Europe’s green NGOs unhappy about choice of Vella for commissioner

The representatives of 10 environmental organisations, among them BirdLife Europe, Greenpeace, and WWF, have written a letter of complaint to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker over his handling of the environment portfolio and the appointment of a Maltese commissioner to the post.

The Green 10, an alliance of leading environmental NGOs at EU level supported by over 20 million EU citizens, expressed grave concern over the Juncker’s new team and what they said was a “serious downgrading of environment and a roll back of EU commitments to sustainable development, resource efficiency, air quality, biodiversity protection and climate action.”

They specifically complained that the move from a Commissioner with dedicated responsibilities for environment, to having this policy area shared with the demanding dossier of fisheries and maritime policies, was a clear relegation of environmental issues in the order of political priorities.

They said this betrayed the interests of EU citizens, citing a Eurobarometer survey of 28,000 citizens, 95% of whom said that protecting the environment was important to them “personally and that more should be done”.

“The mandate to the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner seems entirely centered on deregulation, asking a review of all current major initiatives underway. It does not mention the need to achieve any EU objectives, let alone take new initiatives,” they said.

ella will be tasked with an overhaul of nature and wildlife laws, particularly the Birds and Habitats Directives, a move which the Green 10 said suggested a “high level decision to weaken biodiversity protection in the EU.”

“This is even more troubling as the environment portfolio is given to a Commissioner whose government is under intense international criticism for failing to implement EU bird conservation legislation, which the Commissioner will now be in position to amend,” they said of Vella, a former tourism minister in Joseph Muscat’s Labour government, which entered into an electoral pact with the hunting lobby to guarantee all hunting privileges under EU law.

The criticism mirrored that made by BirdLife Europe yesterday, who said Vella will need to convince MEPs that he will not be weakening the EU Birds directive in order to satisfy his domestic constituencies. “We should not forget that Malta has been condemned for violation of the directive, and that the illegal shooting of migrants in Malta is a well-known international scandal.”

The organisations also criticized Juncker for having merged the climate and energy portfolios, and putting this Commissioner under a Vice President for Energy Union, saying this implied that climate action was considered subordinate to energy market considerations. “The choice of a Climate and Energy Commissioner with well-known links to the fossil fuel industry raises issues of conflict of interest.”

The Green 10 also includes Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, CEE Bankwatch Network, Friends of the Earth Europe, Health & Environment Alliance, Naturefriends International, and the European Federation for Transport and Environment.