Will the Dutchman Frans Timmermans - First Executive Vice-President designate, pilot of the European ‘Green Deal’ and the Climate portfolio - and as such, of a number of Commissioners involved in the fight against climate change - be called upon to be a ‘one-man orchestra’ in the next Commission?
His written answers to questions from MEPs before his hearing, scheduled for 8 October, show that he intends to be the conductor, motivated to succeed in what the President-elect, Mrs von der Leyen, has set as an absolute priority for the future Commission.
“Protecting our planet and our shared environment is our generation’s defining task [...] It is an urgent moral, human and political obligation, which Europeans have resoundingly told us that they want their Union to fulfil. It is also a long-term economic imperative: those who act first and fastest will be the ones who grasp the opportunities from the ecological transition”, Timmermans says.
His commitment to the EU and the correspondence between his qualifications and the position he is called upon to occupy no longer need to be demonstrated for a man who has been the Commission's first Vice-President responsible for Sustainable Development for 5 years.
“The Green Deal portfolio that I have been assigned [...] is one that I welcome very much, representing the responsibility and the opportunity to shape the transformative agenda that our continent and planet desperately need”, he says. He confirms that he will do his utmost to ensure that all policy dimensions are fully taken into account.
As part of the Green Deal expected within 100 days, he will propose a climate law that will enshrine in legislation the objective of climate neutrality by 2050, and is confident that this can be agreed. This law will set the long-term direction for achieving this objective in all EU policies, he said.
The Green Deal “must link our action to achieve climate neutrality with the preservation of our natural capital, while ensuring a just ecological transition, where nobody is left behind. This must be engrained in the thinking of all Commissioners. I will do my part to shape this new way of thinking by reaching out to others within the Commission and to the other institutions”, says Mr Timmermans.
He stressed that, in order to achieve climate neutrality, the EU’s 2030 target should be raised to at least a 50% reduction in emissions and an action plan should be proposed by 2021 to achieve the target of a 55% reduction. “We have to do this in a responsible way, which brings European society along with us and encourages more ambitious international action”, he says.
At the international level, he believes that his experience as Minister of Foreign Affairs will help him lead the UN negotiations for the EU to increase the level of ambition of other major emitters by 2021.
Written answers: http://bit.ly/2lAGRcK (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)