DATE: Monday, 13th May
TIME: 16h00 – 17h30 CET
LOCATION: Berlin

Our panel of speakers include:
1. Wolfgang Dierker, General Manager at Microsoft
2. Semjon Rens, Public Policy Director at Meta
3. Deniz Özcan, General Manager at GMH Systems, GMH Gruppe
4. Marco-Alexander Breit Breit, Deputy Director General for AI at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action

The distinguished panel will explore the intricate relationship between AI, regulation, and geopolitics, with a particular focus on the implications of the EU AI Act on economic growth. From industry perspectives to governmental insights, this discussion promises to offer a comprehensive view of the current landscape and the road ahead.

Your presence and participation will greatly enrich this discussion.

Please RSVP by May 7th to confirm your attendance at events@united-europe.eu and secure your place at this event. Should you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Our seminar will commence with a presentation by Markus Oermann, Professor of Digital Ethics and Media Law at Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS). Mr Oermann will shed light on AI powered disinformation as a threat to the integrity of elections.
To dive deeper into understanding opportunities based on AI, Harmen Zell, Public Policy Manager at Meta, will conduct an industry workshop titled “Opportunities for the European economy in applying AI”. A second perspective will be introduced by René Delbé, Climate Pact Lead at Microsoft, who will host a workshop on “Opportunities in Sustainable AI”. Subsequently, a policy workshop on “Digital Sovereignty: A robust Strategy for Europe” will be led by Professor Key Pousttchi, founder of the wi-mobile Institute for Digital Transformation, discussing strategies for Europe to maintain sovereignty in AI successfully.

The day will start at 9:00 AM and conclude at 5:30 PM with a Panel Discussion: “AI between regulation and geopolitical tensions – How the EU AI Act impacts economic growth” featuring Wolfgang Dierker, General Manager at Microsoft, Semjon Rens, Public Policy Director at Meta and Marco-Alexander Breit, Deputy Director General for Artificial Intelligence at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

📧 To apply please send your CV to events@united-europe.eu. We are looking forward to receiving your application!

Europe’s foreign policy towards Africa is failing for several reasons: It is often driven by a narrow focus on raw material, security and migration concerns, rather than taking a broader and more holistic approach. European policies are also perceived as paternalistic and lacking in genuine partnership with African countries, which undermines their effectiveness. Listening to local perspectives is essential because it allows for a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the African Continent.

Award-winning Journalist Mercy Abang, CEO of BigTech Fatu Ogwuche, Former Commissioner for Budget and Planning of Kaduna State Muhammad Sani Abdullahi and Senior Partner at SBM (Nigeria’s Leading Geopolitical Intelligence Platform) Cheta Nwanze will lead participants through the day.

The seminar takes place at the ESMT, Schloßplatz 1, 10178 Berlin, from 09h00 to 18h00 CET and promises engaging workshops and talks followed by a panel discussion with representatives from the German Foreign Office, African Journalists and representatives from the German business community to discuss: “Is Europe in Africa driven by its values or interests?”

If you would like to recommend an outstanding young professional please send us your  nomination. If You would like to participate please send your CV to advocate@united-europe.eu. Nominations and applications are due by May 31, 2023.

Europe’s economic transition is heavily reliant on imports of critical and rare raw materials needed for green energy, electronics, aerospace, automotive and defence. The lion’s share of the world’s raw material is covered by just over a dozen countries, with a heavy Chinese dominance. The battle for raw materials is central to rising geopolitical tensions around the world and thus Europe’s dependency is developing to become the next existential crisis for the industry in Europe.

These challenges must be addressed on a European level and must include a geopolitical strategy, as well as multiple perspectives. Therefore, we have invited the following experts to contribute their views:

Dr Josef Braml – Secretary-General at the Trilateral Commission
Dr Ferdinand Pavel – Director at EY
Dr Jennifer Pernau – Partner at Agora Strategy
Dr Tim Rühlig – Senior Research Fellow at DGAP

The panel discussion is followed by workshops, where participants will discuss several scenarios with their potential outcomes and develop a to-do list for Europe. The goal of the event is to exchange views from different professional perspectives and to derive approaches for solutions. The invited audience are the members of the participating organizations and students who are enrolled at the ESMT.

If you are interested in participating or if you know young talents feel free to apply or to forward this application call. Applications must include a brief cover letter indicating interest and a CV. All documents must be submitted electronically in PDF format in English.

Please send your application in one document by the 26th of January 2023 to advocate@united-europe.eu

We are looking forward to an exciting Advocacy Seminar in Berlin!

The seminar started with a keynote by Hildegard Bentele, Member of the European Parliament and a Member of the Development, Environment and Energy Committee:
Since the Ukraine war, dependencies have shifted. Europe needs Africa to diversify and transform its energy supplies: “Due to the geopolitical situation, the EU is repositioning towards Africa,” Bentele said. “There is lots of common ground with Africa and although Europe is Africa’s neighbour, China is faster and more anchored on the continent.” The new EU-Africa ‘Partnership of Equals’ promises more private sector engagement and large-scale investments: “We need to focus more on follow-up and tangible results in form of concrete projects on the ground. Rhetoric is not enough,” Bentele underlined. The EU wants more trade with Africa but new green policy instruments i.e. the Emission Trading System (ETS) and the Carbon Border Mechanism are putting pressure on African exporters. Whether the EU will help Africa to develop fossil fuels whilst phasing them out at home remains a sticking point in the partnership negotiations: “Africa should do it in a better and smarter way. If the rest of the world is going on this path of powering their development with fossil fuels, we are not going to have a livable planet in the near future. Let us do it the right way. Let us learn from past mistakes and use the abundance of green energy for Africa’s benefit. Africa has a chance to do it better.” Bentele sees the role of Europe in providing Africa with technology and know-how whilst setting the right frameworks for a green transition.

