The EU’s Green Deal, a flagship project on CO2-neutrality, could be blocked by Flanders, a Belgian region, on grounds it did not address the pandemic-related economic crisis.
“Flanders cannot give its agreement to the signature,” Zuhal Demir, the regional climate minister from the nationalist NVA party, said on Wednesday. Belgium is a federation of three entities, including also Wallonia and Brussels. The Green Deal needs EU unanimity to go ahead.
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Flanders ‘Very Concerned’ About EU Climate Law, Says Environment Minister
Flanders’ Environment Minister scolded the EU over its recently unveiled Climate Law, claiming it “unilaterally” revised the Dutch-speaking region’s climate objectives upwards.
Minister Zuhal Demir said Flanders was “very concerned” about the law, which was presented on Wednesday to the EU Parliament during a session attended by teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.
“If Frans Timmermans wants to change the Flemish climate objectives for 2030, he should stand for election in Flanders,” Demir said, referring to the EU Commissioner in charge of the bloc’s climate strategy.
“Right now, it is not he who was to explain it to the population,” she said, adding that the law “did not take into account the bills for our families.”