I am participating right now in the conference ”The European Green Deal”, hosted by the German EU presidency (can be followed on the lived stream). Very interesting indeed and so many passionate contributions froom fellow MPs all over Europe. That is very promising.
But how promising are signals from the EU? For that reason I asked The EU Comission and DG Move about the possibility for a single Member State to ban the sale of new fossil cars, as is discussed in the UK, France, Denmark and of course in my home country, Sweden. And I got an answer I did not want. Mr Herald Ruijters from DG Move said pretty bluntly: ”No” and referred to the EU internal market and a supposed ”balance” between market and climate.
But with a no for member states to regulate polluting cars when the EU doesn´t essentially means a NO for a member state to take action on climate. It means that the European Union, once again, let the market trump the climate.
Brave and climate friendly countries need to take action against this market fundamentalism. Save the climate must the no. 1 priority.
The conference can be seen here via the German Presidency´s Youtube channel. My intervention on this is at 2.23 min and the reply at 2.40 min.