The countries of the so-called “Sahel”, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Eritrea and Chad are forming a contingent crisis area spreading out further to the coastal regions. The Sahel is resource-rich and mostly landlocked. After the fall of Gadaffi, politically organized Islamist groups rapidly spread alongside trans-Sahelian organized crime. The geopolitical risk of a grand Islamist arch, long treated as an external terrorist threat in Europe, has been combatted militarily under French leadership and reinforced by European development aid in a top-down structure, the so-called “Sahel Alliance” based in Brussels. Despite nominally impressive military aid, stabilization missions and EU military training, Europe failed. Violence in the Sahel only accelerated and terrorist threats, as well as civilian collateral, increased.

Today the Sahel is territorially more disintegrated and the civilian governments lost control and are largely deposed and replaced by military rule. “The EU mantra has been supporting the return to democracy, to free and fair elections, wiping out corruption through good governance. The problem is that there is no postbox to whom these noble demands can be addressed. States in the Sahel are not only fragile or weak, they failed. The return to something that never was is simply senseless,” Professor Asche said. Whilst the French repeated the failures of Afghanistan in the Sahel, reconstruction of state and society started in villages bottom-up through talks on local levels. These negotiations on village levels were much more effective than the French coved military operations, without local partners and participation of national armies. Combining talks on the village level with training women to take leadership roles, and simply supporting locally identified projects, implies a paradigm shift in European Development Aid Cooperation and military doctrine, Professor Asche concluded.

Africa, our neighbour, is considered an energy source whilst still lacking universal energy access: roughly 24% of the African continent is electrified and only 40% of Africans have access to electricity.  The stabilization of power grids is one of Africa’s main concerns and although Africa is rich in natural resources and a continent with green energy resources in abundance, it depends on energy supply from abroad. Recent bilateral agreements between the EU and Africa provide Europe with resources in exchange for enhancing Africa’s own energy capacity, particularly in rural areas.

Large oil & gas cooperations operate for centuries on the African continent but for more private sector engagement, Africa and Europe need a better framework and better access to capital. The current energy cooperation is one-sided and not sustainable long-term. Developing fossil fuels has been outlawed since the Paris Agreement, however developing renewables is taking too long and there is simply not enough commitment, capital and know-how on the ground. The European engagement on the continent is neither united nor coordinated: Europe is not engaging as an entity and whilst we see encouraging Member State level engagements, a European approach could be more impactful and effective.

If Europe wants to develop projects and in particular hydrogen on a large scale, a united approach, better frameworks for the private sector and local capacity building are needed: “If we don’t think in that direction, hydrogen will simply be the next oil and nothing will change. Continental unity is a very important aspect in the equation to reach real African-European cooperation. We need to do more in terms of education and we need a more inclusive approach.” For Camara, Africa is not a short-term solution, it is a long-term necessity: “We need to diversify our raw material dependencies and eventually move parts of our energy-intensive industries into Africa where green power is available in abundance. We have to have that intrinsic motivation to strengthen the ties and to come closer to our African neighbour.”

The VDA operates through a partnership initiative with the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM), supporting the partner associated with the establishment of framework conditions, infrastructure and private sector activation, knowledge transfer and innovation. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) supports this partnership within the framework of the “Special Initiatives (SI) Training and Employment”. The initiative creates suitable conditions for private investment in an organised African automotive industry for the economic development of the industrial sector, innovation and opening up of new markets in the African continent.

The initiative is a capacity-building partnership working towards the reduction of trade barriers, improvement of investment climate, marketing and image building and the design of PPD mechanisms with the vision to establish a pan-African Auto Pact. The auto pact will develop assembly hubs across Africa, and scale the industry through regional collaboration and shared value chains in order to support the collaboration of regions across Africa. “The support and engagement of the private sector is the main driver for the development of industry across Africa which is crucial for job and value chain creation,” Marius Ochel concluded. 

Heike Hoeffler from the GIZ (Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit) talked about Africa’s agriculture between food security and modern value chains: 
When it comes to development aid it is important to identify spheres of influence and what can be done with existing structures and conditions on the ground to make a change. On climate change and population growth, there is very little to be done from an agro-economic perspective. In Africa, the agriculture growth rate is in sync with economic growth. Increasing Africa’s GDP depends on increasing productivity and agro-yields. Agriculture is the main employer on the continent and provides 65% of livelihoods in Africa, especially for women.

“In order to make Africa’s agriculture more productive within the given resource frame, we have to balance food security vs modern value chains. Tea crops in Kenya, for example, do not prevent food insecurities and are grown for high yield exports dependent on global market price: both are needed – global market access and production for the local market,” Hoeffler said. “The development approach is to invest in value, yields should not take the center stage only, also a sense of nutrition is important to value creation, alongside rules-based development, to make sure workers can earn a living wage from the crops as well as a more ecology-based approach, focusing on CO2 footprint and the environment.”  We already see the debate shifting from value chain to food system, taking nutritional status, quality vs. pure production yields more and more into account. “The private sector is the main driver for the transformation and needs to be supported financially,” Hoeffler remarked. Research, development, knowledge and innovation are of fundamental importance for securing food supplies:  how to use fertilisers efficiently, how to adapt cultivation to climate change and how to protect food from decay through suitable storage methods.

