Back in 2019, newly elected President von der Leyen led the charge for the European Green Deal. Her first Work Programme promoted the agenda as a headline action.
The President appointed a Commissioner with a track record of getting things done, Frans Timmermans, to lead the implementation. But contrary to the revisionists tendencies of some, the centralization of power in the office of the President, meant that the Green Deal could only have been signed off by the President or her inner circle. There was no sleight of hand given to even an experienced Commissioner to go rogue.
The Green Deal Communication (11 December 2019) laid out a policy and legislative agenda on climate and environmental files that built on long standing foundations long set in stone by previous Commissions. It was, in the main, incremental standing on the shoulders of actions taken by President Barroso on Climate, and on environmental files, from laws passed decades before. From these well intentioned beginnings grew over 400 plus initiatives – legislative and non-legislative.
Perhaps after a period of any excess, there is a period of reflection, and self-correction. Today’s Work Programme and table of initiatives offer slimmer picking on the climate or environment front – 1 apiece for 2025.
The real questions remain.
- Will the stress testing via Omnibus lead to further exercises of self-reflection and airbrushing out of recently adopted legislation. I imagine so.
- The new watchwords of simplification and burden reduction will set a bar so that many DG’s will find hard to recondition their statis thinking on to mount a proposal that would bypass the new political controls.
- And, as the guidelines for political control will impact the expected flood of secondary legislation to pass recent legislation, it will be curious to see how much expected implementing measures will pass the new hurdles.