Eurobloat #0147 • July 2022
July was the month the European Union discovered that its sacred green taxonomy could be rewritten overnight, that the euro needs a secret rescue gadget, and that the answer to every crisis is more rules, more taxes and more letters to London.
Folly of the Month: Gas and nuclear are now officially green, because Brussels says so
For years the Commission lectured the world that its taxonomy was the gold standard of objective, science-based sustainability. Then on 6 July the Parliament declined to veto the plan to stamp fossil gas and nuclear power as environmentally sustainable, the objection falling 328 to 278, short of the 353 needed. So a label that was meant to stop greenwashing now greenwashes by decree, the rules bend to whatever the moment demands, and the only honest part of the whole exercise was the protesters in T-shirts reading betrayal.
1. The euro needs a secret gadget, and you are not allowed to know how it works
On 21 July the ECB raised rates for the first time in eleven years, by a surprise 50 basis points, and in the same breath unveiled the Transmission Protection Instrument: a new tool to buy the bonds of struggling member states so the single currency does not crack. A monetary union so sound it requires an undisclosed lever to stop it falling apart whenever Italy sneezes.
2. The Parliament adopts its grand plan to govern the internet
On 5 July MEPs formally adopted the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, by 539 to 54 and 588 to 11. Two sprawling rulebooks that hand Brussels the power to police what platforms host, how they rank it and who may speak, all sold as protecting you from the very services you chose to use.
3. Save gas for a safe winter, or else
On 20 July the Commission unveiled its Save Gas for a Safe Winter plan, asking every member state to cut gas use by 15 percent, with the friendly small print that the voluntary target could be made mandatory. Having spent a decade tethering Europe to Russian pipelines and shutting its own nuclear plants, Brussels now rations the radiators it left everyone reliant upon.
4. Four more lawsuits for the country that left
On 22 July the Commission launched four fresh infringement procedures against the United Kingdom over the Northern Ireland Protocol, on top of those started in June. Nothing says respect for a sovereign nation like firing off legal letters until it agrees that part of itself is still governed from Brussels.
→ ireland.representation.ec.europa.eu
5. Brussels eyes a windfall tax it does not pay
On 6 July MEPs debated taxing the windfall profits of energy companies, picking up the Commission's recommendation that member states reach into private balance sheets. The institutions that drove up energy prices through their own policy now present themselves as the rescuers, funded by everyone except themselves.
6. The wage-setter that promised it would never set wages
On 12 July the Parliament's employment committee approved the deal on the directive for adequate minimum wages by 34 to 8. Pay was always a matter for member states and their own bargaining, right up until Brussels decided it would rather grade the homework of national capitals from the comfort of the hemicycle.
7. The monthly ritual of suing the members
On 15 July the Commission published its July infringement package, the regular round of legal threats against member states for failing to copy out EU law fast enough, while quietly closing 103 older cases. An entire bureaucratic liturgy devoted to the proposition that twenty-seven democracies cannot be trusted to read a directive on time.
→ malta.representation.ec.europa.eu
8. A seventh round of sanctions, this time banning the shiny stuff
On 21 July the Council adopted its seventh sanctions package against Russia, complete with a ban on importing Russian gold, proposed by the Commission six days earlier. Each new package is billed as crippling the Kremlin, yet the bills land squarely on European households, and the bloc now legislates which metals its own citizens may not buy.
9. The disinformation code grows teeth
The strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation, presented in June with 44 commitments and 128 measures, was through July being woven into the new Digital Services Act so that platforms would face hard obligations rather than a gentlemanly pledge. The Commission decides what counts as disinformation, and the platforms are politely invited to agree before it becomes the law they must obey.
→ digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu
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