By Martin Banks - 10th June 2009
Much more will need to be achieved by the incoming commission
Tony Long
A new report says the European commission ranks only 4.4 out of 10 on its success on environmental issues.
The ‘Green 10’ report examines successes and failures in 12 policy areas that impact the environment. It blamed the low score on, among other things, a failure to reform agriculture and fisheries policies, and, more broadly, to propose sustainable economic policies.
The report, by a network of environmental NGOs, says the executive's environmental record is "worryingly off target" and accused Brussels' of adopting a "business as usual" approach to agriculture, of "brushing aside" a lot of agriculture-related issues and showing a "pro-GM bias."
The report recommends a number of proposals it says the new commission should pursue when it takes up office, probably later this year.
Successes, according to Matthias Duwe, director of Climate Action Network Europe, include the commission's "courage" in "taking on" on the car industry, particularly in Germany, over car emissions.
Another highlight, he said, was the "remarkable" success in setting new targets for renewable energy.
However, Jorgo Riss, of Greenpeace, told a news conference the commission had "not done enough" to tackle environmental issues, saying, "The commission consistently missed chances to bring about win-win solutions for the environment."
His comments were shared by Tony Long, of WWF, who said, "At a time when Europe is gripped by economic and environmental crises, we call on the next commission to double its efforts over the next five years.
"It needs to put in place policies that benefit the environment and people’s health, and create sustainable economic growth and jobs."
The report says the Barroso commission "got off to a bad start by judging environmental objectives to be inconsistent with the overriding jobs and competitiveness agenda.
"In the second half of its term, the commission belatedly began to strengthen legislation in the fields of climate, energy and transport."
The Green 10 report, however, warns that these policies – in particular the EU’s ‘climate and energy package’ – have not delivered the results predicted in the original commission proposals after being weakened by EU governments.
"Much more will need to be achieved by the incoming commission," said Long.
Meanwhile, EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday failed to agree on cash support for climate measures in developing countries."
In response, environment and development groups warned that EU "inertia" sends a "worrying" signal to delegates meeting in Bonn this week to prepare the ground for the Copenhagen global climate agreement in December.
