EU Influence: Greening aviation — OECD’s revolving doors — Uber files - Espotting

Press play to listen to this article

Presented by EPP Group.

By MARI ECCLES

PRESENTED BY

EPP Group

Tips, tales, traumas to @marieccles or [email protected] | View in your browser

Happy Thursday, and welcome to EU Influence. Your usual anchor Sarah Wheaton is off on a very well-deserved break so I’m filling in this week. As POLITICO’s resident plane lady, I’ll be bringing you an aviation-tinged Influence today. Normal service resumes next week.

GREENING AVIATION

DECARBONIZING AVIATION MAKES FOR STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: In a world racing to get to net zero, aviation is the ultimate baddie. Plane travel accounts for around 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions but is spectacularly tricky to decarbonize and, thanks to one Swedish teenager, is probably the one thing we think of when we think about reducing our own personal carbon footprint. All that makes the industry very keen to prove it’s *actually* trying *really hard* to slash its emissions. But a dirty industry + public opinion shift = plenty of greenwashing (creating a whole new market for lawyers). And when everyone’s claiming to be the most environmentally-friendly airline, who do you actually trust?

Follow the lobbying: No carrier can genuinely claim to be green at the moment; the technology and abundance of sustainable aviation fuel just isn’t there yet. But climate think tank InfluenceMap tells me that there has been a shift — for the better, it argues — in the lobbying positions of the low-cost airlines in the past year or so, centering around the EU’s Fit for 55 climate package. “Low cost airlines, led by easyJet, appear to have accepted that EU climate regulation for aviation is inevitable for decarbonization and are therefore trying to shape the rules of the game,” says InfluenceMap’s program manager Ben Youriev.

May the influencing begin: That’s most obvious in the fierce lobbying around the aviation portion of the EU’s Emissions Trading System, which essentially charges high-polluting industries for their emissions over a certain cap. The short-haul airlines aren’t fighting against the inclusion of their flights within the system but instead are pushing for long-haul flights to be included, too. Compare that to the legacy airlines, Youriev says, which are “still lobbying to make sure that as few EU rules as possible apply to their long-haul flights.”

Business sense: There are also fundamental business reasons for this divide: low-cost airlines typically operate newer, more efficient planes and generally only fly short and medium-haul routes, giving them a significant advantage over more polluting long-haul flights if carbon is priced equally per passenger. There are also PR benefits, Youriev says. “The airline industry is trying to build a social license to continue operating during the climate crisis, and some low-cost airlines have accepted that climate regulation is an inevitable part of this.” Still, he sees the low-cost shift as a good thing for an industry that he says has historically lobbied against all climate rules for the sector.

**A message from the EPP Group: Listen to the EPP Group podcast discussion on what Cohesion Policy can do to address the ongoing energy crisis and rising costs of living for every European. Can some of this funding be channeled into investments to tackle the crisis? Tune in to learn more!**

Friends with benefits: One way the no-frills carriers are trying to show off their environmental credentials is by explicitly aligning themselves with green voices. When clean mobility NGO Transport and Environment and Green MEP Bas Eickhout briefed journalists on the UN’s aviation climate talks last month — where countries agreed a net zero aviation target and tweaked the UN’s offsetting program — they were joined by easyJet’s European Policy Manager to bemoan the level of ambition. T&E has also teamed up with Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air and Jet2.com on an ETS campaign earlier this year.

Occupational hazard: Of course, these across-the-divide alliances don’t always go to plan. I was invited a few months ago to a presser in town that was briefed in advance as a joint Ryanair and T&E event, during which the pair were expected to call for a broader scope of the EU’s ETS. When I arrived, the NGO was nowhere to be seen. I was told later that T&E got cold feet after Ryanair’s boss Michael O’Leary decided to use the briefing to take aim not just at the EU Council’s position on the file but also one of his other foes: Belgian unions.

Where does that leave the long hauls?: The long haul market meanwhile appears to prefer more traditional methods. According to InfluenceMap, the long hauls — represented by Switzerland-based international lobby group IATA — are more closely aligned to ICAO, the U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization, where the aviation industry has “outsize” influence in climate talks. The think tank came out earlier this month with a report suggesting that IATA has sought to weaken ICAO’s global alternative to the ETS, which environmentalists have always criticized as unambitious. It argues that the industry is promoting its support for a net-zero 2050 goal while at the same time “lobbying to weaken real-world policies designed to reach such a target.” IATA said the report “fundamentally misunderstands” the workings of ICAO and of the Corsia program while ICAO said decisions are taken “exclusively … by states on the basis of their review of best available technical knowledge.”

