Presentation
The European elections open up a crucial period for redefining the priorities of the European institutions over the next five years, and for ensuring the credibility of the EU's commitment to the ecological transition laid down in the previous mandate by the European Green Deal, which led to an unprecedented update of the European legislative framework for the ecological transition. This Study takes stock of the legislative and regulatory texts of the last five years and identifies priorities for further EU environmental action in the next mandate.
Key Messages
- The lack of progress in relation to the initial promises on the agricultural and food transition calls for this issue to be revisited in the next mandate. This sector cannot remain on the sidelines of environmental action because it is crucial to climate and biodiversity issues, while there is also a need to transform the sector to ensure its own resilience and viability.
- The acceleration of climate action will be based on the ability to provide improved responses to the distributional challenges raised by the ecological transition, by placing the accessibility of green solutions for EU citizens at the centre.
- In a context where Europe’s energy and material resources are very limited, it is in the European Union’s interest to build an industrial strategy that sets high standards in environmental and social obligations.
- A debate must begin quickly on how to finance the ecological transition at the European level, given that the required investment raises the issue of solidarity between Member States and also because the European recovery plan expires in 2026.
- The deepening of European diplomacy linked to the challenges of ecological transformation should be a priority during the new mandate so as to accelerate the transition in Europe and across the world, and to contribute to resolving the tensions linked to the transition agenda.
