2023-09-23 16:37:00
Last Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, delivered her last and highly anticipated “State of the Union” before the European elections in June 2024.
She has been in office since 2019 and, unlike 2022 when Ukraine was the priority theme of her speech, she gave a general assessment of the European situation in the face of the major issues and challenges of this legislature… and the next ones. The world is not doing well but, according to her, the European Union has scored points by implementing a Green Deal (or Green Deal) of “unparalleled ambition” to fight climate change and preserve nature, by charting the path to digital transition; the EU also created an 800 billion euro post-pandemic recovery plan, laid the foundations of Europe for health and undertook to reduce its dependence on critical sectors, including Russian hydrocarbons.
“She presented a very positive picture, but if ordinary citizens listened to this speech, they would have wondered if this is the European Union they live in,” remarked Janis Emmanouilidis, director of studies at the European Policy Centre, to Olivier le Bussy of La Libre. “It might have been appropriate to have a slightly more sober analysis of the situation we find ourselves in.”
François Gemenne is a specialist in questions of geopolitics, the environment and migration. He teaches notably at Sciences Po Paris and at ULB. He is also a qualified FNRS researcher at ULiège, where he directs the Hugo Observatory. It’s not just anyone.
Before even hearing the speech of the President of the European Commission, and therefore without being influenced by it or seeking to give answers, he drew up a completely different assessment of Europe’s so-called progress. “This assessment is particularly very meager on asylum and migration,” he believes. “No lessons have been learned from the Syrian refugee crisis. Of course, there is always this new pact on asylum and migration on which we found a compromise. But in reality, shipwrecks continue at an unsustainable rate.”
As for the “Green Deal”, François Gemenne wonders. “This is a major piece of legislation for the climate in the European Union,” he rejoices. “But, first problem, it has not yet passed Parliament. We will still have to fight once morest the conservatives for it to be accepted. Second concern: its main architect, Frans Timmermans, number 2 of the Commission, has just left to campaign in the Netherlands. When a person prefers to leave the key position at the Commission on the Issue of the Century to go and scrap national elections, that says a lot. The signal given is quite disastrous.”
And the specialist continues: “Unfortunately, the Green Deal risks being further undermined. This is the whole story of European construction. We ensured a careful balance of powers between the Commission, the Council and Parliament, but the result is that the Commission’s decisions are systematically overturned by the other two.”
The fact is there and we must dare to say it: the objectives of the Paris Agreements will probably not be respected. However, there is an emergency. The succession of dramatic climatic phenomena that we have just experienced, in 2023 alone, confirms the dangers. And we are not on time to avoid two additional degrees within 80 years. “Each year lost makes the objective more difficult to achieve,” insists François Gemenne.
“In thirty to forty years, the Belgium of our children will be a country experiencing a much more unstable climate, with an increase in extreme phenomena. Like floods, like heat waves, like forest fires, for example in the Ardennes. We are in the process of leaving a period of climatic stability for another that is increasingly unstable. We should not say that it will become completely unlivable, but our lifestyles will radically change.”
François Gemenne ended our meeting with a heartfelt cry that speaks volumes and concerns all decision-makers: “I’m fed up with people who spend their lives sounding the alarm regarding climate change without ever giving the slightest hint of a solution. . Fed up with internet influencers stirring up people’s fears with the sole aim of growing their audience.”
François Gemenne, cash: “I’m fed up with people who spend their lives sounding the alarm regarding climate change without ever giving the slightest hint of a solution.”
François Gemenne: “I find people who seem to delight in the idea of the collapse of civilizations so ugly.”
GEMENNE: “AT THE RISK OF BEING AN OLD FOOL”
Alex Reed of “Coffee without filter” by Maxime Binet, François Gemenne answers the “strong coffee” questions from Paris Match.
FRAPPED COFFEE – WHO DO YOU WANT TO BANG AND WHY?
I sometimes want to punch these politicians who have abandoned all sense of the general interest, who only seek to flatter their electorate. And who therefore seek to maximize divisions, to create divisions in society, rather than to bring people together around a project. But I’m not a violent person, so I hold back.
ICE COFFEE – WHO COOLS YOU AND WHY?
The lawyers. I cannot count the number of projects that I have considered, and for which a lawyer has turned me down. Whatever we do, there are always legal risks, legal complications… Sometimes that discourages me. While these lawyers are surely very nice people, who are just doing their job. But often, they make me want to do nothing.
CAFE AU LAIT – WHAT DO YOU FIND UGLY CURRENTLY?
People who seem to revel in the idea of the collapse of civilizations. The fatalism with which we now view the tragedies of immigration. And YouTubers and influencers: really, I can’t understand how we can be attracted to what these people do, their lifestyle, the world they show. I don’t understand how it is possible that such futile activities generate so much money. I cannot understand how these young people and their model of overconsumption are also followed on social networks. This is something that is completely beyond me and that I find deeply ugly. At the risk of sounding like an old fool.
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