Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) A complementary delegated act recently approved by the European Commission lays down the sustainability criteria for the EU Taxonomy of sustainable investment and gives gas and nuclear energy a green categorization. This represents a de facto suspension of the European Green Deal and undermines many of the sustainability and environmental commitments that the EU has been reaffirming over recent years.
The decision could mean that public and private resources and funds, which should finance a change in the production model, will be used to consolidate the patching up of an outdated model. Qualifying investments in nuclear energy or in fossil fuels such as gas as sustainable discredits this system. The Commission has created a tool to enable greenwashing for investors and companies.
We denounce the Commission’s decision to follow the economic and hegemonic interests of the big energy oligopolies and of some EU states, which are hindering any substantive change, rather than adhering to science. We also consider this decision by the Commission to be undemocratic. An unelected minority is deciding the future of millions of Europeans without any democratic legitimacy on a central issue for the future of people and the planet. We demand that national and EU institutions urgently take effective action to reject this decision.
The Commission is not doing what it is delegated to do – the EU Taxonomy is legally obliged to be based on science and not on political interests.
The vote in the College of Commissioners indicates that economic and national interests, far from the interests of European citizens, have guided the Commission. Several Commissioners opposed this decision, which should be enough for a serious and profound reflection inside the institution. The Commission has not been sufficiently transparent throughout the process, withdrawing nuclear energy and gas from the original proposal and including it at the last minute with an extremely short period of public consultation. There must be a real public debate about this decision.
The group of experts that provided input to the Commission have voiced their total opposition to giving nuclear energy and gas a green categorization. In their official response to the Commission following the publication, they state that this decision is not in line with the Taxonomy regulation. Several member states have already declared their opposition to the new Taxonomy. Moreover, the commitments of the Commission, the European Parliament, and the international agreements to which the EU is a party go in the opposite direction to the new position defended by the Commission.
We call on all political forces, trade unions, environmental organisations, and all civil society to do what they can to prevent the entry into force of this delegated act.
We call on MEPs to stop the Commission’s proposal by objecting in the European Parliament, and we urge the member states to veto this Taxonomy proposal in the Council, not only to save its credibility but also to safeguard the necessary and urgent change of energy model that European society and EU climate commitments demand.
Undersigned
1. Sira Rego
2. Manu Pineda
3. Idoia Villanueva
4. M. Eugenia Rodríguez Palop
5. Miguel Urbán
6. Pernando Barrena
7. Mick Wallace
8. Luke Flannagan
9. Chris Macmanus
10. Clare Daily
11. Manuel Bompard
12. Leila Chaibi
13. Manon Aubry
14. Marc Botenga
15. Cornelia Ernst
16. Oezlem Demirel
17. Martin Schirdewan
18. Martina Michels
19. Petros Kokkalis
20. Stelios Kouloglou
21. Kostas Arvanitis
22. Dimitrios Papadimoulis
23. Alexis Georgoulis
24. Anja Hazekamp
25. Marisa Matias
26. José Gusmao
27. Nikolaj Villumsen
28. Malin Bjork