The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) has called for a bonfire of EU red tape in a three-page statement adopted at a gathering of conservative leaders in Berlin.
A raft of incoming climate, environmental and corporate sustainability law should be “put on hold for at least two years” and its scope limited to only the largest companies, the largest group in the European Parliament has said, setting a clear policy direction as the European Commission prepares a package of measures to boost EU competitiveness.
The centre-right EPP had already launched a campaign to reverse key Green Deal legislation like tougher car emissions standards before the second EU executive headed by Ursula von der Leyen – a German Christian Democrat hailing from the same political family – took office in December.
Now the group has doubled down on its deregulation agenda, describing regulations on corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence, and a related border carbon tax and EU green investment rulebook as “excessive and burdensome” and immensely damaging to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
During the two-year hiatus, the EU executive should limit the applicability of such legislation to companies with over 1,000 employees while at the same time slashing even their reporting obligations in half, by eliminating double reporting and other inefficiencies, the EPP demands ahead of a forthcoming ‘omnibus’ proposal to amend a raft of such regulations.
“We oppose excessive regulation and bureaucracy at all levels, from the EU to local level, for agriculture and forestry,” the statement continues. “We demand further simplifications on issues such as set-asides or pesticides as well as for implementing the EU Deforestation regulation.”
The EPP also goes on to warn that achieving EU climate targets – a 55% cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels by the end of the decade and net-zero by mid-century, with a new 2040 target expected later this year – must not lead to deindustrialisation or hamper growth.
Companies operating in Europe face electricity cost two to three times higher than competitors, while gas prices are four to five times as high, the conservative group claims. Despite this, the EPP rejects explicit renewable energy targets – currently a cornerstone of EU climate policy, along with demand reduction in the form binding energy efficiency requirements.
The EPP’s environment policy lead Peter Liese said this morning that the EU needed “more intelligently” designed climate policy, especially in light of incoming US president Donald Trump’s imminent departure from the Paris Agreement to halt global temperature rise.
“We need to achieve the EU climate targets in a technology-neutral way and with much less bureaucracy,” Liese said, while concluding that the 1.5-degree cap agreed in Paris ten years ago was “no longer achievable”.
The EPP also rejects renovation requirements for homeowners, as found in the directive on energy performance of buildings. The group restated its support for the European automotive industry, which faces huge fines for failing to comply with EU environmental law, and has been fighting a fierce lobbying campaign against tougher vehicle emission limits that kicked in this year.
In a separate statement, the EPP declared it has a “mandate to lead the EU” due to its status as the largest party in the European Parliament – although it is far short of an outright majority and has been relying on support from groups further to the right – and with von der Leyen leading the Commission and centre-right Polish premier Donald Tusk at the head of the EU Council.
Listing its other key areas for priority action, the EPP called for tougher security measures and “ensuring a turning point in reducing irregular migration”.
Commission vice-president Teresa Ribera, whose portfolio title is a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, is slated to publish on 26 February a Clean Industrial Deal alongside an Action Plan on Affordable Energy and a Roadmap towards ending Russian energy imports.
On the same day, fellow vice-president in charge of the EU’s industrial strategy Stéphane Séjourné is expected to present the omnibus proposal to amend the key laws on corporate sustainability and green investment criteria. Unions and green groups have already mobilised against what they fear will be a bonfire of workers’ rights and environmental protections.
