The European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) group in the European Parliament has welcomed Patriots for Europe (PfE) president Jordan Bardella’s call to arms against the EU’s destructive climate policies and offered cooperation on the Right in order to “suspend and re-evaluate” the Green Deal to save Europe’s struggling agricultural and industrial sectors.
As Bardella wrote in his open letter to the other groups, delaying the implementation of Green Deal legislation would make room for the much-needed review of “its objectives and applications, without destroying the prospects of prosperity for our continent.”
He also explained why this dialogue is very important to protect democracy, as it was recently revealed that the EU Commission used highly unethical and likely even unlawful methods to push the Green Deal through.
However, the center-right EPP—the leading bloc in the Parliament’s ‘Ursula coalition’ with the left—is refusing to build an “alternative majority” with conservatives. Their refusal highlights both the EU establishment’s insistence on failed climate policies and also how terrified it is of breaking the firewall it put up against the Right. A firewall that conserves nothing but the establishment’s own power.
The Italian-led ECR, at least, has not forgotten what voters expect from it, even after the establishment let it out of the cordon sanitaire following last year’s EU elections and finally began to talk to its leaders.
“Dialogue between our political groups is crucial, and we are open to further discussions with [the Patriots] and those who share our concerns about the economic and social implications of the Green Deal,” ECR co-chairs Nicola Procaccini and Patryk Jaki wrote in their reply letter to Bardella.
“We remain committed to cooperating with like-minded partners like you to counter the ideological excesses of the Green Deal and advocate for policies that align with Europe’s economic and strategic priorities,” the ECR leaders wrote. Their letter is intended to send a clear message to the EPP as well, urging parliamentary groups to
build bridges across political lines, and deliver results that benefit European citizens and businesses.
In order to successfully put a pause on the Green Deal, this right-wing alliance needs to reach a true “alternative majority” of 375 seats in the Parliament, meaning everyone who is at least nominally right—EPP, PfE, ECR, and ESN—must vote for it.
With 188 seats, the EPP alone would make up half of this hypothetical alliance. Without it, the conservatives have no chance of initiating an honest review, let alone turning the tide, on the Green Deal.
There were signs that at least parts of the EPP would be willing to listen. Polish PM Donald Tusk recently called for a “full and very critical review” of all of the Green Deal laws, while Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, also said he wanted to scale back on harmful climate policies. “If we go bankrupt, no one will care about the world’s environment anymore,” Tusk said last week.
However, it seems the EPP as a whole—being the party of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, herself at the top of Brussels’ hierarchy—could never ally with conservatives and knock down its carefully constructed cordon sanitaire. Not even temporarily and only on specific issues such as the Green Deal—despite the sorry state of the EU’s competitiveness, which is apparent to all.
At a recent press conference, MEP Peter Liese (CDU)—who chairs the Parliament’s environmental committee and is also a member of the EPP—firmly rejected Bardella’s proposal, saying that his establishment group had a “completely different vision” on the future of green policies.
“We want to safeguard the core of the Green Deal, in particular the climate target. That’s why we refuse Mr. Bardella’s initiative,” Liese said.
His next remark, however, made it very clear that maintaining the firewall against conservatives and cooperating only with “pro-European” parties on the Left is at least equally important to the EPP as climate targets are. As Liese explained:
We do not support proposals by the Patriots, but rather our one hundred percent EPP line or reasonable compromises with the pro-European groups in the European Parliament.
And therein lies the reason why the EPP cannot be trusted to offer any meaningful solutions to the problems caused by excessive climate policies. Although calling itself “center-right,” its preferred partners have always been on the Left—the socialist S&D, the liberal Renew, and the Greens—and any “compromise” with them will only ensure that the discussion around the Green Deal will never escape its left-wing ideological foundations.
