DEMOCRACY OR LOBBYCRACY? ??

It’s time to speak up. The?new deregulatory push against the EU Green Deal threatens?our economies and our fate on the planet. The leaked EU strategic agenda, which defines the bloc's priorities for the next mandate,?reveals major backtracking on topics like the climate crisis, nature loss, and pollution - the biggest threats our societies face. All this in the name of competitiveness. In this edition, we dive into why this U-turn on the green agenda is neither evidence-based nor aligned with citizens' concerns. We also bring hopeful stories of citizen mobilisation, reminding us that the battle against misinformation can and must be won.??

ASSAULT ON OUR FUTURE??

DON’T LOOK UP: We had a look at the leaked EU strategic agenda for 2024-2029 and we still haven't managed to bring?our eyebrows back down. Everything related to environmental action has been disregarded or, as in the case of climate action, relegated to the bottom. Together with WWF, we have cross-checked this plan drafted by EU Council President Charles Michel with that of the 2019-2024 mandate, and the U-turn against the green agenda is patent. Prioritising so-called “food security” over sustainability in agriculture is a shortsighted move that ignores the sector's greatest threats, said our Faustine Bas-Defossez to Euractiv.?

WHOSE PRIORITIES? It’s disheartening to see top EU politicians giving in to deregulation lobbying just a few months before the elections.?Are these concessions merely electoral calculus??Recent surveys in Germany, France and Poland reveal that a majority of citizens support more ambitious policies to address the climate emergency. If the popular "green backlash" is no such thing, to whom are these concessions being made? Look at vested interests and powerful lobbies.?

SCIENCE, NOT FICTION: Business and industry are in their right to campaign. But EU policymakers should guide their decisions?by impartial scientific analysis. There is no scientific basis for claiming that green regulation prevents competitiveness or harms the economy. If farmers decry the broken and unfair food system, why does the EU Commission decide that the solution is to remove environmental safeguards? If the chemical industry argues that high energy prices affect its competitiveness, why does the EU Commission decide to scrap regulations that protect citizens from dangerous chemicals? These concessions aren’t based on evidence.?

WAKE-UP TIME: Lobbyists and populist groups peddle the?narrative that green policies are to blame for economic woes.?But the European economy, together with workers, consumers, and nature will pay the price if they succeed in killing the Green Deal. Elections are the right time to counter these harmful lies.?The EU won't enhance its competitiveness by abandoning nature and climate action and leaving the green transition to the invisible hand of the market; quite the opposite.?As food for thought, check out The Guardian’s editorial or this OpEd by former Deputy State Secretary at the Swedish Environment Ministry, Mats Engstr?m.?

IN THE EU BUBBLE ???

CAP CAPTORS: The EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) lies at the heart of farmers' unrest. It's poorly designed, unfairly distributed, and promotes a model of large-scale industrial farms suffocating the European countryside. Yet the EU Commission's response to farmers' protests is a proposal to scrap CAP environmental standards. Brilliant, right? This move will leave farmers even more vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, offering no short-term relief and actively undermining their long-term interests!?

UNDEMOCRATIC TRICKS: But how to?carry out a reform of such magnitude?in a record time? By pushing it through with an 'urgency procedure'.?Voila!?This way, democratic debate and proper assessment of a reform affecting 30% (!!) of the EU budget can be conveniently sidelined.?Yesterday, MEPs gave their blessing to the EU Commission to apply this formula, as a path?to reform the CAP through the back door.?

WITHOUT SCIENTIFIC BASIS:?This proposal is yet another example of policymakers failing to listen to sound science, and instead bending to the interests of a select few with vested interests in the status quo. In this case, they even failed to listen to two of the (only) four stakeholders consulted. These said the proposed simplification rules will only “exacerbate discontent in the farming community as they neither support farmers in increasing their resilience nor do they address the real issues that farmers face”. Read our full press reaction.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE ??

TAX THE RICH: One sure thing behind the cost-of-living crisis is the current unfair tax system. We took the streets yesterday with other NGOs to call on the EU to do the fair and sensible thing: tax the rich. As ordinary people saw how the pandemic and the war in Ukraine impacted their domestic economies, five of the richest billionaires in the EU have?increased their wealth?by a staggering 76%. Studies show that an EU wealth tax could bring in between?€230 billion to?€505 billion annually –?a substantial amount of money that could be employed to ensure no one is left behind in this transition.?

HISTORIC WIN IN COURTS: Governments take note: you had better protect citizens from climate change, it's a human right and there are legal consequences for violating it. For the first ever, a group of older Swiss women, the KlimaSeniorinnen, have won a climate case in the European Court of Human Rights against their government’s climate inaction. The win – based on the ruling that the Swiss government are violating the right to privacy and family life (art. 8 ECHR) of the women – sets an?enormous precedent for the future of climate litigation. See a fuller analysis of the case and two others heard the same day here.?

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