A debate on the European Union’s climate goals for 2040 took place in Strasbourg during the European Parliament’s plenary session. MEPs Grzegorz Tobiszowski, Jadwiga Wiśniewska, Izabela Kloc, and Anna Zalewska spoke during the debate.
Grzegorz Tobiszowski said that rational and pragmatic planning of climate policy is essential. He recalled that in a special report from 2023, the European Court of Auditors emphasized that all indications suggest the 2030 targets will not be met.
“The introduction of new measures from the ‘Fit for 55’ package is causing enormous dissatisfaction,” the Polish politician noted. As an example, he cited farmers’ protests and their pressure on the European Commission to remove from the draft 2040 climate target even a mention of a 30 percent reduction in agricultural pollution between 2015 and 2040, the recommendation to reduce meat consumption, or the push to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. “In other words, we’re drafting without reflection, planning without rationality, only to back down under pressure from protests,” the MEP commented.
“The goal of EU climate policy should be, above all, to protect the environment, but not at the cost of stifling the economies of member states and driving citizens into poverty,” argued Tobiszowski, noting that we must be rational, or we will lose the fight for the environment.
Jadwiga Wiśniewska stated that the European Parliament has shut itself away in a glass tower, pretending not to hear the desperate cries of farmers protesting outside its building. “Today, European farmers are saying ‘enough’ to climate policy, which is leading to the collapse of their farms. Today, European farmers are saying ‘basta!’” she emphasized. As she noted, they find no understanding among European decision-makers, even though their decisions have driven many EU citizens into energy poverty. Wiśniewska pointed out that EU policy is also disrupting food security and causing the collapse of European farms, which will lead to rising food prices. “You are pursuing a reckless, irresponsible climate policy that does not serve the citizens. It’s time for reason and prudence. I hope that on June 9, Europeans will show the Greens and the Left a red card,” she said.
Izabela Kloc emphasized that this is an important and groundbreaking debate, “because it shows Europeans who is on their side and who—like the millions of people protesting on European streets—is demanding a revision of the EU’s climate policy, which is pushing people to the brink of poverty, and is ruining industry and agriculture.” As she noted, the debate also reveals which parties and which politicians in the Commission and the Parliament continue to support “Europe’s economic suicide.”
“Inconvenient information about the effects of climate policy is being suppressed today with water cannons, but the truth cannot be drowned out! For most of you, this truth is an indictment. Today, farmers are accusing you; tomorrow, workers from closed factories will come here; and the day after tomorrow, young people deceived by the ‘green’ utopia,” warned PiS MEP
Izabela Kloc asked whether decision-makers realize that most people have had enough of “moralizing platitudes about the planet, the climate, and the new order being prepared for Europe.” “Wake up at last! Wake up for your own sake, too, because this is not a dream, but a nightmare,” she appealed.
Anna Zalewska warned that protesting farmers will not rest until the European elections on June 6–9. “And I think it’s time for a different majority—one that will care about the lives of Europeans,” she said. As she pointed out, the European Environment Agency has assessed that the 2030 climate targets will not be met. She noted that instead of taking this into account, the Commission is tightening standards even further and imposing additional penalties on member states, as well as taxes on farmers, food, and energy, which will lead to a 300% to 500% increase in energy prices. It is mandating a switch to smaller cars—electric ones, of course—and to smaller apartments, and is also proposing a new EU target for member states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040. “And all of this goes against the will of Europeans,” she emphasized.
