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The European Commission’s plans are ambitious, but feasible, Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European Commission responsible for the green transition in relation to the EU decarbonisation plan, said in an interview with hvg.hu. To those who see this plan as an excessive sacrifice, he advised that the cost of doing nothing is far greater than the cost of acting. On the rule of law, he noted that it raised fundamental questions that the EU was not yet ready to respond to.
The new European Commission plans include a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, instead of the previous 50%. Regarding the presentation of the proposal, Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European Commission responsible for the green transition, said in an interview with hvg.hu that the proposal was preceded by a very thorough impact assessment. And this showed that while it will not be easy, the proposal is feasible. It has drawn the attention of the Member States who are sacrificing themselves for the victims that they are forced to endure if we do nothing. We are already facing extreme weather, unpredictable seasons, droughts, storms and wildfires, even with an average temperature rise of 1%. And the cost of doing nothing is much higher than doing it, he added.
Commission presents a new program
Regarding that some arguers should fall victim to polluters rather than families, TImmermans said this week that the European Commission will present its first plans for a building modernization program that would make energy consumption in homes more sustainable. This, as you said, will be addressed at the European level.
Timmermans said that he also discussed with the mayor of Budapest about electromobility, how to make public transport carbon neutral. Additionally, Timmermans also spoke about the importance of building car charging infrastructure and lowering the price level of electric vehicles so that the automotive industry can market electric vehicles at a lower price so that they are available to more people.
To this end, the Just Transition Mechanism, which supports the transition from fossil energy, has been doubled, with a recovery budget of 1.8 billion euros over the next 7 years.
There is reason to be careful
In the next seven-year budget, Member States have committed to dedicating 30% of available resources and 37% of available resources in the Recovery Fund to decarbonisation. The distribution of the grants is based on a plan submitted by the member states, which is supervised by the European Commission. If a member state does not use the money according to the program, not only the EU anti-fraud office, OLAF, but also the European Commission can take action, Timmermans said, adding that by examining the reports from the OLAF, there were reasons to be careful. “especially in the case of Hungary”.
Timmermans was vice president for the rule of law in the former European Commission, which later took on the Hungarian government on several occasions. In response to a question about the rule of law, he told hvg.hu that in his view, the rule of law is a difficult task as it often turns into an ideological confrontation over the nature of democracy. The vice president of the committee believed that the EU was not yet ripe for this confrontation. In their view, what democracy means for the EU should be defined in order to distinguish between the rule of law, that is, the rule of law, and the rule of law, that is, governance based on laws adapted to one’s needs.
If there is no independent judiciary, if there are no independent media, there is no rule of law. It’s that easy.
– noted Timmermans, who also stressed that this should definitely be discussed at EU level, because “sooner or later it will be a very serious challenge.”
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