Since the launch of our open letter the hearings of the new European commissioners have taken place.
Wopke Hoekstra – candidate for the post of Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth – is responsible (with Dan Joergensen) to create a framework for the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies in the EU, as stated in his mission letter.
Last week the European Parliament asked him questions on his background and his plans for the next five years.
One of these questions focused on the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies:
The commission has the legal means to do this but has lacked the determination, so far. For example, the 8th Environment Action Programme requires the Commission to set a deadline for the fossil fuel subsidies phaseout , and also in international fora the EU has committed to a phase out by 2025.
So let me ask again, very precisely, because it has been postponed too much: Do you commit here and now to setting a binding deadline so that, by the end of your mandate, we will have a phaseout of all fossil-fuel subsidies, both for the EU and also the national budgets?
Do you commit to proposing measures, such as new State aid rules, that enable timely phaseout?
And third, do you commit to proposing legislation that restricts the construction of new infrastructure for exploration, extraction, transport and storage of fossil fuels?
We were unimpressed with his answer, which you can read here (page 38).
Hoekstra’s “promise” to do something is linked to the European budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework, where he says he can have direct influence. He commits to do more “to create transparency”, but, he states, state budgets are up to the Member States and their finance ministers.
His answer is wishy-washy and lacking in several aspects. His commitment to transparency is not enough to bring about a speedy phase out of fossil fuel subsidies.
Hoekstra, and Member States, seem to forget that the 8th Environmental Action Programme (and the decision to phase out fossil subsidies) has been adopted by the Council of the European Union, therefore binding Member States. Hoekstra’s statements that “I would love to be able to influence them right here and right now, but I cannot” and that “I have to respect that that is up to finance ministers and Member States” are, frankly, a worrying rejection of his responsibilities as commissioner. The European Commission has a duty to make sure that EU law, values and principles are respected. He is giving up before getting started: Hoekstra can influence Member States on this matter, but will not do so.
The Commission and Member States have a legal requirement to follow up on what was decided in the 8th EAP, including the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies. His answer makes it look like Member States can simply decide to phase out fossil subsidies or not, as if no decision has already been taken on the matter at the European level. This is incorrect: the phase out is not up for discussion. It is already EU law.
In his answer, Hoekstra does not commit to set a deadline for fossil fuel subsidies in line with Paris Agreement, as legally required by the 8th EAP.
Hoekstra’s answers before and during the hearing seems to lay the groundwork for a despicable disregard of EU law by Commission and Member States regarding the phase out of fossil subsidies.
Not implementing the commitments set in the 8th EAP in full makes a farce of European democracy and calls for, at the very least, legal challenges by European civil society.
Be reassured: we won’t let this stand. We will keep fighting until fossil fuel subsidies are a thing of the past.
#StopFossilSubsidies
