benefits, better aligning the interests of companies, their shareholders, managers, stakeholders and society, leading to better management of sustainability-related matters in their operations and value chains as regards social and human rights, climate change, environment.

It’s a committee week for the parliament, on the agenda:

The financial impact of organized crime. The Budget Control Committee will adopt a report on the impact of organized crime on the EU’s own resources (the main sources of revenue for the EU budget) and on the misuse of funds. Estimates reveal that organized crime affects between 2.7% and 3.6% of total EU public procurement spending, while, according to Europol, €40 to €60 billion is lost each year through VAT fraud (26 October). The committee will also look into the misuse of EU funds for agriculture in Slovakia (25 October),  a subject that Jan Kuciak was investigating when he and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, were murdered in 2018.

On Tuesday (25 October) there will be an exchange with the Executive Vice Presidents Dombrovskis and Vestager on the EU-US Trade and Technology Council . 

New Pact on Asylum and Migration: The Civil Liberties Committee will begin discussing the reform of the EU asylum system, with a presentation and a debate on the proposed amendments on asylum and migration management and asylum procedures. A press conference will take place at 14:30 (Tuesday).

Legal migration: The Civil Liberties Committee will vote on a series of proposals for new legislation in the field of legal migration. Draft recommendations include setting up an admissions scheme for low- and medium-skilled workers from non-EU countries to enter and live in the EU, and an EU talent pool to allow third-country nationals to apply for work and employers to search for potential employees (Wednesday).

EU cybersecurity: Proposals to revise existing cybersecurity rules and strengthen EU security provisions will be voted on by the Industry and Energy Committee. The updated law would introduce more stringent supervisory measures and stricter enforcement requirements, including harmonised sanctions regimes across EU countries. It also includes proposals for national and EU levels to cooperate with each other on cyber crisis management (Thursday).

There will also be many events organised by the parliament to mark European Gender Equality Week. 

ECB

The European Central Bank will hold its monthly meeting following the meeting of its Governing Council. It will be the first time that the Council has met since the President of the Bundesbank Jens Weidmann's offered his resignation. Weidmann will leave his post at the end of the year. Some commentators expect the bank to announce the slow winding down of quantative easing to ease inflation concerns.

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