Following earlier revelations that European Council President Charles Michel spent €1.7 million on travel last year, he chose a curious way to appease critics: buying carbon credits to offset the CO2 pollution of his chartered flights, spending even more of European taxpayer’s money on the process.
Top EU diplomats are expensive creatures, no shocker there. But when Michel’s office requested to increase the budget “related to the function of the President of the European Council” earlier this year from €2 million to €2.5 million in 2024, “mainly due to travel expenses in view of the continuing intense international activity following the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine,” it was definitely worth a second look.
As Politico revealed in early March, in 2022 Michel spent over €1.7 million for travel alone. To be fair, this wasn’t an incredibly hard job, considering that the diplomat took private jets from Brussels to destinations as close as Paris (which has high-speed rail connection, by the way), not to mention multiple global climate conferences. Maybe he just got the idea from all the other saviors of the planet, as taking private flights to discuss CO2 emissions seems to be quite in style these days.
What’s more, according to the estimations of the President’s office, Michel’s travel costs are likely to increase by 34% in 2024—again, because of Ukraine, they say—settling around the €1.9 million figure.
Naturally, a substantial backlash followed the publication of these numbers, as well as an awkward silence from Michel. In two months, however, he appears to have found the perfect solution to make everything right: buying carbon credits from the EU budget. Great, right?
According to a recently published call for tenders on the EU’s public database (spotted by Politico), the Council is looking for companies “for the purchase [of] carbon credits to offset the CO2 produced during the flight travels of the President of the European Council.”
For those unfamiliar with the so-called “carbon market,” it’s basically a way for companies and other entities to buy their way out of restrictive emission caps by buying “carbon credits” others generate by removing CO2 from the atmosphere (by planting a thousand trees, for instance) and thus create a “carbon offset.” In a way, carbon credits give you permission to continue to pollute as much as you want as long as you pay for it.
Of course, there’s no consensus among experts that these schemes actually help the environment, with most critics saying that the carbon market “is rife with low-quality carbon projects that are not delivering on the promised climate benefits.” On the other hand, they provide a great opportunity for making a few easy bucks by trading phony credits, as well as for politicians to circumvent their own restrictions.
Nonetheless, questionable environmentalism is not even at the center of this multi-layered hypocrisy that Michel’s travel budget is being built on, but rather the fact that it all comes out of the European taxpayers’ pocket. In case the Council didn’t know, the average European is much less concerned about CO2 pollution and much more about paying taxes to fly unelected EU diplomats around the world.
So, telling people that it’s okay that Michel will travel for nearly €2 million next year because he will spend even more of their money on (bogus) green projects might not be the EU’s brightest idea so far, but, at this point, neither is it surprising.
EU Council President Atones for Overspending by Spending More
EU Council President Charles Michel at the UN’s COP27 Summit in Egypt, 2022, where he also arrived using a private jet.
Photo: © European Union
Following earlier revelations that European Council President Charles Michel spent €1.7 million on travel last year, he chose a curious way to appease critics: buying carbon credits to offset the CO2 pollution of his chartered flights, spending even more of European taxpayer’s money on the process.
Top EU diplomats are expensive creatures, no shocker there. But when Michel’s office requested to increase the budget “related to the function of the President of the European Council” earlier this year from €2 million to €2.5 million in 2024, “mainly due to travel expenses in view of the continuing intense international activity following the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine,” it was definitely worth a second look.
As Politico revealed in early March, in 2022 Michel spent over €1.7 million for travel alone. To be fair, this wasn’t an incredibly hard job, considering that the diplomat took private jets from Brussels to destinations as close as Paris (which has high-speed rail connection, by the way), not to mention multiple global climate conferences. Maybe he just got the idea from all the other saviors of the planet, as taking private flights to discuss CO2 emissions seems to be quite in style these days.
What’s more, according to the estimations of the President’s office, Michel’s travel costs are likely to increase by 34% in 2024—again, because of Ukraine, they say—settling around the €1.9 million figure.
Naturally, a substantial backlash followed the publication of these numbers, as well as an awkward silence from Michel. In two months, however, he appears to have found the perfect solution to make everything right: buying carbon credits from the EU budget. Great, right?
According to a recently published call for tenders on the EU’s public database (spotted by Politico), the Council is looking for companies “for the purchase [of] carbon credits to offset the CO2 produced during the flight travels of the President of the European Council.”
For those unfamiliar with the so-called “carbon market,” it’s basically a way for companies and other entities to buy their way out of restrictive emission caps by buying “carbon credits” others generate by removing CO2 from the atmosphere (by planting a thousand trees, for instance) and thus create a “carbon offset.” In a way, carbon credits give you permission to continue to pollute as much as you want as long as you pay for it.
Of course, there’s no consensus among experts that these schemes actually help the environment, with most critics saying that the carbon market “is rife with low-quality carbon projects that are not delivering on the promised climate benefits.” On the other hand, they provide a great opportunity for making a few easy bucks by trading phony credits, as well as for politicians to circumvent their own restrictions.
Nonetheless, questionable environmentalism is not even at the center of this multi-layered hypocrisy that Michel’s travel budget is being built on, but rather the fact that it all comes out of the European taxpayers’ pocket. In case the Council didn’t know, the average European is much less concerned about CO2 pollution and much more about paying taxes to fly unelected EU diplomats around the world.
So, telling people that it’s okay that Michel will travel for nearly €2 million next year because he will spend even more of their money on (bogus) green projects might not be the EU’s brightest idea so far, but, at this point, neither is it surprising.
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