Left-wing groups within the European Parliament are looking to “blackmail” rival right-wing groups with the Green Deal, a source within the body has said.
It comes ahead of a debate titled “The attack on climate and nature: far-right and conservative attempts to destroy the Green Deal and prevent investment in our future”, which will take place in Strasbourg this week.
Proposed by the left-leaning Greens/European Free Alliance group for the last Strasbourg plenary before this year’s European Elections, the timing and partisan title of the debate has caused upset within right-wing circles.
“It makes no sense for something like this to take place in the last plenary session,” one source within the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group told Brussels Signal.
Another source said that many within the EP’s right-leaning groups are not sure how to react to the debate topic, with many feeling that the attack is unjustified.
“The conservatives are the first ones concerned about the future of Europe and we are the only ones who have drawn attention to the devastating consequences that the Green Deal will have on community industry,” they said.
Others have rebuffed accusations that the right is responsible for derailing the climate programme.
The European Commission has amended its climate targets, set just last month after farmers succeeded in changing the agenda via violent Brussels protests. https://t.co/0t9mj8A9fo
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 26, 2024
Paloma Adrados Coart, a VOX advisor within the European Parliament, argued that “although the Green Deal started with goodwill, it has turned out to be just the opposite”.
“They know their proposals were going nowhere,” she said.
“They should stop with the hysterical dogmatism, it is very hypocritical. They blackmail everybody”.
The debate follows several public attempts to blame the European right for many of the problems plaguing Europe’s green reforms.
Back in December, European Commissioner for Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius publicly warned that there was an ongoing campaign of “legitimisation” regarding right-wing attacks on the Green Deal.
The Lithuanian expressed “concern” that mainstream parties were normalising talking points used by “the far-right” on issues such as climate change.
It’s the polls that swung it: EU leaders watered down the Green Deal in fear of Europe’s populist tide, writes @Raphfel. https://t.co/KEPUVGkupF
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 18, 2023
Meanwhile, politicians closer to the centre have softened their stances on the Green Deal as the EP elections approach.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been among the back peddlers, despite previously being one of the staunchest defenders of the plan.
EC sources insist that she and former Commissioner Frans Timmermans competed to see who could impose more demanding objectives in terms of “green” policies.
Once Timmermans resigned in 2023 to stand in the last Dutch elections, Von der Leyen changed her strategy. While the main objectives of the scheme remain in place, the demands to meet them have been made more lenient.
European “arrogance” regarding world order led to the continent’s current economic difficulties, Germany’s climate change minister said during a World Economic Forum panel discussion. https://t.co/W6IXd2VmpU
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 17, 2024
