Dear António, dear colleagues,

Congratulations on the adoption of the 19th package of sanctions. This was good news. On a less positive note – yesterday’s vote on the CSRD and CSDDD sustainability omnibus showed that for a huge section of the European Parliament, this compromise simply did not go far enough. That even with the best attempt at bridging positions, it would not have made things better, simpler, easier. For some other sections, any change would have been too much.

Majorities are always strongest from the centre out, because we believe that this is the way to move Europe forward. But if this is not possible, Parliament must deliver, regardless.

The text, as adopted in our Legal Affairs Committee, will now go to the next mini plenary session in a couple of weeks, with a deadline for amendments. I expect that the mandate from this Parliament will be deeper, giving us the majority we need to deliver, and probably pushing Council to go further.

In the past two weeks…