Hoeffler put this into perspective: “It is a dire situation and the war in Ukraine perpetuated existing problems into a storm – a very grim situation comprised of conflict, droughts, market trade distortions and economic shocks due to Covid19.  Also with a worrisome outlook on the supply of fertilizers; the Phosphorus boundary will hit our planet first and is irreversible, reserves will be out within 20 years. We will see a significant price increase for food in the coming years.”  The number of undernourished people worldwide has already been rising in 2020 – there are 768m people going hungry. 750,000 people are facing starvation of death in Ethiopia, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan. 276 million people are facing acute food insecurity in 81 countries, and this number could increase to 323 million people by the end of this year.

Matthias Wachter from the Federation of German Industries, BDI,  gave strategic examples of mining partnerships in Africa: Critical Raw Materials come mainly from Africa and China. The EU is currently hugely dependent on rare earth materials from China. This dependency is already bigger and more critical than the dependency on oil and gas. Since the War in Ukraine diversification of supply chains has taken strategic centre stage: Africa is a resource-rich continent and minerals are also produced there. Kobald from Congo counts for over 70% of the global supply for example and is needed for e-mobility. “The energy transformation is a key driver for raw materials and rare earth materials (IT, Windturbines, etc) and we will only need more of it in the future not less. New technologies will create more dependencies on rare earth. If we don’t diversify our dependency will only increase.” warned Wachter. Europe’s strategic question is how to cope with the increasing raw material demand in the future? Africa plays an important role here as Europe’s resource-rich neighbour. Europe has clearly been underrepresented on the African continent: “Only about 2% of our export goes to Africa and about 2% of our imports come from Africa,” concluded Wachter.  

Professor Asche (University of Mainz) on Africa’s Resource Curse: Half a dozen mineral resource-rich countries are located on the African continent alone and its geographic location close to Europe makes Africa a strategic partner to the EU. But the blessing of rich mineral endowments comes with the possibility of a “Resource Curse” (Auty, 1993) or the “Paradox of Plenty” (Karl 1997), which has political-economic, social, ecological and social dimensions, among them a subset of economic problems known as the “Dutch Disease” – a term coined in 1977 by the Economist to describe the decline of manufacturing and agricultural exports in the Netherlands after the discovery of large gas reserves. Professor Asche remarked that not one single African country has put its resources to good use: “It is not that they have achieved nothing but rather what would have been possible in regards to education health and infrastructure has largely been squandered for less useful purposes. There is one exception: Botswana has a relatively good education and health system and some of the resource-poor countries do relatively well.”

Mineral resource-rich countries suffer from the so-called “Enclave Syndrome” with very little spill-over to the local population: profits usually go abroad and the mineral sector actively depresses negative impact on the rest of the economy. The exchange rate appreciation hampers productive sectors including the export and import of essential goods. All capital and talent are drawn into the resource sector and the negative impact on the environment aggravates the problem for the rest of the economy. Also, infrastructure is monopolised and built to serve the resource sector only. Complicated policies are required to counter the challenge. So-called North-South partnerships and cooperation for knowledge and technology transfer could be part of the solution. 

Professor Andreas Freytag (University of Jena, l.) examined Europe’s conventional Development Aid Strategies: Unfortunately, Development Aid can have counter effects on the ground. If things are going to be provided from the outside there is no urgency to develop structures, new policies or local economies. “It actually promotes corruption and creates dependencies”, said Professor Freytag. “Development Aid sometimes hinders development, it creates the so-called Dutch-Disease phenomenon, promotes rent-seeking to the benefit of elites.” According to the LSE scholar Lord Bauer, public development aid is mainly counter-productive, except for centralized projects and emergency aid. The economic assessment of Development Aid concludes that it is most helpful in countries with functioning institutions and good governance. Despite these results, the EU is further expanding Development Aid initiatives: Germany for example has started Compact for Africa and Marshall Plan with Africa. “Eleven German Ministries have Africa Strategies none of which is coordinated. Remittances from the diaspora constitute more support to Africa than Development Aid – much more effective, more targeted and better used-bottom up.”
Freytag observes the so-called White Mans Burden (Kipling 1899): the agenda for aid programs is developed in the minds of the donors without taking the actual needs and priorities of recipient countries as the necessary political starter. Freytag suggests better use of aid money in sync with export or investment promotion measures (on which Manuel Fröling from Siemens Energy dwelled) and the provision of tangible infrastructure: “Europe is good at identifying gaps but really lacks tools and local understanding to help to close it,” Freytag concluded.

Professor Andreas Freytag (University of Jena) offered insights on China’s Engagement in Africa:
China cannot only be judged in a negative light. China’s engagement in Africa is mainly based on trade, i.e. construction material, mining and production. In recent years import-export relations rose steeply. China invests heavily in Africa’s infrastructure and manufacturing as well. Aid is being provided for huge infrastructure projects and 1.2 million Chinese permanently immigrated to Africa so far. China is firmly anchored in the African continent which underlines its long-term commitment. The Chinese government delegated up to 300 civil servants to each African country –  in comparison Germany is sending only 7 delegates to African countries. According to the Economist, Chinese loans peaked in 2016 and are now slightly decreasing. China doesn’t operate under OECD guidelines and lending conditions are rather opaque. “China is not only providing money but also basic infrastructure which creates desperately needed jobs in the African continent however under questionable conditions. Nevertheless, China offers Africa a different option to Europe,” Professor Freytag concluded: “There are lots of strings attached for example freedom of speech and humanitarian standards are being severely threatened. No strings attached is a myth and we can see China’s also meddling on the continent for example through strategic military investments along Africa’s coastline.”