Keeping the band together: The splits in the aviation world are bandaged together by Airlines for Europe (A4E), the Brussels-based lobby group that has the unenviable task of getting the CEOs of five major airlines — Lufthansa, IAG, Air France-KLM, easyJet and Ryanair — to stay on message. They do a decent job of keeping them in line and have a few ground rules: no Brexit talk and no griping about other CEOs during A4E events (which, remarkably, the bosses tend to stick to).

Odd one out: One conspicuous absence from A4E’s roster is Wizz Air, the largest carrier in central and eastern Europe. Its CEO József Váradi told me over the summer that he has no plans to join the alliance, saying the industry is “broken … between the old-school airlines and the new-school airlines,” and said the interests of other carriers in A4E are “totally, totally different” to those of his airline. Váradi also said that industry lobby groups have not been “very effective” in finding common ground: “Sometimes you feel like it’s more of a dogfight” that achieves “almost nothing.” A4E pointed to its work on Destination 2050 — the industry wide plan to decarbonize the sector — as an example of how it has managed to find common ground.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS

CAREER ADVICE

MY TOP TIP FOR GETTING AHEAD IN AVIATION: Be Irish. You’re probably aware that the Continent’s biggest airline, by passenger numbers at least, is run by a mouthy Corkman. But many of the planes we fly on are owned by Irish companies; approximately 50 percent of the world’s leased aircraft are managed or leased through the country, thanks to a tax rate described by consultancies as “favorable”. That’s not all: Eamonn Brennan, the head of Eurocontrol, which manages air traffic control in the bloc, hails from Galway (although he’s set soon to be replaced by Spain’s Raúl Medina Caballero). And the boss of international airline lobby, IATA, is Willie Walsh, a former airline executive who grew up in Dublin.

Gift of the gab: Doing the comms for Airlines for Europe is Kevin Hiney, who has just started his role and is a fellow Dub, while Wizz Air outsources its communications in Brussels to Irish outfit Hume Brophy. The comms manager for the EU’s research programs Clean Aviation (Catherine Collins) and Sesar (Triona Keaveny) also hail from Ireland.

Pro tip: It comes in very handy when industry types are quizzed about the future of the sector. It’s a rare Irishman (yes, aviation is male-heavy) on an aviation panel who will pass up the chance to talk down European rail’s chances with a reference to his home country’s geography. Only last week, Ryanair head of sustainability and finance Steven Fitzgerald said: “It’s easy for Germany or France who have the infrastructure in place to talk about using the train more. But coming from Ireland, from a peripheral nation, we need air travel to get off our island nation.” He made this point to two (Irish passport-holding) aviation reporters in the European Parliament.

For balance: Interestingly, the two MEPs on the Parliament’s Transport Committee who are most vocal about, and critical of, the industry are also Irish. Left Group MEP Clare Daly is a former Aer Lingus staffer. And Ciaran Cuffe, a Green MEP representing Dublin avoids plane travel by catching the ferry from the Irish capital, training it down to London and getting the Eurostar across to Brussels.

REVOLVING DOOR WATCH

OECD REFUTES ‘RESOLVING DOOR’: The boss of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mathias Cormann, has hit back at claims that the global standard setter has a revolving door with private industry. The accusation came from the Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC) Friday after the OECD’s top tax official, Pascal Saint-Amans, accepted an offer to join advocacy giant Brunswick at the start of November — without a cooling-off period, our finance whizz Bjarke Smith-Meyer writes in.

“Pascal Saint-Amans provided advice to the organisation about his future employment with a private sector business, and informed us specifically that the business does not provide tax planning advice to their clients, but rather is focusing on strategic advice,” Cormann said in an emailed statement Friday, adding that Saint-Amans had not been interacting with Brunswick in the final weeks of his 15-year stint at the OECD. “Moreover, Mr Saint-Amans has advised that his new role will not involve professional interactions with the OECD on behalf of clients on tax.”

Lobbying powerhouse: Saint-Amans has also dismissed any suggestion that his future vocation creates a conflict of interest, especially as Brunswick is not a tax or accounting firm. That defense holds little sway with the FTC’s executive director, Matti Kohonen, who said Brunswick would likely be considered a lobbying firm under the EU’s definition.

Tricky timing: The timing of Saint-Amans’ departure is also problematic, according to Kohonen. The OECD is finalizing a package of global corporate tax reform measures, which Saint-Amans oversaw, to ensure multinational companies pay their fair dues. “The rules are still being negotiated, and he has inside information that’s going to give an upper hand to his clients,” Kohonen said.

