By Martin Banks - 25th May 2009
This survey shows that we need to speed up the level of investment in 'green' issues
Bart Staes
EU member states have been urged to pay more attention to 'green issues' in responding to the downturn.
The appeal comes in the wake of a new survey which suggests that European economic recovery plans pay little or no attention to environmental concerns.
The survey was carried out by the Wuppertal Institute and commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in parliament. The interim findings were released on Monday.
They show that the recovery package for the EU-27 accounts for 0.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared with 1.8 per cent for the United States and 7.1 per cent for China.
However, the EU 'green share' of these recovery plans, that is, the amount on measures to tackle climate, energy, waste and water treatment issues, accounts for even less.
Expenditure on such issues in Italy, for instance, is a mere 1.3 per cent compared with 80.5 per cent in south Korea, 37 per cent in China and 13 per cent in the US.
Speaking at a news conference in parliament, Belgian Greens MEP Bart Staes said, "This survey shows that we need to speed up the level of investment in 'green' issues in national recovery plans.
"This is something that needs to be done now, in the run-up to the European elections, and also in the new parliament."
His comments were echoed by party colleague Pierre Jonckheer, who said, "The green share of recovery programmes for each member state is very small.
"Economies around the globe are suffering high unemployment, increasing poverty and social insecurity as well as economic instability.
"This is unacceptable which also has the potential to threaten the political stability of the EU."
"The study outlines how EU member states might tackle this issue."
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