“An ill wind is blowing against ecology. It is in these conditions that we are approaching the European elections”, warns Marie Toussaint, MEP and head of the list of the French Greens (Europe Écologie – Les Verts, EELV) for the June 2024 elections, in an interview with Euractiv France.
In an interview with Euractiv France, Toussaint set out her party’s policy programme, ranging from the Green Deal to European sovereignty, support for Ukraine and EU enlargement.
She accused right-wing parties of fighting “against the continuation of the ecological transition by forging unworthy alliances with the far right” and some liberals, including French President Emmanuel Macron, and calling for a “regulatory pause” on climate.
Although the Green Deal was promoted by the President of the European Commission and EPP member Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission chief is, according to Toussaint, simply “adept at realpolitik. When ecology is fashionable, she launches the Green Deal. But when the situation gets complicated, she turns her back on it”.
Toussaint says that the Green Deal “is already not ambitious enough to comply with the Paris Agreement: to date, we have only adopted 40%”.
The economy needs to undergo “profound change” to meet the continent’s climate ambitions. However, “the EPP refuses to do this and remains stuck in orthodoxy”, she said.
Asked about Macron and von der Leyen’s wish to reindustrialise Europe, Toussaint believes that “one of the keys to our sovereignty is energy and industrial independence”. However, it is necessary to “put industry at the service of the ecological transition, sobriety and depollution”.
This will also help to create jobs and improve the attractiveness of Europe’s regions, she added.
With this in mind, Toussaint calls for “an environmental treaty that makes the protection of living beings the standard of all standards” and “to make the foundation of social rights binding”.
‘Social veto’
“The fight against poverty must become the backbone of the EU”, she argues.
To achieve this, Toussaint proposes “a social right of veto that would allow every legislative project, every budget line, every infrastructure project to be analysed in terms of its impact on the 10-20% least fortunate in the EU”.
“If the impact is too great, the project must be abandoned”.
This measure is necessary now that “the Liberals, under the guise of protecting the environment, are deploying unequal measures”.
“Europe has given in too much to the market”, she concludes.
Among the other “systemic” changes needed to support the ecological transition, Ms Toussaint proposes introducing a Europe-wide wealth tax, a crackdown on tax havens and the greening of “all European investments”. The European Central Bank’s policy must also change and “allow lower rates for activities that benefit the environment”.
“The longer we wait, the higher the transition cost will be. We, therefore, need to mobilise the substantial sums needed for the climate right now”, she warns.
The Green leader also wants to “extend the corporate duty of care framework to environmental issues and include financial players such as banks […] to force them to change their behaviour”.
Asked about the possibility of continuing free trade in a context of ecological transition, Ms Toussaint believes that “we need to review our rules and incorporate a dose of green protectionism”.
She rejects the idea that trade guarantees peace, noting that “as we have seen with Russia, trade can also lock us into toxic dependencies”.
100% renewable energy scenario
Ms Toussaint also reiterated the need to move away from gas and is concerned that the EU reached a gas agreement with Azerbaijan in July 2022.
The aim is “to move towards 100% renewable energy by 2040”, she said, pointing out that “several studies show that it is possible to achieve this objective”, which “is only a question of political will”.
While the studies in question call for a change in individual behaviour, Ms Toussaint says she wants to defend “a Europe that protects against social and environmental vulnerabilities, not a Europe that poisons”.
Ukraine, enlargement, EU reform
When asked about support for Ukraine, Toussaint maintained her party’s position that “we [Europeans] absolutely must continue to support the Ukrainians as much as possible. They are going through a long war, and there is a risk of forgetting them”.
As for the accession of Ukraine and other nations to the EU, she commented that “Europe is a political project of a land of rights and freedoms” and that, consequently, “any State that wishes to be part of this project must be able to find its place in it, provided that it respects the rule of law and fundamental rights”.
At the same time, it is important to avoid the EU “becoming diluted as it enlarges. So enlargement must not prevent the deepening” of European integration.
To achieve this, the EU must be reformed, said Toussaint.
“We need to get out of unanimity, that blocking factor, finalise budgetary union and give the EU its own resources”. She also urged Europe to “make a federal leap, without further delay” and to move forward “with the States that want to make this leap”.
When asked about the possibility of the Greens taking part in the next European Commission, Toussaint explained that the first objective was to elect as many Green MEPs as possible and that “the objective will then be to find allies to build a majority”. In 2019, the Greens participated in the first meetings before slamming the door on the negotiations.
However, she ruled out working with the EPP if it “continues to turn its back on the Green Pact and human rights, attacks ecologists and persists in budgetary orthodoxy”.
As for the divisions on the left, Toussaint said that “[her] adversaries are the far right and nationalism” and that she did not wish to “give in to the war of the left” and was therefore proposing “a non-aggression pact” to the left-wing formations in France.
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
Source: euractiv.com
