EU Summit: EU competitiveness means investing in the Green Deal

On today’s summit of EU leaders, Bas Eickhout MEP, President of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, comments:

“We are facing the heaviest attack on the Green Deal since Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the EU's man on the moon moment. Attacking the Green Deal means attacking European industry and economy, as well as energy and resource security, blocking billions of euros of investments in green technologies. Constantly shaking up long-decided matters such as phasing out the combustion engine or the deregulation agenda is just creating chaos and uncertainty. The German chancellor, the French president and others are creating investment insecurity, putting European industry at risk while handing the keys to the clean tech future to China, blindly focussing on a competition in deregulating with the US.

“At the same time, the climate crisis is worsening, EU leaders need to get their act together, and start caring about the impact this crisis already has on millions of Europeans, with heat waves and forest fires this summer, the floods in Valencia, and draughts with lost crops this year. We need to stick to the much needed target of cutting our emissions down by 90 percent by 2040 to combat this. We need commitment to clear measures on how to get there instead of constant sabotage. Ahead of the UN International Climate Conference starting in less than a month, the Council cannot let the EU go empty-handed."

Bas Eickhout will be present at today´s EUCO from around 16:00 on and will be available for interviews and background talks.