The shift towards right-leaning parties in the European Parliament is expected to hinder the passage of ambitious EU climate policies. However, analysts, officials, and lawmakers suggest that most of Europe’s leading green policies are likely to remain intact.
Preliminary election results indicate centrist parties maintaining a majority, yet right-wing and far-right parties, critical of the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ environmental package, have made gains, with Green parties suffering significant losses.
“I don’t think that we’ll be rolling back on (climate) policies. But I do think that it will be more complicated to get new policies off the ground,” Bas Eickhout, head of the European Parliament’s Greens lawmaker group, told Reuters.
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“All new policies will be harder to pass. But backsliding is very unlikely,” Krzysztof Bolesta, Poland’s secretary of state for climate, told Reuters.
“It is possible that new ambition will be delayed, mostly for populistic reasons,” agreed Julian Popov, who until April was EU member Bulgaria’s environment minister.
As stated by the European Investment Bank, meeting the EU’s 2030 climate target will necessitate annual investments of 1 trillion euros, marking a significant increase of approximately 356 billion euros compared to the 2010-2020 period.
Across the political spectrum, there’s a commitment to investing in local industries, driven by heightened competition with the US and China in producing green technologies such as low-carbon steel and electric vehicles.
While some analysts anticipate increased funding and policies from the EU to support climate-friendly projects, there’s a concern that the emphasis may shift towards aiding industry rather than solely prioritizing environmental sustainability.
