Belgium’s EU Council presidency at the halfway mark, amid commitment on Green Deal and Russian interference grit

Brussels – The last semester before the European elections and also the last before handing over the leadership of the EU Council to the most dangerous driver: Viktor Orban’s Hungary, who will take office for the rotating presidency at the end of June. That is why the six months of the Belgian presidency are crucial: time is running out to finalize the still-suspended legislative files, and there is an uncertain future to prepare, starting with the response to the troubling issue of Russian interference in the European Parliament.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib summed up the situation today (April 12) at a press conference marking the milestone after the first three months of leading the 27 member countries. Proudly boasting the 67 legislative files the Council and Parliament agreed upon, including some dossiers requiring unanimity among, like the 50 billion fund for Ukraine and the 13th package of sanctions on Russia.

Keeping the Green Deal bar straight: 1 trln per year for implementation

On the very day the EU Council gave the final approval to the Green Homes Directive and the revision of industrial emissions standards, the focus was mainly on the implementation of the European Green Pact. “To maintain the implementation of the Green Deal, we need to complement it with an ambitious competitiveness agenda,” De Croo said, as the green transition “will require about one trillion a year for the next 25 years.”

From this perspective, the report on the future of the single market that Enrico Letta will present to heads of state and government at next week’s extraordinary European Council (April 17-18) will be crucial. “This enormous amount of work will provide us with a roadmap for bringing the single market into the 21st century,” De Croo said. But the Green Deal needs more than just a strong economic foundation: “We need to make sure we keep the EU political center aligned to ensure the necessary political support” for the Green Pact, the Belgian premier warned ahead of the next legislative term. The risk, he said, is that the Green Deal will take a wrong turn.

Russian propaganda in European Parliament: Belgium announces criminal action

The European political agenda needs to be protected from eurosceptic forces – which may increase their specific weight in the June elections – inside the Union, but especially from those who seek to unduly influence it from the outside. The bogeyman is Russia, after the affair of paid interviews with several MEPs by the online newspaper Voice of Europe, financed and maneuvered by an oligarch very close to Vladimir Putin, surfaced. To strengthen the pro-Russian narrative in the European Parliament and thus weaken Brussels’ support for Ukraine’s resistance.

Viktor Medvedchuk, the oligarch that steered Voice of Europe (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)

“The Belgian intelligence services have confirmed the existence of a pro-Russian interference network with activities in several European countries and Belgium,” De Croo admitted, in close contact with authorities in the Czech Republic, where the investigation began. “At the national level, our judicial authorities have confirmed that this interference is prosecutable,” and “we will initiate a criminal prosecution,” the premier announced, calling for action “at the European level.” Belgium has asked Eurojust, the EU’s agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters, to meet to discuss the matter urgently, and De Croo suggested the need to check whether the current mandate of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (Eppo) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) allow for prosecution of the threat, and possibly, to “expand their mandates.”

The Belgian prime minister will raise the issue directly to the table of EU leaders at the April 17-18 summit. Responding to a question – which veiled a reference to Budapest and Bratislava, the EU governments “not aligned” on Brussels’ stance toward Moscow – De Croo assured that he “trusts that all colleagues will ensure that the upcoming elections are real elections and that activities related to corruption and propaganda are disclosed.”