Professor Helmut Asche, University of Mainz talked about Russia’s Engagement in Africa: Russia’s engagement in Africa is severely underresearched in regards to scope, dimension, cause and effect, which is the main difference from China’s engagement in Africa – currently filling libraries. The new Russia Africa policy started back in 2017 and constituted a recent phenomenon made up of four pillars of intervention: Mercenaries, Military, Mining and Propaganda with systematic and strategic campaigning unchartered by any other media, Russia is pushing anti-western narratives and exploits the narrative of colonisation to undermine Europe in the region.  Russian engagement focuses on key resource-rich countries such as Libya, Sudan, CAR, Mali, Cameroon and Mozambique. Russia’s engagement is centred on providing private security and military aid in fragile and failed states engaging in proxy and civil wars with organised groups like Wagner, designed to contain risks for Russia’s interests in extractives and its primary objective of geopolitical influence. Russia’s export is based on mineral resources and military power and although arguably a destructive approach, Russia’s policy finds acceptance in both Africa’s elite and parts of the population. Why is Russia’s new African policy so strikingly effective? The likely reasons are Africa’s genuine cause for disenchantment with former colonial powers and compelling economic interests in particular currently grain imports. Not to underestimate is also Russia’s effective propaganda through media. “Europe needs a communication strategy of its own on the African continent to counter Russia’s new Africa policy,” Professor Asche concluded. 

When doing business in Africa, the Africa Business Guide, the German-African Business Association and the German Chambers of Commerce abroad offer support to German companies. Alongside, the Federal Government provides different guarantee instruments to support German companies in Africa to secure access to challenging markets. Manuel Froeling touched upon the fundamentals of the export credit guarantees (also known as Hermes Cover) and the investment guarantees, both being used for large-scale projects in Africa: The Hermes guarantees are managed by Euler Hermes as the Export Credit Agency (ECA). The exporter can insure himself against default on repayment claims due to economic and political reasons. Banks can also use the Hermes Cover for financing these exports. Often, the funding of large transactions in African countries is only possible through the provision of the Hermes Cover. The Interministerial Committee (IMC) defines conditions for the granting of export guarantees for each country in Africa. Although the export credit guarantees are available to all German exporters doing business in Africa, only 1.5% of German exports were covered last year under this scheme. “It would be good to see even better conditions for African countries although a lot has been done by the German Government, especially in the past years,” said Manuel Fröling.

ECA support is highly regulated. The so-called “OECD consensus” has set uniform minimum standards for export credit and the consensus has been transposed into EU law. It covers all state-supported export credits which have a repayment term of two years or more. However, Non-Participants in the arrangement have become important providers of ECA-covered export finance solutions. “China, India and Brazil should be part of the OECD consensus otherwise we won’t see a level playing field for Europe in the near future,” Fröling remarked. There are also other important international regulations such as the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits or the Recommendation on Sustainable Lending Practices and Officially Supported Exports Credits. Investment guarantees are another important instrument, offered by the German Government. This set of instruments can be used by a company to hedge eligible German direct investments in African countries against possible political risks. Commercial risks are not covered. Banks can also use the instruments of investment guarantees when financing the investment of a project. For example, a bank can have an investment-like loan secured with the help of investment guarantees. Also, for this instrument there is an IMC-similar composition as for the Hermes guarantees, only here is PwC the agent and responsible for the management. “Getting an investment guarantee for example for Mali for large investments is very challenging because of the limited cover available and this is exactly the dilemma because they need it most. And to stabilize those regions development is urgently needed,” Fröling concluded. There is a willingness to improve and drive investments into Africa and lots of barriers have already been lowered through initiatives such as Compact for Africa. However, there is still room for improvement.

We would like to thank our co-organizers Professors Andreas Freytag and Helmut Asche, presenters, participants from all across Europe and especially our members who have made this event possible.

United Europe is a non-profit association financed exclusively through membership fees and donations. Please consider making a donation so we can continue to drive forward our agenda of making Europe more united.

We are starting with a panel discussion  “Emerging from the Energy Price Crisis: How to build a sustainable backbone for Europe’s industry?” taking place on 31st May from 12h00 – 13h15 (CET). This will be followed by a flying buffet and networking until 14h30 (CET) at the Cercle Royal Gaulois, Rue de la Loi 5, 1000 Brussels.

The panel discussion with Simone Mori, Head of Europe at Enel, Johanna Schiele, Policy Officer Innovation Fund at the European Commission, Philip Lowe, Partner at Oxera, Torjbjorg Klara Fossum, VP at Equinor and Marc-Oliver Arnold, Plant Director at Georgsmarienhütte GmbH, will be moderated by Hanns Koenig, Head of Commissioned Projects at Aurora Energy Research.

The event takes place in compliance with all applicable health and sanitary regulations. The number of participants is limited and therefore we kindly ask you to register before the 20th of May at events@united-europe.eu

We will use Zoom to record the event. Please register here if you wish to attend this meeting online. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing instructions for joining the event.

We are looking forward to seeing You in Brussels or Online.

Please find the recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel.

Summary:
The EU taxonomy is a classification aimed at helping financial markets define what is green or what is not
green, so as to avoid greenwashing and accelerate green investments. The EC proposed to include
nuclear and natural gas into the taxonomy, subject to them fulfilling certain criteria. Although the proposal
was highly controversial, the EC decided to move forward, hoping the two sectors can help the bloc meet
its ambitious roadmap to climate neutrality. Coincidentally, Russia invaded Ukraine on the same day of the
webinar, which in the meantime has pushed up natural gas prices significantly and resulted in a push in
Europe to reduce reliance on Russian gas. This may result in a strong move towards a financially viable
option of “green” hydrogen, as well as other alternatives to natural gas, over the long term, reducing at
least the impact of including natural gas in the taxonomy.

