On Tuesday 16 June, in an open letter addressed to the leaders of the European Union, the mayors of Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw called for the European Green Deal to become an integral part of the EU’s post-Covid-19 recovery strategy. They called in particular for greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced more quickly by increasing the EU’s 2030 target from 40% to 55%.
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, said that “in the interests of our citizens and our planet, the EU needs to increase its climate ambitions and empower cities to take bold action in this area”.
As EU leaders meet on Friday to discuss the European Commission's proposed Recovery Plan for Europe, the mayors of the four capital cities in the Visegrád Group (V4) insisted that the recovery plans currently being drawn up “must not lose sight of the escalating climate crisis”.
István Bart, the director of Climate Strategy 2050, said that “this open letter emphasises once again that Central and Eastern Europe is far from united on climate policy [and] puts additional pressure on the V4 governments to act now on climate”.
As part of the recommendations, the letter’s signatories proposed that the EU’s new recovery measures should include a specific European Building Renovation Fund providing grants combined with loans to cities and citizens, either directly or via commercial banks.
They also called for the EU to establish additional specialised investment mechanisms, such as EU-city contracts, that would provide targeted funding to help cities achieve their emission reduction and climate adaptation objectives.
To read the letter, go to: https://bit.ly/2USh4LP (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)