Insights

Welcome back to the Global Month Ahead, Global Counsel's briefing on the events and stories that will define the month to come. In each episode, Global Macro Associate Director Isabelle Trick will hear from different members of the GC team to preview the month's stories before they are in the headlines.

The modern internet runs on the free flow of data across the Atlantic ocean. But as policymakers push toward different systems for the regulation of data collection, what are the implications of a decoupling of data between the US and EU?

This week’s anniversary of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides a moment for firms to review operational adaptation to Brexit, planned and revised at speed as ‘no deal’ was (partially) avoided last Christmas Eve. However, Lord Frost’s dramatic resignation – and signs that power over EU relations could trickle back from Downing Street to the Foreign Office – is…

The Fit for 55 package currently being negotiated sets out much of the legislative backbone that will drive Europe toward net zero. A key challenge that could break the green deal’s success is achieving effective integration of energy systems in transport, industry and power production across the 27-member bloc. Billions of investments are at stake and European operators…

Three weeks after its release, industry stakeholders and policy makers are reacting to the European Commission's Fit for 55 Package. The set of proposals consists of twelve highly interlinked measures across emissions pricing, transport and energy.

Two weeks after its release, industry stakeholders and policy makers have started reacting to the commission's Fit for 55 Package. The set of proposals consists of twelve highly interlinked measures across emissions pricing, transport and energy.

Over the last month, we have brought together our team of experts and prominent policymakers to discuss and debate the key challenges for the EU’s policy agenda for the next three years. It is hard to capture the breadth and range of issues and ideas we covered across the four events, and you will find links to all of them below if you would like to watch them. We…

A striking element of the current European Commission is its emphasis on supporting individual technologies, sectors and “ecosystems”. 

Meaningful policy action on climate change entails costs and reforms for almost all economic activity, and at the European level we are starting to see what this means in practice. 

Was Portugal’s push for a social recovery a success?

Tom White, Director in GC's office in Brussels, is joined by Maarten Lemstra, Research Analyst at Global Counsel and Sophia Russack, Researcher in the Institutions unit at CEPS.

Tom White, Director; Ermenegilda Boccabella, Energy and Climate Adviser and Lilah Howson-Smith, Senior Associate discuss the UK's emerging priorities on energy policy after leaving the EU.

On a recent Global Counsel digital event, Lord Mandelson and German Vice Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, discussed the work of the German presidency, the EU’s strategic autonomy and German politics. 

Stephen Adams, Senior Director, Tom White, Director, and Miranda Lutz, Senior Associate, discuss the tensions in the EU's published strategy for rapprochement with the incoming Biden administration, what it means for businesses and why there is more than a little sense of catharsis in Brussels' response to the new administration.

Tom White, Director, Ana Martinez, Practice Lead for EU Policy and Denzil Davidson, Practice Lead for Financial Services and EU Institutions examine the EU’s policy of open strategic autonomy, what it means in practice and how it is likely to evolve.

As lockdowns across EU countries are lifted and exceptional financial support for businesses is wound down, attention is turning to economic stimulus. Germany’s package of tax cuts last week highlighted how consumption taxes can be an important tool for boosting and targeting consumer purchasing power: VAT will be cut from 19% to 16% for most purchases, and from 7% to 5%…

Franco-German proposals to increase the 2021-27 EU budget could be their most significant since the 2018 Meseberg Declaration on euro zone governance. They provide clear political backing for European Council president, Charles Michel, and European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, both of whom have bet their reputations on EU funding for economic reconstruction…

Global Counsel Director, Tom White, Energy Practice Lead, Ermenegilda Boccabella and Senior Associate Ana Martínez discuss the first 100 days of the von der Leyen Commission, and what the outbreak of covid-19 might mean for the future.