EU elections, Gentiloni: “We are not discussing the Green Deal properly”

Brussels – Debate and confrontation are ok because they are the bread and the engine of democracy, the healthy kind, but directing the electoral campaign with partial, incomplete, captious reasoning and considerations is not good, and the EU Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, feels the need to say it clearly. In the run-up to the European elections in early June, he confides to the Brussels Economic Forum audience, “The risk I see is the debate” that is being carried on: “Are we discussing the green transition properly? I don’t have that impression.” 

There is no specific reference or open criticism to this or that party-political entity, but Gentiloni shares personal doubts about the use of the sustainability agenda that has marked the mandate of the current EU executive for propaganda purposes. The way the green economy and transition are being addressed “is a risk,” Gentiloni insists, “and 20 days before the vote, we must counter it.”

The Economy Commissioner, however, wants to make one thing clear: net of what one may think about the transformation of the production, economic, and social model in green sauce, what has been done in this legislature at the end of the term must not be dismantled: “We should ask ourselves whether we regret having the Green Deal. My answer is ‘no’.” Therefore, “we should not make the mistake of backtracking on the green transition.” Not least because, he recalls, “climate change is already here, and there is also a certain sense of urgency in having to give an answer.”