Upon his installation, the Dutch EU commissioner promised to adhere to international obligations to reduce nitrogen emissions and air pollution, but critics point out that the EU is increasingly backtracking on the Green Deal and environmental and climate regulations.
More Emissions
EU leaders have urged swift measures against rising energy prices for large companies. At the same time, the European Commission is working on amendments to emissions rules and a broader revision of the ETS system later this year.
This system regulates the buying and selling of allowances for companies to emit dirty air. An important part of Hoekstra's plans is adjusting the rules around free emission rights. The Commission wants to review how many rights sectors receive and how this distribution can better match the current situation.
Promotion
Additionally, work is underway on a major revision of the emission trading system. This is expected to be presented later this year and will be more far-reaching than the initial adjustments currently being prepared.
Timmermans
Former EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans said last weekend in an opinion piece in the Dutch newspaper Trouw that he rejects reducing European climate rules.
"The European Green Deal was born at the end of the last decade out of the broad conviction that Europe should take the lead in the global movement toward climate neutrality. Much has happened since then. The corona crisis and Putin’s war in Ukraine pushed climate policy far down the priority list of our citizens. But the Green Deal is much more than climate policy. It is a master plan to also prepare Europe industrially and economically for the inevitable future," Timmermans said.
Culture War
"That is why it is so unfortunate that the right, following far-right forces, has turned the Green Deal into a battleground for the culture war. Two years after the conservative EPP fully capitalized on the popularity of the Green Deal and claimed it as their own success, suddenly nothing about it was acceptable anymore and conservatives wanted nothing to do with it. Even worse: they turned against it."
"Climate goals were reduced during Ursula von der Leyen's second term as President of the European Commission, the energy transition was delayed, industry that was on the right track was punished, and the deliberate laggards were rewarded," Timmermans said.