The European Commission announced on Tuesday the resignation of its vice-president in charge of the Green Deal, the Dutchman Frans Timmermans, after his appointment to head a social-democratic-green list for the early elections in the Netherlands in the autumn. Following a consultation of members of the Social Democratic Party (PvdA) and the Greens (GroenLinks), Frans Timmermans, 62, was confirmed at the head of a joint list with the hope of succeeding the Prime outgoing minister, Liberal Mark Rutte.
The white-bearded ex-diplomat, polyglot and emblematic architect of EU environmental policies, leaves his mandate less than a year before the June 2024 elections which will renew the European Parliament and lead to a recomposition of the Commission. This is the second departure in a few months within the European executive: the European Commissioner for Innovation and Culture, Mariya Gabriel, left office in May to form the new government of her country, Bulgaria .
Master of the “Green Deal”
And another key figure, the influential Commissioner for Competition, the Dane Margrethe Vestager, has declared herself a candidate to take over the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB) next year.
In the Commission headed since 2019 by the conservative Ursula von der Leyen, Frans Timmermans was the architect of the ambitious “Green Deal”, a vast arsenal of legislation aimed at slashing carbon emissions and stemming the biodiversity crisis.
EU environmental and climate policies will be “temporarily” entrusted to another Commission vice-president, Slovak Maros Sefcovic, until a new Dutch commissioner is appointed. Ms von der Leyen has asked Mark Rutte “to propose a new candidate”, the Commission statement said.
“We have made great progress”
The departure of Frans Timmermans comes a few months before COP28, a major international meeting for the climate, and while the European Green Pact remains unfinished.
While most of the climate plan has been adopted (reform of the carbon market, end of the sale of thermal engine cars in 2035, etc.), key texts are still under discussion – in particular on the reduction of pesticides and the restoration of ecosystems — in the face of fierce resistance from right-wing MEPs and certain Member States. “I thank Frans Timmermans for his passionate and tireless work to make the ‘Green Deal’ a reality. Thanks to her strong personal commitment, we have made great progress” towards the European objective of carbon neutrality by 2050, welcomed Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday.
Ex-diplomat and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frans Timmermans had been a member of the European Commission since 2014. He served his first term as vice-president of the conservative Jean-Claude Juncker, in charge of “improving regulations, inter-institutional relations, the rule of law”.