Key Conclusions:
Michael Müller (RWE) suggested that whether a company’s activities are “green” should be judged by
how it spends its CAPEX, rather than its legacy activities, because CAPEX clearly demonstrates how
much investment is put into new technologies. The automotive, chemical, and steel industries face huge
investment needs. Looking at the status quo alone will not help transform energy markets.

Although the Green Party has been traditionally against gas, Ingrid Nestle (Bündnis90/The Greens) sees
the need in providing energy security through gas-fired power plants. She took a strong stand against
nuclear, and pointed to the still unresolved issue of nuclear waste management and to delays in the buildup of new nuclear power plants in Western Europe: “They are a decade late and it doesn’t take a decade to build them. They are one decade behind schedule.” Nuclear Power is much more expensive than renewable power and Europe should not spend more money, time, and political energy on nuclear, but instead focus on green infrastructure, Ingrid Nestle concluded.

Valerie Faudon (SFEN) from the French Nuclear Association, countered that nuclear is necessary for
energy security and that nuclear forms an important part of the energy transformation process: It is a
question of Europe’s competitiveness, Valerie said. Europe needs to take an international perspective:
reducing emissions is a global issue and nuclear will be part of other taxonomies, for example in the US or
Canada.

Laurie Fitch (PJT) highlighted the urgency of energy security. The power sector is not an industry where
supply chain failures can be blamed on blackouts. It is essential, she said: “Given the sheer sums of
money and time horizons involved in investing in green infrastructure, it has to be very clearly classified.
Therefore the taxonomy is highly important and really matters to capital flows.” Consequently, the
taxonomy underpins a much wider definition of what might be considered sustainable. There’s a five
hundred billion per annum fast-growing green bond market, and capital flows will definitely pay attention to the taxonomy.

Full Interview (edited):

HK: RWE is investing in power generation assets across Europe. How does the taxonomy affect large
power generators?

Michael Müller, RWE
The taxonomy provides a classification for activities that are sustainable and supports investors or the
capital market to make decisions on where to invest. It provides a classification and in principle, this is a good approach: But in practice, it is an administrative burden in particular to large power generators. The
taxonomy criteria are based on sustainable and non-sustainable activity, which is a totally different
perspective to be documented and it takes huge effort to provide the reporting.

HK: The German Green Party has been traditionally quite critical of including gas and nuclear in
the taxonomy. Now the Green Party is in government in Germany, and supported a compromise
that included natural gas and nuclear as “green” – why?

Ingrid Nestle, Bündnis90/TheGreens: The taxonomy is a good approach but the inclusion of both
nuclear and gas makes it less credible. Nuclear is definitely treated too well and it is a huge mistake to
include it. A technology that delivers waste to be guarded for ten thousand years cannot be sustainable.
Natural gas is another story: here, one has to differentiate between fossil gas and gas-fired power plants,
which can run with different types of gas including hydrogen in the future. These power plants are not only
acceptable, but they are also necessary for the 100 percent renewable future.

HK: Is nuclear treated fairly in the taxonomy or are the restrictions in place too strong?
Valerie Faudon, SFEN, Nuclear is one of the lowest emission sources in France. Waste management is heavily regulated and controlled in Europe. There is for example a deep geological storage solution to store nuclear waste where it is not in contact with the biosphere. In the taxonomy, nuclear is classified in the “transition” category. Hence, technical conditions have to be revised every four years. This is difficult because nuclear plants are set to operate for 60 years. Even with renewables, Europe relies on nuclear power due to its ability to be stored and scaled. The current 2050 scenario of the European Commission includes that nuclear will produce 15% of electricity in Europe in 2050.

HK: Does the taxonomy matter in shifting capital flows, or are we attributing too much impact to
the discussion over the past month? Has that been overblown?
Laurie Fitch, PJT Partners: Sustainability really matters when it comes to capital flows. The taxonomy
underpins a much wider definition of what might be considered sustainable. If you look at the capital flows, there’s a five hundred billion per annum fast-growing green bond market, and capital flows will ultimately pay attention to the taxonomy.

HK: The taxonomy means micromanagement and administrative burden for energy generators.
Would it not be more sensible to get rid of it altogether and let market forces and ETS run their
course? We can get rid of the taxonomy or the micromanagement altogether. Would that not have
been a more sensible approach?

MM, RWE: The taxonomy could be more pragmatic but introducing classification is clearly helpful. To
make investments green, there needs to be some kind of green classification. For industry, it is very
important that the taxonomy looks at two different criteria: firstly, how much of your revenues are
sustainable and how much are not sustainable, and secondly CAPEX, the sustainability of investments.
That is a very important difference. RWE has a heavy legacy coal portfolio but also a clear commitment to
transform that portfolio into a renewables portfolio. This is the transition that needs financing. We are
strongly pushing for the taxonomy to look at CAPEX because it is clearly demonstrating how much
investment is put into new technologies and how much speed you really put into transition. The
automotive, chemical, and steel industries have huge costs ahead of them and that needs funding.
Looking at the status quo doesn’t help the energy transformation.

Ingrid Nestle: The current proposal is in the hand of the parliament and this is what we have to work with.
In regards to nuclear, I heartily disagree that we know how to deal with waste. They are very strict
regulations because it’s so extremely difficult to deal with. We still don’t have a solution, but also nuclear
will simply be too late and too expensive. In my opinion, it’s kind of a hoax. All three new nuclear power
plants that are being built in Western Europe are a decade late. It doesn’t take a decade to build them.
They are one decade behind schedule. And there’s so much more expensive than renewables that are just
tearing away money, time, and political energy.

