European Climate Czar Steps Down to Take Part in
Dutch Elections
Frans Timmermans is stepping down at a crucial time
for European climate laws to become the lead candidate for a left-wing
coalition in the Dutch elections in November.
Claire
Moses
By Claire
Moses
Reporting
from London
Aug. 22,
2023
Updated
12:24 p.m. ET
Frans
Timmermans, the European Union’s climate chief, will leave his position in
Brussels to become a candidate in coming elections in the Netherlands, the
European Commission announced on Tuesday.
Mr.
Timmermans’s immediate departure comes as the European Union is focusing on
meeting climate goals, reducing emissions on the continent as well as
transitioning to clean energy.
Mr.
Timmermans served as the executive vice president for the European Green Deal,
a set of proposals that aims to make the E.U.’s climate, energy, transport and
taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55
percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
Last month,
European lawmakers approved a key element of the Green Deal that would require
member nations to restore 20 percent of natural areas within their borders on
land and at sea.
“Climate
change is happening even faster than feared, battering our planet with no
region left unaffected,” Mr. Timmermans said in a speech in July. “Radical,
immediate, and transformative action must be taken by all of us.”
Ursula von
der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, praised Mr. Timmermans in
a statement, saying he helped make strides toward “meeting the E.U.’s
objectives to become the first climate neutral continent.” She also said he
helped raise “the levels of climate ambition globally.”
Ms. von der
Leyen has appointed Maroš Šefčovič, a member of the European Commission from
Slovakia, to succeed Mr. Timmermans as the executive vice president for the
European Green Deal. Ms. von der Leyen also temporarily assigned the
responsibility for climate action policy to Mr. Šefčovič, until the appointment
of a new member of the commission of Dutch nationality, according to an
announcement.
Maros
Sefcovic will succeed Mr. Timmermans as the executive vice-president for the
European Green Deal.Credit...Tt News Agency, via Reuters
On Tuesday,
Mr. Timmermans became the lead candidate for a left-wing alliance of the Green
Party and the Labor Party, which are forming one bloc in the Netherlands’s
parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 22. In that role, Mr. Timmermans
could possibly become the Dutch prime minister. Members of the two parties
overwhelmingly chose Mr. Timmermans as the lead candidate on Tuesday, according
to Dutch media.
Mr.
Timmermans was scheduled to address members of the left-wing parties on Tuesday
night as leader for the first time, according to the parties.
“He is the
right person to face the big challenges we stand for: protecting social
security, tackle the climate crisis and restore trust in politics,” Attje
Kuiken, the leader of the Dutch Labor Party in the House of Representatives,
wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Ms. Kuiken has, like multiple other politicians
since the government collapsed last month, announced her departure from Dutch
politics.
It’s not
Mr. Timmermans’s first foray into Dutch politics. He has served as a member of
Parliament for the Dutch Labor Party, as well as minister of foreign affairs
from 2012 to 2014.
The Green
Deal has angered farmers on the continent, including in Mr. Timmermans’s native
Netherlands. Last year, Dutch farmers protested against new goals and an
announcement that some of them would have to shutter their farms to reach the
E.U.’s climate goals, saying that they felt disproportionately targeted.
The Dutch
government collapsed in July after the parties in its ruling coalition failed
to reach an agreement on migration policy. Other issues had been adding stress
to the fractured coalition, including climate goals that aim to drastically
reduce nitrogen emissions in the country, goals that have been partially set by
the European Union.
The
Netherlands will soon have its first new prime minister since 2010, when Mark
Rutte came into power. Mr. Rutte decided not to run again and said he would
leave politics once a new coalition is in place after the November elections.
Mr. Rutte’s
departure from Dutch politics raised questions for the Netherlands, as well as
the European Union, where Mr. Rutte found a stage to advance his country’s
agenda: rules-based free trade and commerce, fiscal prudence, liberal social
values.
Who will
take Mr. Rutte’s place as prime minister uncertain. The Farmer Citizen
Movement, a Dutch pro-farming party that swept local elections in March, has
been ahead in the polls, an indication of people’s dissatisfaction with
mainstream political parties.
On Sunday,
Pieter Omtzigt, a popular Dutch politician who has been critical of Mr. Rutte,
announced the creation of his new party, New Social Contract. A Dutch poll from
this summer predicted that Mr. Omtzigt’s party could win as many as 46 seats in
the Netherlands’s 150-member House of Representatives.
Claire
Moses is a reporter for the Express desk in London. More about Claire
Moses
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