Presented by ERT.

By LILI BAYER

With thanks to Cory Bennett and Clothilde Goujard

PRESENTED BY

 

Tips, tales, traumas to the POLITICO Brussels Team at @liliebayer or [email protected] | View in your browser

Good afternoon and welcome back to EU Influence.

As the war in Ukraine continues, make sure to follow our live blog for all the latest updates on the conflict, as well as news on sanctions packages and diplomatic efforts. 

AROUND EUROPE

CRISIS OF THE CENTURY: Approximately 660,000 refugees have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries in the past few days, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said on Tuesday. 

“At this rate, the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century, and UNHCR is mobilizing resources to respond as quickly and effectively as possible,” she said. 

NGO APPEAL: Dozens of Ukrainian civil society leaders have signed a declaration to the global community calling for the establishment of safe zones in Ukraine. They also urged foreign governments to “provide immediate defensive military aid — including lethal and non-lethal assistance.” 

Additionally, the civil society groups are asking for “crippling sanctions” on Russia, writing that “Europe and the US must sanction Russia’s oil and gas sectors to cut off the revenues Putin uses to fund his war machine.” Western allies have left carveouts for energy purchases even as they have moved to severe large swathes of the Russian economy from the international system. Other demands include humanitarian aid and supplying “technology and support to groups recording Putin’s war crimes.”

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GOING TO COURT: Law firm Covington & Burling has filed a claim at the International Court of Justice on behalf of its client Ukraine. The country is asking the court to declare that Russia has “no lawful basis to take action in and against Ukraine for the purpose of preventing and punishing any purported genocide.” Separately, POLITICO examines the war crimes case against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

AGRI WARNING: “The entire European farming community is considering the development of the conflict in Ukraine with deep sorrow,” farmers’ lobby Copa & Cogeca said in a statement this week. 

“Russians and Ukrainians are key international agricultural exporters. Ukraine is the EU’s fourth-biggest external food supplier and provides the EU with a quarter of its cereal and vegetable oil imports, including nearly half of its maize,” the lobby group noted, adding that, “In the coming days and weeks, while primarily focusing on the ongoing conflict resolution, the EU decisions makers must also consider its impact on key economic sectors.”

AVIATION IMPACT: What do the EU’s Russia sanctions mean for European aviation? The biggest problem for EU airlines is that they won’t be able to fly over Siberia to Asia. Avoiding Russian airspace means lots of rerouting for Europe-to-Asia flights — returning to the Cold War situation when overflights were a rarity, writes my colleague Mari Eccles. Longer flight paths also mean airlines are more likely to need to stop to refuel — and pay for that extra fuel.

**Key MEPs such as Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy), Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) and Dragoș Tudorache (Renew Europe, Romania) will be taking part in POLITICO Live’s AI & Tech Summit on April 21. Will you be joining them? Don’t miss out on this chock-full day of tech discussions – Register today.**

IN FOCUS: CIVIL SOCIETY PUSH ON DSA/DMA

TARGETED ADS: Scores of NGOs on Wednesday urged European governments to curb targeted ads in the EU’s content moderation bill, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), reports my colleague Clothilde Goujard. 

Seventy-two organizations including EDRi, Civil Liberties Union for Europe and Amnesty International asked France, Germany, Spain and six other EU countries to ban the likes of Facebook and Google from using people’s sensitive data about religion and health to target them with ads. 

The groups also called for an end to sneaky designs, known as dark patterns, which manipulate users into accepting to be followed across the internet. 

“Tracking-based online advertising threatens our human rights, above all the right to privacy, with a series of knock-on effects on other rights including freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought, and the right to equality and non-discrimination,” the signatories wrote in a letter seen by Clothilde. 

MORE TRANSPARENCY, PLEASE: Meanwhile, over 40 NGOs and trade unions have issued a call for greater transparency in negotiations over the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act. 

In a letter addressed to French Secretary of State for the Digital Economy Cédric O, MEPs Andreas Schwab and Christel Schaldemose, and Commission members Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton, the groups asked for “urgent improvements to the transparency of the trilogue negotiations.” 

“Civil society organisations and citizens cannot match the resources spent and the access gained by Big Tech,” the groups argued, adding that “secrecy of policy making only further intensifies this unequal playing field, shutting citizens off from crucial discussions that will have an impact on their lives.” 

The groups are demanding that the Council and Parliament “publish proactively, on a rolling basis a list of documents tabled during trilogue negotiations” and “make public an up-to-date calendar of trilogue meetings including summary agendas.” In addition, they are asking for the publication of negotiating documents. 

MEP response: Asked about the letter, MEP Schaldemose told EU Influence in an email that “the decision to give access to documents is not in the hands of the rapporteurs.”

“However I find it important to have transparency in the process, and NGOs have had good access to us during the parliament’s work before the trilogue,” she said. “We also need room for negotiations, and therefore I personally don’t think it’s good for the negotiations, if every step in the process, every draft of compromise amendments, needs to get out in the public,” she added, arguing that revealing every discussion would create a situation where “no one” dares move.

OMBUDSMAN’S TAKE: European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said this week that the Council’s refusal to grant public access to member countries’ comments and questions on the Digital Markets Act proposal constituted “maladministration” She asked the Council to make the requested legislative documents publicly available.

EU TRANSPARENCY

TELL ME MORE: O’Reilly has written to the European Commission with new questions about the transparency of the EU’s recovery funding efforts.

In a letter published this week, the ombudsman said that “the public should be reassured that Member States comply with any conditions attached to the loans and grants,” noting that “this is particularly relevant given their environmental objectives and the growing concerns about how the EU budget risks being deployed in certain Member States to undermine the rule of law.”

O’Reilly is now asking the Commission to respond to a number of specific questions, including what mechanisms are in place to ensure transparency in the negotiations of the national plans and what transparency measures will be put in place “to allow for public scrutiny of the evaluation of the Member States’ milestones and reforms.”

**Save the date – On March 31 at 9:00 a.m. CEST, POLITICO Live is hosting a virtual Spotlight discussion “Charging up Europe: the road to Paris” as part of the event “On the road to climate neutrality”. Tune in for a frank discussion on how Europe can speed up the rollout of charging infrastructures in order to clean transport. Register now!**

INFLUENCERS

Sebastiano Bertagni has joined the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe as a junior policy officer.

At Dr2 Consultants, Dirk Goll, Teresa Golsong and Guillaume Baudour are joining as consultants. Goll previously worked for Dods, Golsong joins from the European Commission and Baudour from Logos Public Affairs. 

Kristina Gyosheva and Darragh Duncan join Fourtold’s Brussels team as associate consultant and intern, respectively.

Hague Corporate Affairs appointed Sandrine Lauret as director to head its Paris office. 

BCW has appointed Roland Moore as executive vice president, public affairs, Europe & Africa.

Arnoldas Pranckevičius has been appointed Lithuania’s new ambassador to the EU. Simonas Šatūnas, who has been serving as acting ambassador, has a new role as head of Cabinet for Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius. 

Clémence Robin is now managing press communications at the Directorate-General for Agriculture. 

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