“Does Europe want to own its future (and invest) or rent it (and continue spending as before)?” Vandenberghe asked. “Yes, climate action has a cost. The cost of non-action is higher.”
The exchange raised eyebrows. Two lifetime eurocrats having it out in public was “not usual,” said an EU official, who has worked with both men and spoke on condition of anonymity. “But it is both funny and healthy.”
The timing was salient. For the last five years, the EU has favored top-down regulation to tackle problems like climate change and biodiversity loss. Now, the top political priority for leaders across the bloc is keeping industries alive.
Deregulation is du jour. On Wednesday, the Commission presented a sweeping set of reforms that mentioned “simplification” 17 times, often in connection to green legislation.
Some of this is viewed as a necessary streamlining. But “existing laws are in danger of being weakened, under the guise of simplification,” warned Mohammed Chahim, the vice president of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, also on LinkedIn.
It’s not just the EU. On Wednesday, U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves told environmentalists to “stop worrying about the bats and the newts” as she rolled out her own program for economic growth.
