“We are being challenged in multiple ways”. Ahead of the conference on ‘Securing Europe’s sovereignty: how to shape our energy, climate and trade policies in light of current geostrategic shifts’, organised on Wednesday 24 May in Brussels by the think-tank FES Climate, Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for the ‘European Green Deal’, spoke - in video - about the geopolitical upheavals facing the EU and the responses required.
According to the Vice-President of the Commission, the war in Ukraine and its repercussions on the EU’s energy security have “led to a reassessment of our dependencies and economic relations”. “It has also shown our strength”, he added with a nuance. And for good reason: “the pace of installation of renewables has never been this high”, he said, adding that “almost 20% of gas” had been saved last winter.
While Mr Timmermans pointed out that “the ecological transition itself reshapes geopolitics (...) including global economic, trade and security interests”; he also noted that it was the response to the “devastating consequences of global warming”. “Within the European Green Deal [...], the EU has made emissions reductions an irreversible legal obligation. Our legislation is now aligned with our climate targets”, he said.
The Vice-President of the Commission thus made the ecological transition the vector of innovation and global leadership opportunities for Europe, while stressing the importance of a fair and equitable transition, given the disproportionate impact of climate change. In so doing, he reminded us that climate policy was also a social policy, in the interests of everyone: “If we allocate the costs and benefits fairly across society and between states, we strengthen the EU’s internal resilience and enhance the global fight against climate change”.
The speech: https://aeur.eu/f/730 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)