We now need to start talking about green infrastructure. How do we make sure that existing gas networks
or converted gas networks are available for hydrogen? We have to get electrolysis up and running so that
we get to a hydrogen economy. We are talking about 15 years. That sounds a lot. But I give you an
example: the biggest electrolyzer that is currently operational has 10 megawatts. The target is 10
gigawatts by the end of 2030. So that’s a huge step to get there. That’s why I asked for pragmatism. I think
we now need to get it all running, get it going because otherwise, we won’t need it at all.

HK: Is this black and white distinction in the taxonomy helpful and would we not have been better
advised of having three statuses, of “not clean, but helping us to get cleaner”?
Laurie Fitch, PJT Partners: The power sector is not an industry where supply chain failures can be
blamed. It has to work! It is essential. Given the sheer, sums of money and time horizons involved in
investing in green infrastructure, it has to be very clearly classified.

Valerie Faudon, SFEN: I’d like to add an international perspective: The European taxonomy is not going
to be the only taxonomy. And there will be other taxonomies for example in Canada or the US taxonomy.
In the American taxonomy, nuclear will be included. American capital will be investing in Europe. There is
an opportunity for new nuclear reactors in Poland, and the Americans have promised to invest here. It’s a
question of competitiveness. Europe must be competitive in its own continent. It is important that we take
an international view at some point in time: We have to harmonize taxonomies worldwide. If we don’t align,
it is going to create disruptions in the competitiveness of European industries.

HK: How are you seeing the global landscape for taxonomies shaping up?

Michael Müller, RWE: There are tons of rating agencies out there with different ratings and different
perspectives. So from our point of view, it indeed would be helpful if there is some alignment going
forward. We need a global standard on sustainability reporting, as we have on financial reporting. That will
provide a single framework. If we have one standard in the EU, it is clearly helpful as an intermediate step.
In the medium term, we need to have international standards to make it comparable. But again, that’s the
pragmatism I’m talking about. There must be a clear ambition to move towards an international standard.
And if you look at what is currently happening, it is moving in this direction.

Ingrid Nestle: The European Commission’s energy strategy focuses predominantly on green hydrogen
when it comes to energy transformation. It is clear that there won’t be enough renewable resources in
Europe to produce the hydrogen we need to keep our lights on. We have to be careful not to go from one
dependency to the next i.e. sourcing green hydrogen from Africa or other faraway countries. In Africa, you
have several million people without electricity. We can’t ask these countries to provide us with low carbon
hydrogen before they can provide their own people with the basic electricity supply.

We would like to thank our Advocate Milena Oschmann, Governmental Affairs for Deutsche Bahn, for her contribution to this event.

If time permits, we will have a Q&A session at the end, where questions from the audience will be taken.

If you want to take part in the event, please click here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

For our privacy policy please have a look at our conditions of participation.

We are looking forward to a lively discussion.

If you are interested in participating or if you know young talents feel free to apply or to forward this application call: Applications must include a brief cover letter indicating interest and motivation (1 page, including the question, what you expect from this seminar), together with a CV (incl. a photo and the date of birth, max. 2 pages). All documents must be submitted electronically in PDF format in English language and should not exceed 2 GB. We can only consider complete applications.

Please send your application in one document until 25th August, 2021 to alumni@united-europe.eu.

We will inform the applicants about the decision on 1st of September, 2021.

If you are interested in participating or if you know young talents feel free to apply or to forward this application call: Applications must include a brief cover letter indicating interest and motivation (1 page, including the question, what you expect from this seminar), together with a CV (incl. a photo and the date of birth, max. 2 pages). All documents must be submitted electronically in PDF format in English language and should not exceed 2 GB. We can only consider complete applications.

Please send your application in one document until 10th July, 2021 to alumni@united-europe.eu

We will inform the applicants about our decision on 15th July, 2021.

We are looking forward to an exciting workshop in Berlin!

If you want to take part in the event, please register your attendance via ZOOM:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RM5eYjneR16ync7YST56yw

If time permits, we will have a Q&A session at the end, where questions from the audience will be taken.

The event will be recorded and uploaded to our YouTube Channel, where you can find previous discussions on important topics concerning the European Union. By participating in the discussion you authorize the organizer to distribute the recording via the internet and other communication channels without remuneration.

We are looking forward to a lively discussion.

Session 1: Cyber & Military on Thursday, 25th February 2021, 16.30hrs – 17.30hrs (CET) via ZOOM
“How will militaries use Cyber Capabilities?”

If you want to take part in the seminar, please register by 24th February 2021 at events@united-europe.eu. The event is free and open to non-members.
If time permits, we will have a Q&A session at the end, where questions from the audience will be taken.

For this workshop, the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft has paired with United Europe to present United Europe’s Young Professional Advisors the three scenarios and to reflect together on the policy implications for the EU.  It is expected that the results of this foresight process will be more effective if they are further thought through together with Young Professionals from all over Europe who are active in all sectors of society.

The workshop takes place on 24th September virtually. The three scenarios can be found here.

The two-days-webinar, which took place on June 26 and July 3, brought together a cohort of 22 young professionals from all over Europe. Together they focused on issues affecting all Europeans – the digital response to Covid-19 pandemic and privacy rights of citizens. The group dived into Europe’s online regulations, new tracking apps, and privacy & transparency issues.

Europe’s Digital Sovereignty
“Should we put Europe on the Internet?” asked Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University. The renowned expert in Internet Governance provoked a lively discussion with his opening impulse: Mayer-Schönberger has not answered the question. Instead he asked the participants whether Europeans should consider digital sovereignty, and if so, what should it represent?

