We Don’t Have Time has obtained a leaked draft of the European Council’s strategic agenda for 2024-2029. Once adopted, this high-level document will define the EU’s most important political priorities after the 2024 elections.
Imngmar Rentzhog, CEO& Founder of wedonthavetime.org told eTurboNews: This story concerns everyone, not just in Europe but globally. I hope you find it as interesting and worrying as I do.
Europe has been seen leading the global climate agenda with its European Green Deal. This might now drastically change.
The leaked draft of the upcoming five-year agenda reveals that the European Union is not prioritizing climate as a main concern. The headline concerning a climate-neutral Europe has been removed, and the word climate is barely mentioned in the entire document. This suggests that climate is not receiving the necessary attention within the European Union’s agenda.
During a press briefing on the strategic agenda on April 2, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said:
”By now, we have identified together a set of clear priorities, which converge towards delivering a powerful common goal – a strong, prosperous and Democratic Union.
He did not provide any details about the new Agenda’s priorities, but the leaked document makes it brutally clear what these new priorities are – and what has been excluded.
The leaked document outlines:
I. A STRONG AND SECURE EUROPE
Coherent and influential external action
- Assert Europe’s sovereignty and place as a global player in the new strategic/geopolitical/ multipolar context.
- Engage with international partners to uphold an inclusive and fair rules-based multilateral order.
- Leverage EU policies (internal and external) to defend our interests and values where needed.
- Promote peace, stability, and prosperity in our neighborhoods
- Pursue a balanced trade policy while reducing our external dependencies.
Strategic action on security and defense
- Mobilize all necessary instruments to ensure our defense readiness, our capacity to act, and our security.
- Increase substantially European defense spending, investment, and cooperation, including with NATO.
- Improve conditions for the scaling up of the European defense industry and improve access to public and private finance, including through the EIB
- Strengthen our preparedness and crisis response capacities.
- Tackle cyber and hybrid threats and address foreign manipulation and interference.
- Fight against radicalization, terrorism, and violent extremism to ensure our internal security.
A Comprehensive approach to migration
- Protect our external borders effectively and fight irregular migration and its instrumentalization.
- Cooperate with countries of origin and transit on migration, including on returns and on legal pathways.
- Fight smuggler networks and organized crime
- Ensure the smooth functioning of the Schengen area
Well prepared enlargement
- Incentivize the enlargement process.
- Undertake the necessary internal reforms of EU policies, financing, and capacity to act.
- Support candidate countries in meeting the accession criteria through established and new instruments
- Encourage regional integration and resolution of historical tensions
- Use possibilities for the gradual integration of candidate countries by building on existing legal instruments and exploring new ones
II. A PROSPEROUS AND COMPETITIVE EUROPE
- Complete our Single Market in all its dimensions by removing barriers, including those relating to services.
- Gear up financial integration in all its dimensions, notably the Capital Markets Union and the Banking Union, in order to increase access to finance for industry and businesses.
- Support public and private investment in infrastructure, including connectivity.
- Diversify and secure our strategic supply chains.
- Promote innovation and research, including in the field of defense, and accompany Europe toward climate neutrality.
- Increase economic and social cohesion through upward convergence.
Succeeding in the twin transition
- Increase energy independence by accelerating the energy transition and building an energy union.
- Decrease strategic dependencies and increase resilience by developing a more circular and resource-efficient economy.
- Support the industrial development of digital and clean technologies
- Encourage investments in and application of game-changing digital technologies such as AI, exploiting the untapped potential of data
- Ensure our food security through a vibrant agriculture sector
- Prepare for the new realities stemming from climate change.
Promoting an innovation- and business-friendly environment
- Promoting an innovation- and business-friendly environment
- Safeguard fair competition and fight unfair practices
- Ensure a level playing field both internally and globally
- Reduce administrative burden at all levels, making the best use of digital government possibilities
- Create the conditions to attract talent as well as public and private investments in Europe
Leaving no one behind
- Increase participation in the labor market
- Invest in people’s skills and education throughout life to provide opportunities for all.
- Ensure all citizens and businesses can seize the opportunities offered by the twin transition.
- Reduce disparities at all levels through adequate social protection.
A Free and Democratic Europe
Upholding the Rule of Law
- Promote and safeguard the Rule of Law as a cornerstone of EU integration
- Respect the balance of powers between the institutions
- Protect individual freedoms and fundamental rights offline and online.
- Fight against attempts at destabilization, including through disinformation.
Living up to our values
- Demonstrate leadership in addressing global challenges, including governance.
- Support efforts toward global peace and stability
- Promote democracy and universal human rights in all fora, including the UN framework.
The leaked draft of the EU agenda lacks a mention of the urgent need for climate action, contrasting with the previous agenda’s focus on aligning policies with the Paris Agreement. Instead, the draft emphasizes promoting innovation and research, including in defense, as a means to achieve climate neutrality within Europe. It also notes that Europe should ”prepare for the new realities stemming from climate change.”
This proposed downgrading comes at a time when climate action has never been more urgent. Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary UN Climate Change, said:
Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO and founder of We Don’t Have Time, says the content of the leaked document is extremely concerning.
”It’s obvious that powerful fossil fuel interests have a strong ability to influence political leadership in many European countries. But what is extra worrying this time is that they seem to be succeeding in playing down the EU climate agenda already before the upcoming EU elections.”
SOURCE and more details in the article published today at :We don’t have time
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- Gear up financial integration in all its dimensions, notably the Capital Markets Union and the Banking Union, in order to increase access to finance for industry and businesses.
- The headline concerning a climate-neutral Europe has been removed, and the word climate is barely mentioned in the entire document.
- ”By now, we have identified together a set of clear priorities, which converge towards delivering a powerful common goal – a strong, prosperous and Democratic Union.
