The transition will have to be green, but also competitive. It was through the prism of the economy that the Hungarian Minister for the Environment, Anikó Raisz, concluded the two days of informal ministerial meetings on the environment and climate that took place in Budapest on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 July.
COP29. Invited to the discussion, IPCC Vice-Chair Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, COP29 President-Designate and Azerbaijani environment minister Mukthtar Babayev and Yalchin Rafiev, lead negotiator for COP29, confirmed that “we are all committed to act against climate change and trying our best to slow down the harmful effects of it”, said Anikó Raisz. The Member States, she assured, want to “achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement”. To do this, it had been necessary to “highlight actual priorities and expectations”, which can be summed up as “the adoption of a balanced finance goal” and greater climate change mitigation.
Competitiveness of the circular economy. Here too, the challenge will be to strike a balance between the environmental efforts to be pursued and the economic pre-eminence targeted by the EU. This makes the adoption of a new European agreement on competitiveness a “one of the key priorities of the Hungarian Presidency”, stated Anikó Raisz. In addition to improving its productivity, which will have to be based on “green technologies and green infrastructure”, the EU is called upon to develop a circular single market, which should provide a competitive advantage for the EU27. The Hungarian Presidency stated that it will be “very important to reduce vulnerability and dependence on external resources [from outside the EU]”, but made it clear that the EU will not be able to “move towards the circular economy on our own”.
Resilient water management. With droughts on the increase, the issue of water has become paramount. The consequences of water shortages on the economy, society and safety were highlighted. As water shortages are a trigger for global conflicts, it was agreed that resilient water management should prevent both conflicts and population migrations. The Hungarian Presidency hoped that these conclusions would “contribute to the European Commission’s long-awaited initiative on water resilience”.
Cross-border water and air pollution. Combating this pollution will require greater cross-border cooperation. Stronger environmental, health and economic legislation was called for. Air pollution was identified as one of the main problems. The measures to be taken should be based on each State’s observation of its air pollution by suspended particles (aerosol) with a diameter of less than 10 µm and less than 2.5 µm. The Presidency also invited Member States to observe the extent to which they contribute to pollution in other Member States. The deadline of June 2026 was mentioned.
European Investment Bank. According to Anikó Raisz, the “key to success” for the EU lies in transforming financial systems and gearing investment towards sustainability. EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros, who attended the discussions, pledged to support the Member States in this endeavour. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)