“Do we need to make sure that European values are adequately represented,” he continued, “So that Europeans have a true choice on the Internet about the services and the products that are available?” The digital sovereignty of Europe can mean different things; most often, it refers to the users’ freedom to decide what data they want to share.

This freedom, however, is currently challenged and questioned by citizens as many governments introduce new apps to track people’s contacts and locations. These tools are often justified by the coronavirus risks. According to Mayer-Schönberger, the pandemic has brought to life an issue that has been overlooked for a long time, and that is the ownership of data, and our understanding of digital privacy.

“What is data, can it be owned legally, and what do our national legal systems say about that?” Mayer-Schönberger suggests we should pay more attention to relevant discussions about data in Brussels. Because, contrary to a popular opinion, “According to the EU legislators, there is no property in data.”

“The only way by which we can make sure that the data is not accessed by someone is through technical means, but not through legal means, and with a good reason,” he explained. During the webinar, the expert stressed on the rise of Covid-related apps that track and trace people’s whereabouts and inform those who have been around infected individuals. While Europeans often consider the data as something personal, this is not the case with these apps.“ Lawyers tell us that the data is like air; it’s common, and it’s collected in society,” Mayer-Schönberger said. “The question of appropriating data is currently being answered in the negative, but it does not mean we should not consider it. Maybe, we should create property rights for it,” he concluded.

Our Digital Replica: A Controversial Twin
The debate over privacy, ownership, and digital rights received new angles during the talk by Denise Feldner. A lawyer passionate about digital technology, she specializes in Internet Governance and Artificial Intelligence. In her talk, she focused on the “controversial twin”: the data that individuals share about themselves and that creates a virtual double.
This digital replica includes the info on our behavior, movements, and activities. Yet, its use is limited because not all of our data represents us correctly, and not everything shared defines us. In her talk, Feldner shows that the flow of personal data and its usage by others is a big dilemma. Not only cybersecurity risks, but also ethics and issues of openness and trust.

“Democratic Internet Governance is about managing data and setting up a system to collect it,” Feldner said, “The governments have to change how they act and set up rules for society. They have to be more transparent, and they are not used to this.”
Feldner highlighted the different approaches seen across the EU in regards to their citizens’ data. She shared her experience working with the German government for several months during the Covid crisis.
“It is always a matter of trust in the system, and the trust of the citizens in their governments,” she explained and said that in Germany, it took months to determine how to work with citizens’ data and process it for battling the pandemic. A similar process took around two days in Estonia, Feldner pointed out.

Open Government and Open Access
“The current pandemic is going to reshape and reframe the way governments look into their data, and there is already some change to that,” said Veronica Cretu, Governance Lead and an Envoy to Open Government Partnership (OGP).
Cretu is passionate about citizen engagement, open government, and open data, and she explained how these two are crucial in the current context for citizens in Europe and beyond. OGP, as she explains, is an initiative of nearly 80 governments across the globe that promote accountability, transparency, access, and inclusive governance. States and localities from all over the world can join the movement if they commit to these principles and encourage citizen participation, use new technologies for anti-corruption practices, and make more data open.

“The pandemic will position data on a new level so it will become the fuel or oxygen for decision-makers,” Cretu explained. “They will understand that the lives and safety of their citizens depend on data they use and collect.” According to the expert, the good governance depends on smart practices and inclusive access to information that highlights public spending, healthcare preparedness, and other topics which are increasingly relevant. She believes that the need for a better data will incentivize more investment into open government initiatives.
Cretu shared her experience working on open government issues with the participants; she highlighted that this is an initiative focused on the people, and for the people. According to that, the governments commit to sharing more information with the public, and making themselves more accountable, transparent, and inclusive. While some countries follow these goals, others do not.
“The governments are not always committed to disclose data in a format that is usable,” Cretu said. “Yet, without access to accurate information, you cannot make informed decisions.” The latter is proven with the many inconsistencies by different European countries when handling the pandemic. Often, it was a result of poor data management and lack of openness.
“The governments have to be front-runners of educating and training the citizens and ensuring that they are part of these learning processes along the way,” Cretu stressed. This means more accessible platforms for cooperation between large organizations, state institutions, and individuals.

One World – One Internet
One of such organizations, which focuses on accessible Internet for all, is ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Laurent Ferrali, who serves as a Government and IGO Engagement Director, explained that ICANN is a global organization with a presence across the world, that is independent from interference of different governments. It is responsible for coordinating IP addresses and the Domain Name System on the Internet, which basically means it oversees the addresses people use to access websites.
”We are committed to “one Internet – one world” principle,” Ferrali stated. “However, it proves challenging because many governments are trying to address content issues by having new technical standards and undermining the idea of a global network.” He stressed that there is an issue of technical fragmentation of the Internet where different countries adopt new standards and create their digital bubbles.

“The technical fragmentation is a big issue because we are focused on keeping the Internet stable, open, secure, and interoperable,” Ferrali continued. At the same time, his organization does not participate in content discussions leaving that to individual governments. In countries like China and Russia, for example, the state has decided to have its own alternative to the global Internet where the governments have more control over the content the users can access.
“Such a solution is easy to introduce but we don’t agree with it,” said Ferrali, “The world cannot afford it.” He pointed out potential risks of domestic Internets in different countries such as a negative impact on the digital economy, or the fact that it would be impossible to have an inclusive dialogue with different stakeholders.

