The European Commission (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will unveil its "Fit for 2030 / Fit for 55" package on Wednesday. It should include proposals for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a forestry strategy, and a strategy for aviation and marine fuels, as well as several revisions: to the ETS system, Renewables Directive, Energy Efficiency Directive, and energy taxation.

Today, President Ursula von der Leyen meets with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Yellen will also meet Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, who will attend the EU-Western Balkans-Turkey economic cooperation meeting afterwards. Digital Commissioner Margrethe Vestager meets Yellen tomorrow, before a participation in an artificial intelligence summit and video conference with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Commissioner Maros Sefcovic goes to Ukraine on Tuesday where he will meet with the President and Prime Minister. He will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Ukraine on raw materials. Focus of the meetings also on batteries.

The EU executive will speak with several Eastern European governments, including Slovenia, Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland.

The MEPs (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will discuss a new strategy towards Russia and China. They will also hear from the Slovenian presidency, which will present its priorities for the semester.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN (Si apre in una nuova finestra)) will talk about charging heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures; they will also examine the draft opinion on the regulation on batteries and battery waste.

The European Parliament's Industry Committee (ITRE (Si apre in una nuova finestra)) will discuss the creation of Joint Undertakings under Horizon Europe, adopt an interim opinion on the EU Methane Emissions Strategy and hear a presentation from Ditte Juul Jørgensen, director general of the Commission's Energy Department (DG Energy), and Stephen Quest, director general of the Joint Research Centre. The two will present the JRC's report on the Technical Assessment of Nuclear Energy against the "do no significant harm" criterion of the Taxonomy Regulation.

As for the Council, today the meeting of foreign ministers (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on digital, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Israel.

Tomorrow's Economic and Financial Council (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will deal with national recovery plans, Slovenian presidency and taxonomy.

Tomorrow also the EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina Association and Stabilization Council.

Council President Charles Michel (Si apre in una nuova finestra) hears today from Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, Wednesday from Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Jo Biden will meet in Washington. Nord Stream 2 will also be discussed.

Thursday another important appointment: the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on the Germany vs. Poland case - German appeal to the 2019 ruling in the OPAL case.

Last week

The Commission has adopted a new strategy to finance the transition to a sustainable economy, a proposal for a regulation on the European Green Bond standard and a delegated act on the information that financial and non-financial companies must disclose about the sustainability of their activities, based on the EU taxonomy. "This Strategy will help the economy transition to sustainability. We want more support for the intermediate steps. For example, we are considering an intermediate Taxonomy to complement the existing green Taxonomy – and this would allow us to develop transition bonds," said Financial Stability Commissioner Mairead McGuinness (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The EU Parliament has given the green light to the second Connecting Europe Facility. Sixty percent of the funds will be reserved for climate goals.

The ministers of the members of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF (Si apre in una nuova finestra)) have welcomed the European Union as an official permanent observer of the EMGF. The decision was taken at a meeting this week (July 6).

The recovery in the European electricity and gas market continues (Si apre in una nuova finestra), with consumption and prices returning to pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2021.

Hydrogen

The British industry is looking at hydrogen opportunities.

Ineos agreed to purchase 25 million shares in the forthcoming IPO of HydrogenOne Capital Growth plc, representing 10% of the target fund raise of £250 million. “The Ineos investment in HydrogenOne will help to accelerate and diversify Ineos’ existing clean hydrogen strategy. It marks the beginning of another substantial and long-term partnership, opening new windows into the clean hydrogen world for Ineos,” Brian Gilvary Executive Chairman of Ineos Energy, commented (Si apre in una nuova finestra). HydrogenOne, funded 14 months ago by an analyst and an engineer, is expected to invest in private hydrogen assets mainly. It has already identified 36 potential investments.

Anglo-Dutch Shell launched Europe’s largest PEM hydrogen electrolyser. It began operations at the company’s Park Rheinland, near Cologne. “Shell wants to become a leading supplier of green hydrogen for industrial and transport customers in Germany,” Shell’s Downstream Director, Huibert Vigeveno said (Si apre in una nuova finestra). “We will be involved in the whole process — from power generation, using offshore wind, to hydrogen production and distribution across sectors. We want to be the partner of choice for our customers as we help them decarbonise.”

Meanwhile, oil&gas major ENI is stepping up its hydrogen plans in Northern Africa, agreeing on development plans in Egypt (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Algeria (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is drifting away from Saudi Arabia on several files, announced plans to increase hydrogen production. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (Adnoc) is in talks with several Asian companies, mostly Japanese.

South Korea's auto groups Hyundai and Kia are increasing ties with North American companies. Last week, they signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian water electrolysis technology company Next Hydrogen (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to develop an alkaline water electrolysis system.

Other companies or countries looking into hydrogen opportunities: New York State (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Fortescue Future Industries in Australia (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Russia (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Norway’s funding agency Enova (Si apre in una nuova finestra),