‘United in Diversity’?: The EU’s forthcoming elections and implications for environmental politics

24 May 2024  –  Written by Harvey Wood

In June, European states will elect the EU’s 10th Parliament. Environmental and climate change politics within the EU will ultimately be shaped by the outcome of these elections, conditioning the contours of what is – and what is not – possible for the remainder of the decade. This article provides key information of each of the 7 major Parliamentary groups’ environmental policies, who will be discussed in order of their size in the current Parliament.

The European People's Party

  • The EPP is currently the single-largest party in the EU Parliament. Alongside Commission President and EPP Spitzenkandidat Ursula von der Leyen, the outgoing 9th Parliament (2019-2024) has passed meaningful environmental legislation, including the Europe Green Deal (EGD), the Europe Climate Law, the Nature Restoration Law and the ‘Fit for 55’ package. 
  • Executive members of the EPP have declared their commitment to environmental and climate change policymaking; Ursula von der Leyen described the green agenda as Europe’s “man on the moon moment”, while Party leader Manfred Weber described climate change as the “most important task for all of us.”
  • The EPP, however, embodies a paradox as regards environmental policymaking. While its executive leaders are committed to the agenda, the party demonstrates significant divisions. 
  • Internal divisions have been glaring and show signs of worsening. While the EPP’s Congress in early 2024 reselected von der Leyen for a second term as Commission President, it saw a sizeable amount of delegates vote against her while others expressed vocal reservations about the party’s direction on climate policymaking. Moreover, many in the Parliament group sought to strike down the Nature Restoration Law, a key pillar of the EGD, which narrowly passed by 324-312 votes. 
  • The EPP’s manifesto squares the imperative of addressing climate change with avoiding economic repercussions with equal weight: “[W]e shifted the climate agenda to being an economic one”, elaborating that “[T]he European Green Deal was born out of the necessity to protect people and the planet. But it was also designed as an opportunity to build our future prosperity.”
  • In general, the EPP envisions general conditions to achieve Europe’s climate goals, specifically an economy that provides non-state, private actors with the macroeconomic conditions to create new technological solutions and innovations and predictable, stable investments. This reflects the policy rationale of the prevailing liberal environmentalist paradigm, in which the role of state and non-state market actors are circumscribed. 
  • The commitment and unity of the EPP is critical if the next Parliament is to succeed in continuing its climate agenda. However, internal divisions may contribute to an institutional paralysis, thus failing to produce more legislation.

 

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)

  • In contrast to the EPP’s division regarding environmental legislating and regulation, the S&D is clear in endorsing its use; its priorities state the group’s “support [for] the creation and promotion of bold EU laws that protect the environment” and regulations that “take a thorough and lasting approach to keeping our environment safe.” During the outgoing Parliament’s term, Vice-Chair Mohammed Chamim stated that calls from other groups for a policy ‘moratorium’ would be a “year thrown away” in the fight against climate change. 
  • The S&D articulates its environmental priorities as end-goals, working towards ‘clean and affordable energy for all’, ‘inclusive and sustainable EU industry policy’, ‘restoring and protecting our planet’, a ‘just transition towards climate neutrality’, ‘reducing pesticides’, ‘promoting agricultural sustainability’, ‘improving air quality’, ‘enhancing energy and resource efficiency’ and ‘improving soil quality’. 

  • As the second-largest group in the Parliament, the S&D is a key power-broker. Due to the EPP’s internal divisions, the S&D may have seek to adopt the mantle of environmental defender. Such may well be critical in the near-future as the importance of climate change among the electorates continues to grow.

Renew Europe (RE)

  • RE is explicit in its endorsement of and commitment to the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting warming to 1.5C degrees. As concerns Europe, “[w]e will make sure that the necessary transition to a climate neutral society by 2050 at the latest.” The Paris Agreement is centred as an anchor for European action; “no policies, payments or international agreements should act against our climate and environmental objectives or the Paris Agreement.”
  • RE show signs of trying to differentiate itself from the EPP by expressing support for regulatory mechanisms. It describes its support for the Nature Restoration Law as a crowning achievement that “broke the deadlock and delivered for nature”. Moreover, they have targeted the “disinformation spread by the EPP and right-wing political groups, which have taken this regulation [The Nature Restoration Law] hostage.”
  • RE is seemingly trying to pave its own way as regards environmental policymaking, describing its role within the Parliament as evidence of the “relevance of a strong political centre”, implying the productive role that pragmatism can play in the context of paralysis. 