UBER HEARING BACK ON TRACK: The European Parliament hearing on the Uber Files, scheduled for October 25, is back on track after whistleblower Mark MacGann threatened to pull out last week because of the prospect of sharing the same stage with the company he’s calling out. Two Parliament officials confirmed to POLITICO that MacGann reaffirmed his attendance. Political groups agreed to get MacGann its own panel — of about an hour —, separate from the other speakers that confirmed (Uber’s Zuzana Púčiková; Jobs Commissioner Nicolas Schmit; former Uber driver and activist Brahim Ben Ali; and Andreea Nastase, assistant professor at Maastricht University) to attend the hearing.

PLAYGROUND ANTICS: We told you in July that some French tech companies were not happy about a group called the French Federation of Technologies (FFTech) — which hosts events for French people, working in tech, based in Brussels — as they claim it’s an American lobby in disguise. Well, it’s time for round two. Seeing MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin mingling at an FFTech soirée, Clever Cloud complained to EU Influence, saying “FFTech, where lobbyists for American companies are active, does indeed engage in public representation surrounding the EU’s legislative corps.”

Clap back: Jean-Marc Leclerc, FFTech co-founder and IBM’s head of EU affairs, said he understood it could be “annoying not to be invited to stuff in Brussels,” but said he found it “a bit pathetic” that Paris-based companies were trying to “spoil” the project. As for Yon-Courtin, her cabinet reckons that FFTech “seems to take no particular position.” May the bunfight continue.

IF YOU MISSED IT: It comes in a context of mounting tetchiness in Brussels vis-à-vis lobbying for American tech companies, as Clothilde Goujard reported last week.

PARTY HOPPING

TRILLIGENT — FOR THOSE WHO HATE SMALL TALK: Are you a changemaker who loves making change but hates the physical social interaction it involves? You’re in luck. Public affairs gurus APCO Worldwide is launching a sister agency — a “boutique” one, no less — that will operate entirely virtually. Trilligent has its official opening Thursday where it will launch in the metaverse. Its press release said it has been “engineered to help fast-moving disruptors and changemakers within large companies operate, grow, lead and bring new ideas to market.”

INFLUENCERS

CLIMATE

— Nick Mabey and Shane Tomlinson have been appointed co-CEOs of climate change think tank E3G.

ENERGY

— Dickon Posnett, the director of corporate affairs for Argent Energy, has been appointed President of the European Biodiesel Board, replacing Saipol’s Kristell Guizouarn.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

— Luca Giusti joins MUFG as vice-president, regulatory policy and advocacy expert in Brussels.

HEALTH CARE

— MedTech Europe‘s CEO Serge Bernasconi has announced his retirement, but will stay on until January 2, when he’ll be replaced by Oliver Bisazza, currently director general for industrial policies and external affairs in the organization.

— Deyan Lazarov has joined Edelman Brussels’ health and wellbeing public affairs team as a senior analyst. He previously worked at SIOP Europe – the European Society for Paediatric Oncology.

MOBILITY

— Jane Stevenson has been promoted to global director of government affairs at Harley-Davidson.

SPORTS

— The company promoting football’s Super League project, A22, has unveiled a new CEO. Bernd Reichart, a veteran German sports and media executive, will step into the tough gig and “initiate an active and extended dialogue with a comprehensive group of football stakeholders including clubs, players, coaches, fans, media and policymakers” about the future of European club competitions.

TRADE

— Leopoldo Rubinacci was appointed deputy director-general of DG TRADE. The Italian national was formerly in charge of trade defense at the Commission, and is currently handling interinstitutional relations, communication and civil society. Rubinacci will work alongside Director General Sabine Weyand.

CONGRATULATIONS: Nicholas Hodac, director general of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe and Stephanie Schretlen, public policy manager, stakeholder engagement EU affairs at Facebook, got married on Saturday.

THANKS TO: Bjarke Smith-Meyer, Pieter Haeck, Laura Kayali, Peter O’Brien, Camille Gijs, Matt Honeycombe-Foster, Sarah Wheaton, and Ali Walker; web producer Ellen Boonen and my editor Nicholas Vinocur.

**A message from the EPP Group: Listen to the EPP Group podcast discussion on what Cohesion Policy can do to address the ongoing energy crisis for businesses and every European. Cohesion Funds were instrumental in tackling the aftermath of the 2007-09 financial crisis and navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic. EPP Group MEPs Isabel Benjumea Benjumea, Pascal Arimont and Franc Bogovič discuss what Cohesion Policy can do to soften the blow of high energy bills. Short-term and long-term solutions are needed. Investments in renewables will be a clear priority. But also, building new infrastructures, such as LNG terminals and interconnectors between the EU27 countries, will be essential for the EU’s energy resiliency. Can Cohesion Funds play a role in advancing the EU’s energy infrastructure? Listen to the EPP Group’s podcast to learn more!**