“Kickstarting Europe’s economy is our number one priority”, Ursula von der Leyen said during her State of the Union address on Wednesday 16 September in Strasbourg. A statement that has the merit of being clear, and which from the outset overshadows any hopes some may have entertained of a European Green Deal rising from the ashes.
Even so, after a particularly deadly summer, marked by successive heatwaves, devastating fires and unprecedented droughts, the President of the European Commission referred to “a summer of truth” which “is only a preview of what lies ahead”.
Her response – “stay the course on its climate targets” – may, precisely, lack ambition. Concrete measures have been postponed until later, when the ‘climate resilience framework’ is presented (see EUROPE 13879/12), currently scheduled for 28 October.
Uncertainty over the ‘political compass on climate’. “We will identify 100 of the most vulnerable territories in Europe and we will assess the risks – and at which level they should be managed. This will give us a whole of society approach”, Ursula von der Leyen said.
At this stage, it is impossible to know whether this framework will take the form of a long-term adaptation, risk-management or climate-resilience plan. Speaking after the President’s address, the European Commissioner for Climate, Wopke Hoekstra, did not dispel the uncertainty. “We are going to draw up a package of comprehensive resilience measures to ensure that adaptation is better integrated across all our policies”, he said cryptically.
The President of the Commission also wants to create “a Climate Insurance Alliance” to address the impossibility for private insurers of covering all losses caused by climate disasters.
She also announced that she would “shortly” present a European plan to tackle heatwaves, including in particular early warning systems and better health preparedness.
As for the Green Deal, apparently buried, Terry Reintke, Co-Chair of the Greens/EFA Group, announced that her group would call for a European Parliament committee of inquiry into the weakness of its implementation “in order to hold those responsible to account”.
Civil protection. Ursula von der Leyen also returned to the subject of forest fires, which have already ravaged more than 666,000 hectares in the EU since the start of the year, according to data from the EFFIS system. Saying that she was “proud of the way Europe reacted” this summer, she nonetheless considered it necessary to “think bigger” and “learn faster” (see EUROPE 13929/16).
She therefore announced that she had entrusted “some of Europe’s most senior firefighters and emergency responders” with steering a full review of the European system for forest-fire preparedness and prevention. These experts will have to formulate concrete proposals, notably on civil-military coordination and the composition of the future European firefighting fleet (see EUROPE 13917/1).
By way of reminder, the Commission has decided to expand the rescEU reserve through the acquisition of 12 water-bomber aircraft and five helicopters. The first aircraft are expected in 2027, for gradual deployment until 2030. Ultimately, these resources are intended to form a permanent fleet, financed by the EU and based in several Member States, complementing the current seasonal system.
Energy crisis: timid response. Ursula von der Leyen did not announce any new European instruments to address the surge in energy prices caused by the war in the Middle East. She merely recalled the objective of producing local, affordable and clean energy – whether renewable or nuclear – and of electrifying uses (see EUROPE 13912/6).
Nor did she mention taxation at EU level of the windfall profits of oil companies, which several Members of the European Parliament and six Member States are calling for (see EUROPE 13922/11).
Also responsible for taxation, Wopke Hoekstra did not formally rule out this solution, but the European Commission has not carried out an investigation on this subject, despite a French request dating back to last April (see EUROPE 13929/17).
See Ursula von der Leyen’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/ngm
See the Commission’s letter of intent: https://aeur.eu/f/ngk (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine and Justine Manaud with the editorial team)