Ursula von der leyen, the new President of the European Commission, presented the “Green Deal” to the European Parliament. The intention is to make “Europe” carbon/climate-neutral by 2050.
On 12-13 December the Green Deal was discussed at the level of the European Commission which reached a “unanimous” decision (with an exception for Poland) to support the Deal. The new Council president, Charles Michel, showed that his previous experience as Prime Minister of Belgium, had prepared him perfectly to explain the inexplicable.
Some concerns should however be addressed.
The Green Deal is in this phase only a vision without a clearly developed transition path and without financial support. The transition path should be made available by mid 2020 and the new long term fiscal plan for the Union by end 2020 at the latest. It remains to be seen if the high level ambition embedded in the Green Deal will be backed by the transition path and the financial means by then.
Von Der Leyen referred to the Green Deal as “Europe’s man-on-the-Moon moment”. I understand that VDL tries to create a “nationalist” European moment, an event which will unify all Europeans in a common project, like a long term HR European event. The comparison is however not fit in the sense that the man-on-the-moon was an event that did not impact everyday life of the Americans. The Green Deal however has a “totalitarian” character (which I want to use here in an objective, neutral way); The Government takes decisions which will impact all apects of our everyday lives : transport, food, living, factories. Private enterprise and the free market have a clear frame within which they will have to work.
Both the need for appropriate financing and the totalitarian impact might raise a revolt of the people, a “Europan Gillets Jaunes”, so to speak, if the European elites do not handle this with care.
Lastly, the Green Deal offers Europe an opportunity to free itself from some doubtful friends in the Middle East. However we should take care that our new friends are better than our old friends.
