The Netherlands has floated proposals to ensure a green recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, suggesting an “exclusion list” of economic activities like nuclear power, which the Dutch believe should be banned from receiving EU funds.
The “Outline for an EU Green Recovery” plan, published on Wednesday (22 April), is meant to feed into an EU-wide recovery strategy due to be presented by the European Commission in the second or third week of May, Dutch diplomats in Brussels told EURACTIV.
The paper was floated ahead of an EU summit last week and before the Commission is due to unveil its “recovery fund” as part of an updated proposal for the EU’s next seven-year budget (2021-2027).
It describes, among other things, how Europe could set criteria for “an exclusion list” of economic activities which would be banned from receiving EU money.
“No expenditure should harm the EU’s climate and environmental objectives,” the Dutch paper says, echoing earlier statements from EU climate chief Frans Timmermans, who told MEPs last week that “every euro we invest must flow into a new economy rather than old structures”.
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Fossil fuel bailouts or investments should also be on that exclusion list.
It always amuses me to see how green the Netherlands is on an international stage but at home the government has to be taken to court to enforce environmental law.
