With the European elections just a few weeks away, the debate held in the European Parliament on Wednesday 24 April on the subject of the ‘Green Deal sounded like an assessment of this initiative announced in 2019 by the Commission to make the European Union climate-neutral by 2050.
And with good reason – the discussion requested by the Green MEPs and in particular their co-spitzenkandidate, Bas Eickhout (Dutch), was intended to point the finger at attempts by the far right and the conservatives to undermine measures for a green transition and to block investment in the EU’s sustainable future.
The Dutch MEP opened the discussion by recalling the urgency of the situation: “2023 was the hottest year on record. (...) Economic losses linked to climate and weather in 2023 are estimated at over 13.4 billion euros”. He went on to denounce the right and the conservatives for “weakening, squeezing and watering down legislation”, referring to the texts on “nature restoration (see EUROPE 13356/9), deforestation (see EUROPE 13183/17), pesticides and electric vehicles”, which have caused dissension in Parliament and have been repeatedly opposed by right-wing groups.
For her part, Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, French) dealt a hard blow to opponents of the Green Deal, directly accusing certain political groups of compromising not only the environment, but also public health, referring to “the health of children affected by cancer because of pollution”, which they “refuse” to address.
While several MEPs from the left of the political spectrum agreed with this view, such as Silvia Modig (The Left, Finland), who criticised the right for not being “ready” to face the facts, opposing voices were raised, such as Peter Liese (EPP, German), who defended his group’s commitment to the Green Deal, all while justifying the withdrawal of certain legislative proposals because it was necessary to “find a balance”.
Similarly, Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese) commented on the extreme left: “They use the old technique of lumping everything together and saying that if you don’t follow their point of view, you’re backward and you’re destroying the environment”.
Beata Szydło (ECR, Polish) also counter-attacked, saying: “We must protect our environment, but not at the expense of European security or industry”.
In addition, the debate allowed for more moderate perspectives to be expressed, such as that of Jordi Cañas Pérez (Renew Europe, Spanish), who insisted that the Green Deal should be seen as a pragmatic agreement and not as an ideological imposition: “It’s a way of guaranteeing both economic and environmental sustainability”.
Putting the climate emergency and the EU’s competitiveness back to back, this exchange not only highlighted the political divisions of the current legislature, but also revealed a major issue at stake in the forthcoming vote. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)