EU ministers call out ‘insufficient’ COP28 draft deal

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Good morning. News to start: The European Commission will today propose a plan to skim off extraordinary profits that financial institutions are making on Russia’s frozen sovereign assets. But the multi-stage proposal stops short of actually funnelling that money to Ukraine amid legal and financial uncertainties.

And, one to watch: Yesterday evening French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at the EU’s new artificial intelligence legislation agreed to much fanfare late last week. That could herald an eleventh-hour bid to derail the bill before it is officially enshrined in law.

Today, our correspondent at COP28 parses the surround-sound criticism from EU delegates in response to the climate summit’s draft agreement, and Laura explains why NGOs are upset at rules to be proposed by the commission today to monitor foreign funding of advocacy groups.

Reasons to be fearful

EU ministers called out an “insufficient” draft agreement at the world’s most important climate summit, as the bloc pushes for an ambitious phaseout of fossil fuels, writes Alice Hancock.

Context: For the past two weeks, ministers, delegates, lobbyists and reporters have run around Dubai’s vast Expo City trying to influence and hammer out an agreement that will advance humanity’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb climate change.

But when the third iteration of the UN’s COP28 agreement dropped yesterday evening, EU ministers met the language on polluting fuels with dismay.

“I cannot hide the fact from you that the text as it now stands is disappointing,” said Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner.

Eamon Ryan, the Irish environment minister, said: “We can’t have a get out of jail card for the fossil fuel industry. The current text would give them that.”

Julian Popov, Bulgaria’s minister of water and environment, called it “an opposition both to science and business reality”.

The United Arab Emirates, host of COP28, hopes that the summit will end today, but those plans were receding as negotiators hastily rebooked their flights last night.

Over days of long negotiations amid a stand-off with oil producing countries — particularly Saudi Arabia — EU negotiators had called for language that would commit the more than 190 participating nations to a phaseout of fossil fuels.

Not returning with an ambitious deal could fuel voter discomfort with climate policies, some officials fear, as doubts grow about public support for the EU’s green transition at home.

Ryan said that he believed “people are sort of frozen by fear in the scale of change we’ve seen in climate in the last year”.

Sipping a coffee in the Dubai heat, he added: “I mean, there’s every reason to be fearful.”

Chart du jour: Frosty welcome

Europeans have mixed feelings about Ukraine joining the EU, according to a survey conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations in six member states. While half of people polled in Denmark are in favour of the move, 52 per cent of Austrians oppose Kyiv becoming an EU capital.

Show me the money

Brussels wants to clamp down on foreign influence by requiring lobbyists, NGOs and law firms to disclose whether they are receiving money from foreign governments, writes Laura Dubois.

Context: The European Commission has for months been working on a law to uncover hidden political influence campaigns, but the proposal has been delayed over criticism from NGOs who fear they could be singled out for receiving foreign funding.

Today, the commission is finally tabling the so-called transparency law. It will set up a registry of organisations that provide “interest representation services” on behalf of governments or state-affiliated entities outside the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

According to a draft seen by the Financial Times, organisations would have to report who they are, which country they work for and what activity they carry out, as well as the annual amount paid.

Those who don’t comply with the rules could face fines.

NGOs such as Transparency International have criticised the law for only covering funding by foreign governments, and not all state funding including from European capitals.

NGOs have also pointed out that the EU has previously criticised laws targeting NGOs as “foreign agents” abroad, for instance in Georgia and Russia.

“We have already seen governments in Georgia and Zimbabwe use the package to accuse the EU of blatant hypocrisy when calling out similar laws abroad,” said Ken Godfrey from the European Partnership for Democracy.

The commission has included safeguards in the law. For instance organisations could ask for their funding not to be disclosed in certain cases, according to the draft.

The law must be negotiated by the European parliament and member states before entering into force.

What to watch today

1. European Commission to propose legislation on using Russia’s immobilised assets to help fund Ukraine.

2. Meeting of the EU General Affairs Council to prepare for EU leaders’ summit.

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