Overall, the Barroso Commission is "worryingly off target" on environmental issues, said the 'Green 10' coalition of leading environmental groups, presenting its assessment of the successes and failures of the 2004-2009 EU executive yesterday (10 June).
The environmentalists said Barroso had got off to a bad start by making competitiveness a priority back in 2005, giving the environment a backseat role as an obstacle to economic development.
Although the Commission's rhetoric took a sharp U-turn halfway through its term, with more emphasis on 'green growth', this has not translated into initiatives to protect biodiversity and natural resources, the NGOs said.
The 'Green 10' criticised the EU executive for failing to reform agriculture and fisheries policies, and giving in to vested interests instead of legislating for sustainable ecosystem development. The so-called 'Health Check' of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) had left the scheme's "distorted system of subsidies" untouched, they said, giving it a score of just 4.
The Commission did equally poorly on biodiversity, as the EU is clearly failing to reach its target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010, the NGOs said. Moreover, failure to protect Europe's soil from depletion, a bias in favour of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and a lack of targets for reducing resource consumption further lowered the overall score.
Praise for climate policy, Commissioner Dimas
Nevertheless, the EU executive was praised for its climate change policy, which brought with it ambitious initiatives in the energy and transport sectors too.
The Barroso Commission started talking about climate policies as early as 2006, when nobody else was interested in going beyond the Kyoto Protocol's emissions reduction targets, the environmentalists argue. As a result, it produced ambitious proposals for the climate and energy package in 2007, which was agreed to last December.
In contrast to Barroso, Environment Commissioner Dimas got an overwhelmingly positive evaluation for his readiness to take on the German car industry, push for the REACH legislation on chemicals (EurActiv 10/10/08) and champion regulation on air pollution, among other things.
"Overall, I think Dimas has been a committed environment commissioner, and in addition to that for us quite an accessible commissioner. He saw dialogue and working with environmental organisations as necessary and constructive," said John Hontelez, chief of the European Environmental Bureau.
Call for sustainable EU budget
The green groups urged the next Commission to double its efforts on sustainable development, starting with the budget reform for the 2014-2020 period.
"Agriculture spending and cohesion policy will have to be brought completely into line with the CO2 reduction target which the Commission has brought into law," said Tony Long, director of WWF's European Policy Office. This is crucial, as the two areas cover 70% of the EU's €130 billion budget per year, he argued.
Moreover, fisheries subsidies will need a complete overhaul and subsidies to fossil fuels and dangerous energies will have to be scrapped, Long stated. The budget should also address the question of transport priorities, he added, arguing that the focus should be on reducing demand rather than building up supply.
The environmentalists also urged the new Commission to draft legislation on technology which sets clear energy-efficiency targets for sectors and products. Finally, they called for strong EU leadership in international talks on a post-Kyoto climate treaty.