 

Greens/ European Free Alliance (G/EFA)

  • The G/EFA is unique in that green politics is constitutive of its very founding. The foundational role that this plays is witnessed by the group’s bold platform, which seeks to ensure a ‘Courage to Put Planet and People First’ as well as calling for a Green and Social Deal to secure a “greener, healthier Europe where lives are secure, prosperous, and full of opportunity.”
  • The G/EFA adopts the regulatory mechanism as instrumental to achieving a green transition and addressing climate change. The contents of its manifesto are fundamentally progressive, as exemplified by its targets of: achieving climate neutrality by 2040, a decade before conventional targets; an energy transition ‘built on renewables’ of solar, wind, water and geothermal energy; an end to fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 at the latest, and all other environmentally harmful subsidies by 2027.

  • This platform provides a structural approach to climate change, seeking to address the material basis of environmental degradation. This is more specific than the platforms of other groups, who often neglect to identify the structural implications of climate change.

European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)

  • The ECR is approaching June’s elections under the slogan ‘Bringing Common Sense Back’. As regards environmental politics, it surmises its platform as ‘Protecting the global environment at a cost we can afford’. 
  • Similar to the EPP, the ECR does not mention environmental and climate policy without referring to potential economic costs. For example, the goals of ‘lowering emissions’ sees a championing of the ECR group’s role in passing the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which “strike[s] the right balance” between environmental and economic costs. This advocacy comes amid increasing evidence to suggest the ETS is inadequate in reducing the levels of emissions within Europe in line with internationally agreed goals and is instead imbalanced in favour of economic costs. Ultimately, the ECR embodies a faith in market mechanisms to produce solutions to, and reductions of, environmental degradation. 
  • The ECR is explicit in its positioning vis-à-vis the EGD; it will “review the Green Deal” to “strike the right balance between climate action and economic prosperity”. It may, therefore, play a role in either obstructing or repealing environmental legislation in the next Parliament.

Identity and Democracy (ID)

  • ID is perhaps the most vocal opponent of the EU’s climate agenda, reframing the EGD as ‘The Green Crusade’ against European citizens. 
  • The ID is set to make major gains in June. It has sought to tap into anti-environmentalist sentiments across the continent by tailoring its platform and its rhetoric to match the populist undercurrent that is characterising issues and concomitant debates. 

  • The ID has been perhaps the most consistent opponent of environmental legislation, which will almost certainly continue into the next Parliament. This opposition may be the most crucial factor for legislating on environmental and climate issues between 2024-2029, as their growth is set to come at the expense of established groups. 

The Left

  • The Left reflects the Parliament’s left-most boundary as regards environmental policy. Compared to its Parliamentary counterparts, its platform is the most radical and far-reaching.
  • It centres inequity – not typically or explicitly acknowledged by other parties – as instrumental to its platform. It takes aim at private actors; “[f]ossil fuel corporations contribute to 70% of global industrial emissions and have continuously reported record-breaking profits in recent years.” This offers a stark contrast to other platforms that see private actors as key to finding a solution, and whose freedom from regulation is crucial to this. 
  • The Left articulates the necessity of a ‘deviation’ from the “same old policies that got us here. The environmental problems we face are not the inevitable result of history, they are the outcome of political choices.”
  • This ultimately provides a unique conceptualisation of the environmental-economic trade-off. While other groups give – at least – equal weighting to each dynamic, The Left is unequivocal in its prioritisation of environmental objectives. 
  • Going into the next Parliament, The Left will likely provide the most radical voice for environmental issues and offer reliable support for legislation.

 

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Recommended citation:

Wood, H. (2024) ‘United in Diversity’?: The EU’s forthcoming elections and implications for environmental politics, 24 May. Available at: https://idrn.eu/united-in-diversity-the-eus-forthcoming-elections-and-implications-for-environmental-politics/ [Accessed: dd/mm/yyyy].