The mobilization of the agricultural sector continues to win concessions and score political victories on a European scale, successes not unrelated to the electoral context in which they take place, but which reaffirm their great political power in Brussels.
After authorizing another repeal of the obligation to set aside part of the arable land and the adoption of protective measures as a result of the import of Ukrainian products, the European Commission loosened the rope and announced the withdrawal of his proposal to reduce the use of pesticides, one of the most contested initiatives of the so-called Green Pact. At the same time, at the last minute Brussels gave up on recommending a 30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector in its roadmap to achieve a global reduction of 90% by 2040.
The “regulatory pause” that French President Emmanuel Macron called for last year is here, courtesy of farmers’ protests. "The Commission proposed a regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides, with the laudable objective of reducing the risks of chemical phytosanitary products. But the proposal has become a symbol of polarization", conceded the president of the Community Executive in a speech to the Eurochamber in which she announced that she will archive the plan.
In reality, the initiative was stalled and was not supposed to go forward this legislature, but its withdrawal is a concession and an important political gesture. The European Parliament surprisingly rejected it last year and the Ministers of Agriculture of the Twenty-seven, like the agricultural sector itself, have reproached Brussels for the lack of prior impact studies for a proposal so far-reaching that it aimed to halve the use of pesticides and ban the most dangerous ones by 2030.
Von der Leyen spoke of giving "generous incentives" to the sector to actively participate in the EU's environmental efforts and promised to involve it in the design of a new proposal, a mission that will fall to the next Commission, after the elections Europeans in June. "To move forward, we need more dialogue and a different approach", he admitted in an outburst of mea culpa.
Von der Leyen's gestures of complicity with the camp multiply not only in response to the wave of protests sweeping the continent, but also to the growing resistance to the Green Deal in the ranks of her own political family, the People's Party European (PPE), from where some of the harshest criticism of his initiatives have come in recent months. Yesterday, the popular Europeans celebrated the withdrawal of the proposal on pesticides as "a relief" and a "reasonable" decision, even though it was "late". A few hours later, the Commission adopted a communication on the road map to follow to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, as the Union has committed to do, but leaving the field out.
The initiative, which does not have a legislative nature, aims to set an intermediate goal of reducing emissions by 90% compared to the 1990 level by 2040. Although Brussels is staying the course, in view of the current political context, has given up including targets for cutting gases related to agricultural activity that were included in the drafts of the proposal, to which La Vanguardia has acceded. Those documents also talked about the need to encourage changes in the diet of Europeans and for consumers to have access to alternative sources of more affordable proteins (that is, to reduce meat consumption), reflections removed from the final text.
Fueled by the war in Ukraine and the urgency to speed up the energy transition, the Green Deal has been the hallmark of the Von der Leyen Commission, but the level of ambition is beginning to wane as the elections approach European countries and a growing number of countries are seeing the streets fill with protests, with tractors, against European environmental policies. In reality, in many cases those same governments have voted in favor of the measures, but the political moment invites to lift the foot of the accelerator. The word dialogue was one of the most repeated yesterday by the Commission.
Regarding the emission reduction targets in 2040 and 2050, the new European Commissioner for Climate Action, the Dutch liberal Wopke Hoekstra, emphasized that these targets can only be achieved if they have enough "social support ". "On the one hand, citizens see that climate change is real, but at the same time, they are concerned about how these changes will affect their way of life, their pocketbook and their work. It is something that we must take into account, building bridges between, on the one hand, climate policies and, on the other, the competitiveness of the industry and a transition that is fair. It will be the only way to continue forward", emphasized Hoekstra.
With all the precautions, with its proposal to adopt a 90% emissions reduction target by 2040, the Commission wants to send a clear message to industry, citizens and governments about the economic policy bets that will be done in the coming years. For Strategic Perspectives, a pan-European think-tank on climate policies, it proposes a "feasible" scenario that "can consolidate the role of the EU in the industrial race to achieve net zero emissions", while clearly demonstrating the economic benefits of the mega-investments that will need to be made in the coming decades.