While ICANN manages around four billion network addresses in the world, the freedom of Internet and the digital rights of the citizens depend largely on the rules and regulations the governments impose. Even if they declare their commitment to transparency and accessibility, the recent events have shown that there are many flaws in the way states manage citizen data and use technology for the common good.
Although Europe remains a relatively free region in digital terms, the webinar showcased the need for better communication between citizens and governments, and the controversy that exists across different countries when it comes to Internet regulation.

Participants’ Highlights

Rea Bitri, Albania
United Europe’s Young Professional Seminar was unique of its kind. First, the purity and clearance of our discussions made it possible to share ideas and experiences from our countries’ new rules and regulations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The concerns of Europe’s digital future and human rights bind us together in a professional panel that enabled us not to be afraid to examine the reality of what is occurring in Europe today, aiming to find solutions and analyze methods applied from governments.
Secondly, United Europe is open to listen and act in a proportional way with what is missing in Europe today and care about people, especially youths, pay attention to them and consider the issues they raise. It is one of those rare organizations that exist to make a real change.
To me, the participation in the Young Professional Seminar was the highest call of duty to contribute and analyze new digital – regulations that Europe is about to apply for years to come. As citizens of this great continent, it is our responsibility to fight for human dignity. After this experience, I feel more confident and strong to protect what is right for my country, Albania, and choose what is best for Europe.
I appreciate all the work done for making this seminar happen, as I enjoyed every moment of meetings learning from the best and engaging in discussion with a diversity of people from all over the world chosen carefully for this professional seminar. I am willing and motivated to participate in more activities from United Europe, to be exposed to authentic discussions looking for solutions to create positive changes in our big community.

Stelios Kavvadias, Greece
The webinar provided a closer look to real world matters that were introduced by speakers with deep knowledge. In fact, they also sparked my interest about researching some topics in an academic context.

Oliver Behr, Germany
During the Young Professional Seminar on Internet Governance, I was greatly inspired by the diverse set of participants from all over Europe, with very different professional backgrounds. Everyone was striving to find solutions, instead of focusing only on the problem, and therefore, fruitful discussions emerged. I am looking forward to continuing on this topic, in collaboration with United Europe, and its staff.

Yanina Korniienko, Ukraine
Thank you for the webinar. It was super interesting and useful. For me as a journalist, open government, access to information,and freedom of information are extremely important topics. In Ukraine, we have several open government projects, and the most famous one is ProZorro. It is a public procurement system and a symbol of dramatic reforms. ProZorro is the result of cooperation between the Ukrainian government, business, and civil society, and it was developed by Transparency International Ukraine with the help of volunteers, NGOs, and businesses. This is really helpful for journalists even though sometimes we have communication problems with the government mostly because of bureaucracy. The projects like ProZorro make me feel like we are on the way for a completely transparent communication with the government, which, hopefully, will be pretty soon. Can’t wait for this time!

Mujib Shams, Turkey
The two sessions covered lots of interesting topics such as Internet governance, open government, digital twins, security and privacy issues during the Covid-19 pandemic. The sessions were very interactive, the speakers covered almost every dimension of their respective topics, the moderator kept the seminar alive and read the questions and comments without any hesitation, and the participants took active part in the discussion and spoke their minds freely.
The outcome of the seminar for me was to get more familiar with the topics and hear what other people have experienced in their societies regarding how their governments responded to the pandemic and what security and privacy issues were raised and handled. The most important outcome is the chance to get to know this awesome group of people and be a part of this amazing event.

Alexander Galt, The Netherlands:
The United Europe Seminar on Internet Governance hosted a fantastic panel of speakers, enabling exclusive access to discuss issues and pose questions to learned experts ranging from the topics of digital sovereignty, regulation and global competitiveness to data infrastructure, digital literacy and open standards. Throughout the discussion with attendees there was a real diversity of thought and inquiry highlighting the range of academic, industrial and cultural experiences that everyone brought to the table.
My highlight was meeting Prof Viktor Mayer-Schönberger – having studied and cited his work in my postgraduate research – who posed some thought provoking points in how we should view the governance of innovation; either as engineering (with hard governance processes) or as gardening (with soft governance processes). Personally gardening speaks to my affinity with civil society and the ability of individual citizens to influence policy – however this is often at odds with the power asymmetries at play with big-tech in which hard governance (legislation and regulation) may be the only option.
We are still figuring out our relationship with digital technologies, both on an individual level and as a society, in which open and honest discussions like we had in the seminar are essential to sharing ideas and building towards a consensus.
I’d like to thank Sabine and Anna from United Europe for organising this seminar and look forward to collaborating with them and the United Europe network in the future.

Elena Cecconi, Italy
The Coronavirus pandemic changed not only the way we work, we study and our daily routines, but also keeps challenging us on a broader level. As it came out during the Young Professional Seminar, Internet Governance and Open Democracies have been strongly impacted during this time, whether it was for “new purposes” introduced due to the situation, or for innovations for a better digital sovereignty.
The speakers had all an excellent professional background and quickly the world we live in is changing and how each country is setting its own digital priorities.
What’s interesting in my opinion is that, while the urgency of new tracking apps for Covid-19 has been at the centre for months, the need for a data protection regulator becomes increasingly important. Cybersecurity, transparency and sustainable policies are currently being discussed, but the reality is that a democratic Internet Governance should have been at the top of the list for every single country (EU and non-EU), for global and local emergencies.

Joёl Christoph, Spain
New technologies engender new questions, particularly relating to access, efficiency, privacy and security. As our reliance on the internet grows by the day, it urges us to consider the present and future challenges and governance of the internet. This seminar connected diverse stakeholders to examine these issues, the ongoing transformation of how we work, consume and communicate, and what the way ahead may or may not look like for citizens, governments and tech companies.