A December package of measures to boost European energy networks is generating considerable excitement in the Brussels bubble. Contexte breaks down what to expect — including proposals for faster grid connections, smarter planning, and hopefully not too much coal.

Over the summer, a joint summit of Franco-German leaders suggested they were trying to repair long-standing divisions over the role of nuclear energy. Yet just months after the deal, confusion reigns: Paris boasts about a “historic” agreement in favour of low-carbon energy, while Berlin is walking on eggshells. Political turbulence in Paris, and the need for Germany to gain support for its own gas-powered plans, are only making the situation more complex.

A fragile deal to reform corporate supply chain laws has been upended by a knife-edge vote in the European Parliament on 22 October. An uneasy coalition of the chamber’s left wing, which thinks the simplification measures go too far, made common cause with the extreme right, which thinks they don’t go far enough, to oppose the deal agreed by centrists about a week ago. The issue will be put to a further vote on 13 November. In the meantime, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s red-tape-cutting plan has an uncertain fate, and the centrist coalition that voted her into office has suffered another blow.

With the roll-out of the clean industrial deal, new climate targets and ambitious plans to ban Russian fuels, Brussels was just getting started with its new energy roadmap when the US forced its hand, insisting on an exacting trade deal. The European Commission is now likely to spend the next few months trying to get back on track from that Trumpian manoeuvre.

The Commission president’s State of the Union speech usually sets the EU’s political tone for the year ahead; this year’s instalment, due on 10 September, could be in a minor key. It comes as Ursula von der Leyen contends with a string of existential struggles, geopolitical challenges from Washington to Kyiv, cracks in the bloc’s unity, and rising questions about her capacity to lead.