Week ahead: EU-Africa Union Summit 

This week was meant to be focused on EU-Africa relations, culminating in a two-day Africa Union Summit. However, the summit is likely to be overshadowed by developments around Ukraine and ongoing diplomatic efforts led this week with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz paying a visit to Russia’s President Putin. 

NATO defence ministers will also meet this week in Brussels with a view to further galvanizing their efforts and placing more troops in those countries who share a border with Ukraine. 

Yesterday (13 February) Zelenskyy discussed sanctions and countering security challenges with European Council President Charles Michel. Zelenskyy underlined that he was committed to the so-called ‘Normandy Four’ process led by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine to find a peaceful resolution and expressed his thanks for EU support.

Discussed with @CharlesMichel sanctions & counteraction to security challenges. Touched upon recent international talks & intensification of the peace process within #N4. Committed to the diplomatic settlement of the conflict. Grateful to the 🇪🇺 for macro-financial support to 🇺🇦.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 13, 2022

The European Parliament is in Strasbourg for their plenary session. MEPs and Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell will debate European security, Russia’s threat to Ukraine and the latest diplomatic attempts to de-escalate the situation. They will also discuss two reports on how to strengthen the EU as a global foreign policy and security actor, and are set to approve €1.2 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine (14 - 16 February).

Scheduled for some time, it is timely that the European Commission is expected to announce two elements of its Defence package on Tuesday (15 February): a communication on the Commission’s contributions to Europe’s security and defence and a roadmap on critical technologies for security and defence.

The Commission will also present a space package including an EU strategy for space traffic management and a plan to build an EU space-based global secure communication system. The system will be crucial in helping the EU to communicate in a way that prevents others from eavesdropping. The system will use highly secure connectivity based on quantum encryption and will be available to governmental and commercial services.

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The new system aims to provide greater resilience to protect against cyber-attacks on the internet and hybrid threats, including during attacks to or reduced performance of terrestrial infrastructures. Other objectives include better connecting key infrastructure, and supporting crisis management, surveillance and potential mass-market broadband applications. In terms of geopolitics, the envisaged system is poised to contribute to the strategic partnership between EU and Africa by offering broadband capacity to African governments.

Which takes me to:

EU-Africa Union Summit

The leaders of the EU and the African Union (AU) as well as of their respective member states will meet for the European Union - African Union summit on 17 and 18 February. The summit will be preceded by events focused on civil society and developing business links. 

This is the sixth meeting in this format, but the first to take place since the EU launched its ‘Global Gateway’ aimed at rivalling China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ - but with a lot less funding, an estimated €300 billion. 

In her ‘State of the EU’ address last September, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We are good at financing roads. But it does not make sense for Europe to build a perfect road between a Chinese-owned copper mine and a Chinese-owned harbour…

“Instead, the EU will seek to take a values-based approach, offering transparency and good governance to our partners. We want to create links and not dependencies!” The speech was a thinly veiled criticism of China’s more opaque approach, which offers the building of major infrastructure largely through debt, an approach that has proved costly for some countries who have had to relinquish control of their assets or found themselves in unsustainable debt. 

Rule of Law Conditionality

Sadly, hardly a week goes by where rule of law issues within the EU do not raise their head, but this week is particularly important as the EU’s Court of Justice will deliver its verdict on the legality of attaching rule of law conditionality to the use of EU funds. This week would normally be a judicial holiday week, however given the constitutional importance of these two related judgements the Court has allowed the judgements to be delivered this week. 

The two cases brought by Hungary and Poland ask the Court to determine whether a mechanism to protect the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law by EU countries relating to the implementation of the Union budget, was adopted on an appropriate legal basis and whether it is compatible with the treaties.

MEPs will debate with Commission President von der Leyen on Wednesday afternoon’s plenary session, a press conference is planned for 11.30 following the judgement.

Other important issues at the European Parliament plenary

20 years of the Euro: The European Parliament will mark 20 years of the euro, after which MEPs will debate with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde the work of the ECB in 2021 and the state of the EU economy (debate Monday, vote Tuesday).

Beating cancer: Parliament will debate and vote on measures and actions to fight cancer in the EU. Key recommendations by the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) include facilitating access to cross-border health care and clinical trials, managing shortages of cancer medicines more efficiently, and ensuring equal access to innovative drugs and treatments (debate Tuesday, vote Wednesday).

Toy safety: To better protect children, MEPs are set to call for more stringent EU rules to ensure all toys sold on the EU market are safe, including those from non-EU countries and those sold online (debate Tuesday, vote Wednesday).

Colombia: The President of Colombia Iván Duque Márquez will address MEPs in the Strasbourg hemicycle (Tuesday). 

COVID-19/Travel rules: MEPs and the Commission will debate the current situation on intra-EU travel rules, the need for a co-ordinated approach as well as the proposal to extend the use of the EU Digital COVID Certificate until 30 June 2023 (Wednesday).
Road charging: MEPs are set to approve new road charging rules for trucks, moving from a time-based model to a distance-based system. The new system will better reflect the “polluter-pays” and “user-pays” principles, and help reduce CO2 emissions. (debate Wednesday, vote Thursday).

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