EC Briefing — Monday, 4 May 2026

The Read-Out

— 3 min read

Key Points

  • Latvia celebrates its 36th anniversary of independence today.
  • Eurogroup meeting discusses banking union and Middle East crisis impact on EU economy.
  • Commissioners Dombrovskis and Öberg represent the Commission at the Eurogroup meeting.
  • Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting addresses agricultural risk management study findings.
  • EU halts funding for high-risk countries' Chinese inverters, including Huawei products.
  • Commission emphasizes collaboration with member states to mitigate economic security risks.

Full Transcript

Transcribed automatically from EbS (Europe by Satellite) · English audio track · AI-generated · May contain errors · Verify before quoting

Opening Statement

A very good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to our midday briefing. Today is Monday, the 4th of May 2026. First of all, congratulations to Latvia on its day of restoration of the independence. It's the 36th anniversary today. And as it is the 4th of May, to all those who celebrate, may the 4th be with you. Let me start with a quick announcement on today's Council meetings before we start with our usual Q&A.

First, you will be aware that Ministers of Economy and Finance are in Brussels for a Eurogroup meeting. Commissioners Dombrovskis and Öberg are representing the Commission at this meeting. And the items on the agenda include an update on the banking union and cross-border bank consolidation in the European Union. And this afternoon, the Ministers will discuss the impact of the Middle East crisis on the EU economy, measures to develop European capital markets, and improve financing conditions for businesses as well as digital finance. Commissioner Dombrovskis will participate in the press conference that is foreseen at 7.30 p.m. this afternoon following the meeting. Second, an informal meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council is taking place today in Nicosia, and Commissioner Hansen is representing the Commission at this Council meeting. And the Ministers will discuss the main findings of a study on agricultural risk management in the European Union presented by the World Bank officials. And there is also a press conference following this Council meeting, which Commissioner Hansen will be participating in, and it is foreseen to take place at around 12.30. And as always, we invite you to save your questions on the topic of today's two Council meetings for the dedicated press conference he is foreseeing later today. And also an announcement as regards tomorrow, we will be replacing our midday briefing at 12 outside the press room with our usual background chat with the spokespeople. And this is my announcement for today, and we'll now move on to your questions. Who wants to start? Niko?

Q (Euractiv): Sorry, Niko Skomar for Euractiv. An EU official has said that the EU has stopped all funding for high-risk countries' Chinese inverters. This affects the EIB and the like. Particularly, most of those inverters are from Huawei in China. Does that mean that the Commission is now viewing this company as a high-risk company? And should this affect the privileges afforded to Huawei and any trade association or interest representation of which it is a member, like access to Commission meetings and the like? I recall last year that the Commission said there would be a case-by-case assessment. Now the Commission has issued a blanket ban. So have you changed your position? And what will be the policy going forward for interactions with Huawei? Thank you, Niko. I ask Siwon to help you with that.

Spokesperson: Thanks, Nicholas, for the question. So let me tackle the first part of your question about what the Commission has actually put in place vis-à-vis inverters from countries that we consider high-risk. So back in December, we published a joint communication on strengthening EU economic security. I might have escaped some of your views, but these communications do include quite important information, where we identified six high-risk areas for immediate action. So in mitigating those risks, we're, of course, working closely with member states, industry, and our trusted partners. And so we identified that among the most pressing threats is the risk of disruption of the EU's critical infrastructure by foreign actors. So of particular urgency, and thus our focus has been the reliance on inverters.

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