Green Deal europeo

Almost five years after it was launched, the Green Deal – Europe’s blueprint for a carbon-free Europe – has seen its implementation become increasingly complex. It is high time for a review of the green transition targets and to ensure they will not be achieved at the expense of Europe’s industrial and social systems, workers’ well-being and the EU’s competitiveness.

The EESC:

• points out that there is still a long way to go to reach the final objectives of decarbonisation and transition to a more sustainable economy, objectives that were set out by the Commission in its original Green Deal formulation. Companies need much more certainty, global agreement, guidance, sophisticated accountability methods and, ultimately, support from legislators;
• highlights the urgent need for public funds to be strategically allocated to goals that are jointly agreed on by European policy-makers and civil society. This initiative must be closely interlinked with the industrial strategy;
• emphasises that Member States need EU-level support and civil society input to assist companies through guidance, benchmarking and shared learning capacities to adopt and carry out the structural reforms flowing from the Green Deal: bolstering employment rates, enhancing access to skills and labour, and promoting flexibility and efficiency in labour markets.

The EESC:

1. while fully supporting the Green Deal and its objectives, points out the need to assess it in order to gauge its response to exogenic shocks, the geopolitical situation, and technological, social and economic developments, as well as to measure progress achieved thus far;

    

2. calls on the European Commission to initiate the mapping of measures adopted under the Green Deal to address overlaps, conflicts and the cumulative administrative burden and to provide a publicly available online dashboard recording each Member State's progress in this domain;

    

3. points out that the EESC itself should be empowered and endowed with the necessary resources to play the role of independent monitor of Green Deal implementation, since it is in a position to create a fact-based picture of the progress achieved within the different pillars of the Green Deal.