De Croo (Open VLD) said on Tuesday evening in the VRT television program ‘Terzake’: "We need to make a choice," and subsequently criticized the upcoming European Nature Restoration Law.
In the Belgian parliamentary system, the national government only handles major dossiers such as Defense and Foreign Policy, while most politically sensitive policy decisions fall under the governments of Flanders and Wallonia. The prime minister's statement aligns him with Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA), who on Tuesday called for a "reality check" or even a "pause" on new climate plans.
The remarks by De Croo and Demir closely resemble those of French President Macron, who two weeks ago made statements about European environmental policy at an industry congress. Those statements were initially interpreted as a plea to put the brakes on the three major environmental laws currently being considered in the EU.
However, the French presidential palace later toned this down, saying the president meant that he believes the EU is already sufficiently ahead in environmental and climate policy.
The Belgian liberal prime minister De Croo expressed support for the EU environmental targets in the Green Deal, such as reducing greenhouse gases. However, he hesitated about further efforts to protect biodiversity: "We must prevent the cart from becoming too full." De Croo said he feared that the European industry "can no longer handle" the regulations.
But the green parties in the federal government (Flemish Groen and francophone Ecolo) showed less understanding for the prime minister's concerns. They called the statements scandalous and said he was not speaking on behalf of the national government.
"European agreements are not just a piece of paper. The prime minister places himself in the camp of the climate delayers," said leaders of the Greens. They emphasized that nature and climate go hand in hand and urged acceleration instead of delay. Earlier, the national climate minister Zakia Khattabi pressed for the immediate implementation of the nature restoration law. She criticized De Croo’s remarks as "not the federal position, nor the Belgian position."
The nature restoration bill is facing criticism in the European Parliament both from the agriculture committee and the center-right and conservative factions. They reject the proposal. The intention is that the ENVI environment committee will decide on June 15 whether the current proposal is sufficient for final discussion in a so-called trilogue, the decisive three-party negotiation on European Commission legislative proposals.
Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans called earlier this week on the Members of the European Parliament in both the agriculture and ENVI committees to come out of their trenches and join the negotiation table.