The government is backpedaling, once again. After Emmanuel Macron’s controversial statements calling for an end to producing new environmental standards in Europe, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne assured this Saturday that there was “no pause at all in the climate ambition” of the France.
Emmanuel Macron had indeed spoken twice on the subject on Thursday and Friday when he presented projects for the reindustrialization of France. He thus considered that no more environmental standards should be “added” after the application of the European Union’s Green Deal, pleading for “stability” in this area. These remarks aroused the anger of officials and environmental activists in France and questions in Brussels.
The “Green deal” proudly displayed
“You know that in recent years, under the impetus of France and the President of the Republic, we have carried out very ambitious policies on a European scale. It’s the “Green deal” [Pacte vert, Ndlr] in particular, it is the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, ”said Élisabeth Borne in Saint-Paul, on the French island of Réunion, where she ends a three-day trip on Saturday. “This legislation, it is ambitious, it allows us to meet our objectives, now we must work to implement it and it is already a very important task”, she added, believing that it was not useful to “add standards to standards”.
The “Green Pact” is the European Union’s package of key texts on the climate, most of which (reform of the carbon market, end of sales of thermal engine cars, etc.) have been adopted, but some of which are still the subject of difficult negotiations.