Brussels, 10/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The climate portfolio now merged with energy, environment cut back, subordinated to the demands of competitiveness and merged with fisheries - is this an indication of an environmental policy that has been submerged and neutered by industrial interests in the Juncker Commission? Environmental NGOs fear so and to say that they are concerned by the structure of the new Commission is to say nothing, given the environmental and climate challenges to be faced.
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) immediately expressed its “deep concern”, viewing the new Commission structure as auguring badly for environmental sustainability.
“Instead of putting sustainability central to his new team, Juncker has decided to relegate it to the margins by scrapping the dedicated posts of a climate and an environment commissioner and appointing a deregulation first Vice-President to put a competitiveness filter on all initiatives”, commented EEB Secretary General Jeremy Wates.
It is crucial that, in merging the climate and energy portfolios, and environment and maritime affairs and fisheries, no resources for acting on climate change or environmental sustainability are lost, warns the EEB.
Crucial responsibilities that currently rest with DG Environment will be shifted to other parts of the Commission. Relations with the European Chemicals Agency, whose job it is to protect European citizens from harmful chemicals, will now be managed by the DG Industry, and food waste and biocides will be covered by the DG Health and Consumers. The EEB says that this follows on from changes introduced by the Barroso Commission, which had already taken away responsibility for GMOs and pesticides from DG Environment.
Even more disturbing than the shrinking of the environmental component in the new structure are, in the view of the EEB, the instructions given by Juncker to his proposed team. The incoming environment commissioner is requested to review recently launched and urgently needed legislative proposals such as the air and circular economy packages in the light of the “jobs and growth” agenda, and to question the effectiveness of two outstanding pieces of environmental legislation, the birds and habitats directives, a longstanding demand of anti-environment business interests.
“Under a banner of reform, a deeply regressive deregulatory agenda has been put forward here that reads like a wish-list of private sector interest groups hostile to the environment”, said Wates.
Adopting a similar line, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE) deplores the merging of responsibilities for climate and energy. “While climate and energy are inextricably inter-related, there is a real danger that by merging these two departments climate concerns will be side-lined by energy issues”, notes FoE, persuaded that the scale of the climate challenge means that it is essential that the new set-up results in coherent, ambitious policy on both climate and energy. Guarded on the merging of the environment and fisheries and maritime affairs portfolios, Magda Stoczkiewicz, Director of Friends of the Earth Europe, hopes that the merging “will mean better protection for oceans and marine diversity which is desperately needed, but this will remain to be seen”. She added pragmatically: “Commissioners will be judged on their actions, and we can only hope they perform better than the outgoing Barroso II Commission that has let us down in many important environmental and social areas”.
Greenpeace believes that the merger of environment and fisheries in the new Juncker Commission and having two commissioners with portfolios given to energy are controversial decisions, and it stresses the scale of the challenges to be met. “Overall, it's vital for the new Commission to make a fresh start after years of apathy on environmental policy in the EU. Juncker and his team will have to pull their socks up to effectively tackle the burning questions of climate change and energy security. They have a responsibility to improve the lives of Europeans by cleaning up the environment and developing a more sustainable economy. To do this they will have to stand up to powerful private interests and instead protect the long-term prosperity of millions of people across Europe”, said Greenpeace EU Managing Director Mahi Sideridou. Over and above the structure, he believes that the choice of Miguel Arias Canete as climate and energy change commissioner is surprising, “given his connections to the oil industry. To prove he is the right man for the job, he'll have to resolve conflicts of interests and improve on his environmental record as a minister”. (AN)