05/02/25 (Agence Europe) – “I have never been involved in any way” with the LIFE programme, said the former European Commissioner for the Environment, Frans Timmermans, on Wednesday 5 February during an exchange with the S&D, the political group to which his Dutch party, PvdA, belongs to, in the European Parliament. Accused by the EPP of having financed NGOs in order to have them defend his proposals on the European Green Deal to MEPs (see EUROPE 13571/7), Mr Timmermans stated that the subsidies allocated by LIFE had been the responsibility of a “commissioner from the EPP”, namely Johannes Hahn, who was Commissioner for the Budget at the time. Mr Timmermans’ regular contacts with environmental organisations were more in the form of reprimands addressed to the European Commissioner for the Environment who, in their view, was “not doing enough”, he was keen to clarify. (FS)