The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomed President Jean Claude Juncker’s wish to ‘leave a healthier planet behind for those that follow’. However, it noted that it ‘regrets that this has played little part in guiding his policies and priorities over the past four years’.
As the EEB said Mr. Juncker’s parting words set out a vision for leaving a healthier planet behind saying. However, ‘for this message to be more than empty rhetoric, it needs to be followed by concrete action’, EEB added.
Jeremy Wates Secretary General of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) mentioned:
While it is heartening to hear President Juncker stress the importance of climate change and present a vision of a Europe which helps create a better world for future generations, his track record on environmental issues has been poor.
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Namely, EEB emphasized that it would have welcomed a clear and explicit commitment that EU law should focus on protecting the EU citizens and the environment.
In addition, it called for the Better Regulation agenda to be reformed, in order to better reflect the interests and needs of EU citizens. Protecting citizens health and the environment also needs to be a focus in the European Parliament elections.
For her part, talking about sustainable development, Patrizia Heidegger, the EEB’s Director of Global Policies and Sustainability, blamed Jean Claude Juncker that he refuses to ‘even mention sustainability or the Global Goals’.
This is deeply worrying as we need to bring the Sustainable Development Goals to the heart of policymaking at the European Union and Member State level.
