Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, has always been slow in environmental issues. When he became president in 2004 and named the Greek Stavros Dimas as the environment commissioner, serious environmentalists all over Europe did not have much hope for a better future.
Barroso had the idea that environmental issues could frustrate his main goals, more jobs and economic growth in Europe. Dimas, a former Wall Street lawyer, came from the only country in Europe without an environmental minister.
But after that Sir Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank economist, rang the alarm bell about the threat of global warming and not so long after him former US vice-president Al Gore came to Brussels to show his film on climate change An Inconvenient Truth, EU politics on environment have changed dramatically. It looks like Mr. Barroso has suddenly undergone a conversion. He is now putting global warming and climate change at the top of the list of priorities. ‘Europe has to act on global warning’, is his theme.
That could have an enormous impact. The environment is an issue where the European Commission has strong ability to act. Decisions in ‘Brussels’ have a direct impact on member-state policies and on companies. In January the commission will set out a new EU energy policy to boost green technology and to cut Europe’s energy dependency on Russia.
The European Commission is also pointing to the responsibility of the European citizens themselves. To illustrate this, on the main building of the Commission, the Berlaymont, hangs a banner saying: ‘YOU control climate change’. Environment Commissioner Dimas explained that: ‘climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases is one of he gravest challenges facing humanity’.
However, journalists of ‘The Bulletin’, a newsweekly for expats in Brussels, found out that Mr. Dimas drives around in ‘a less-than-eco-friendly Mercedes’ and President Barroso in a ‘massive German SUV spitting out 355 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre’. Must be the lease-contract…
