European left must convince voters that green transition is socially just

Europe’s socialist parties must convince voters that the transition to a green economy is socially just, centre-left leaders have argued in a series of policy proposals ahead of next June’s European elections.

“We have to make sure that the answers we give to the problem are manageable and socially acceptable,” said Matthias Ecke, an MEP from Germany’s social democrat party SPD, adding that some Europeans fear that the challenge of meeting the continent’s ambitious Net Zero commitments will mean job cuts and a fall in living standards.

“We can’t just compensate people for the costs of the transition, we need to create new opportunities and a model that works,” he said.

Ecke was speaking at an event in Brussels last week to launch a series of twelve policy ‘missions’ drafted by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung ahead of next June’s European elections. The proposals are likely to feed into the wider policy discussion among socialist parties ahead of the elections.

The think tank is affiliated with the German SPD, the largest delegation in the European socialist family and the political family of current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Climate change and energy policy “is one of the most important issues for people thinking about voting social democrat,” said Christos Katsioulis, director of the FES regional office for cooperation and peace in Europe.

The three ‘missions’ focusing on energy and climate all focus on the social aspect of the ecological transition, including the need for affordable energy and an ecological transition that creates good jobs.

Polling suggests that the Socialists will again finish second to the centre-right European People’s Party in next June’s European Parliament elections, but the margin between the two could be the smallest for nearly 20 years.

One of the big ideological shifts on the left in recent years has been the focus on climate change and energy policy, with the European left moving into the political territory traditionally held by Green parties.

That move towards climate, energy and environmental policy has been accelerated by the EU’s ambitious Green Deal, which has been at the heart of the progamme of Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission since 2019.

The June polls represent “perhaps the most important European elections since 1979,” said Martin Schulz, the former European Parliament president and lead candidate for the European socialist family at the 2014 polls.

“Across the EU, right-wing extremists are winning elections, influence, and are sitting in the government of founding members of the European community,” said Schulz.

The Parliament, he added, would need a pro-European, left-wing majority to combat right-wing forces in the other EU institutions.

The FES argues that the 12 missions for a progressive Europe are based on the biggest concerns for European citizens and address the main challenges of our time.

Other proposals include a demand for a 32-hour working week and the creation of a European army.

Meanwhile, in a bid to address the rule of law crisis in some EU states, Katsioulis said that the FES would campaign for the establishment of law clinics across Europe, noting that “many people don’t know their rights and their governments don’t respect them.”

Tanja Fajon, Slovenia’s foreign minister and a former socialist MEP, also stressed the need to focus on decent wages, healthcare and pension reform.

“Inequalities in society are why we need a progressive and social state,” she noted.

Scholz said the EU is “a community of law”, lamenting that “two or three member states deciding that they don’t want to stick to their treaty commitments undermines this community of law”.

“Not to respect the rule of law is a systematic coup against the spirit of European cooperation,” he added.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]