BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd April, 2020) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's so-called Green Deal, which sets out plans for Europe to become a carbon-neutral continent by 2050, looks like an "empty concept" given the current coronavirus and oil market situation, with oil remaining the major source of Primary energy in the EU, Samuele Furfari, a professor at the University of Brussels and a former longtime senior official on energy policy in the European Commission, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
The European Green Deal was von der Leyen's hallmark policy as she assumed office on December 1. At that time, tackling climate change had become the EU's top priority, and legislation was quickly enacted to turn ambitious green targets into binding law.
However, in the months since the Green Deal was adopted, the EU has come face-to-face with a new challenge that has already killed tens of thousands of people on the continent. The COVID-19 outbreak has taken center stage and may prevent the EU from reaching its targets.
"No, the Green deal is unaffordable and off to a bad start. Moreover, the 'Green deal' concept is empty. There is strictly nothing new in this 'plan,' just ideas repeated for the last 40 years, which will need huge subsidies to keep the 'renewable energies' afloat. ... For many observers, this whole 'Green Deal' issue is very empty and is just an effort of communication," Furfari said.
The professor added that despite European green activists' rejection of oil, it still plays a key role in the bloc's economic development as well as in the battle against the coronavirus.
"Without petroleum products, the fight against COVID-19 would be impossible, whether for the manufacture of respirators, the synthetic fabric to make masks, medical gowns, medical analysis vials, all drugs, etc. In other words, petroleum is vital for many industries, and modern economies depend heavily on the goods and services that contain petroleum products. This is why oil, with a share of 35 percent, remains the main source of primary energy in the EU," Furfari noted.
Last week, the European Commission has updated its 2020 work program, reordering its priorities against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and postponing three Green Deal initiatives to 2021 as "less essential for delivery on the absolute key priorities."
Almost half of the global cases of COVID-19 have been reported on the European continent, as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, as of Tuesday, announced that 1,073,947 cases of the disease have been reported in the EU, countries of the European Economic Area and the UK.
What this will mean for von der Leyen's European Green Deal remains to be seen, but the mood in Brussels appears to be turning against the president of the European Commission.
