European policy –
How the patriots got their hands on the climate file
In the European Parliament, the nationalist group chaired by Jordan Bardella obtained a major environmental file. To the chagrin of the Greens and the left.
Jordan Bardella, president of the Patriotic group for Europe, in the European Parliament, in Strasbourg.
AFP
- European nationalists obtain the major influence on climatic objectives 2040.
- The European People’s Party (right) establishes strategic alliances with the extreme right.
- Jordan Bardella firmly opposes the 90% reduction in emissions.
- The European Union must define its position before COP30 in Brazil.
Nationalists are starting to take full measure of the influence they can exert in the European Parliament. Formerly little involved, relegated behind a sanitary cord by the other formations, they can weigh growingly on key files, with the consent of the European People’s Party (PPE), the first of the Assembly, which establishes opportunistic alliances with the groups to its right according to the subjects.
This week, the plenary session in Strasbourg saw the Patriotic group for Europe, which brings together the national rally and the Hungarians of Fidesz, getting hold of the climate objectives. On Tuesday, the group, the third force of the hemicycle, was assigned the post of rapporteur of the bill on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, presented by the Commission last week, thanks to a system of points allocated to each training and with the blessing of the PPE, which was not a candidate.
Outraged, the socialists and the centrists denounced a new betrayal of their alliance by the PPE for the benefit of the extreme right. They tried a maneuver on Wednesday to request an emergency procedure for the text, which would have deprived the rapporteur of his mission. New blow: the PPE did not support it, which made it fail. With their rapporteur, who has not yet been appointed, the patriots for Europe will therefore be responsible for defining the position of the European Parliament on this file, with the possibility for other groups to deposit amendments.
Calendar emergency
“We are resolutely opposed to this plan which provides by 2040 a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, recalls Jordan Bardellapresident of the Patriotic group for Europe. We volunteered to work on this report, to bring our vision to it and show that there are within the European Union of sovereignists and patriots, more oriented on the right than left, who do not choose the decrease. ”
The parties favorable to the continuation of the action against climate change fear that the patriots for Europe will use this position to drag the file, or even weaken the objectives. “Let the extreme right to pilot the climate policy of the European Union is to entrust a pyromaniac the fight against fires,” reacts Christophe Clergeau, vice-president of the Socialist & Democrats group in charge of the Green Pact. However, there is an emergency in the calendar: the commission would like the 2040 objective to be adopted before the COP30 of Belém, in Brazil, in November. The milestone of 2040 must in theory be articulated with an objective for 2035 which must be transmitted to the UN by the European Union within the framework of the Paris Agreements. She therefore hoped for a mid-September vote.
“There is an alliance of the PPE with the extreme right to make the process much more fragile, because it becomes toxic within the PPE to vote in favor of climate action,” deplores Pascal Canfin, MEP Renew. The centrists, the socialists and the Greens hope to have a last chance to obtain an emergency procedure in September, with this time the support of the PPE, after the Member States have defined their position on the text.
However, on the side of the States, the commitment for this objective also seems to falter. At the end of June, during a European Council, Emmanuel Macron called into question the commission method, evoking the need to make it “compatible with European competitiveness”. Several of his counterparts have expressed themselves in the same direction. Hence the reluctance of the PPE, which does not wish to lead to a position in Parliament before the states fixed theirs. To the delight of Jordan Bardella: “If the PPE is now forced to go back to a policy set up for five years, it is only thanks to our presence,” he boasts.
The 2040 objective is an intermediate step between EU’s commitments to reduce its 55% emissions (compared to 1990) by 2030 and 100% (climate neutrality) in 2050, which have already been engraved in the law during the previous legislature. “Legally, we have an agreement of the PPE with the Greens so as not to reopen the texts on 2030 and 2050. The one on 2040 is in the air as long as we do not agree on the procedure,” explains Pascal Canfin.
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