Farmers dump manure - angry at green politics

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Sofia Eriksson/TT  

 

Updated 13.58 | Published 11.41 

 

Fertilizer protest in Brussels last Thursday. The farmers are dissatisfied with everything from competition and free trade agreements to what they consider to be rigid EU rules, not least on the environmental side. Photo: Thomas Padilla/AP/TT 

 

Stinking manure and tractor blockades - this is how critics show their dissatisfaction with the EU's green policy. At the same time, a new climate target for 2040 is being prepared.  

 

They drive tractors, block roads, dump manure and glare at Brussels. In several countries in Europe, farmers are seething with anger for several reasons - including what are seen as onerous rules on climate and the environment from the EU.  

 

The EU must become climate neutral by 2050 with the help of "the green given" and the legislative package Fit for 55. By 2030, emissions must be cut by 55 percent through measures such as carbon dioxide tariffs, emissions trading and greener transport.  

 

Protests in Italy. Photo: Gregorio Borgia / AP   

Dissatisfaction  

Some believe that it is far from enough. Others liken the measures to an elitist plot that hits hard at ordinary people. Parties on the right are riding on the discontent - as in Italy, where the government has condemned the green movement as "climate fundamentalism". 

 

- What the EU has decided on in climate policy, all green given in a historical perspective, is very ambitious, although many from an environmental point of view think that even more is needed, says Mats Engström, senior advisor at the research institute Sieps.  

 

- But it is a big deal to implement the Fit for 55 package and it is not surprising that there are reactions against it.  

 

Climate policy must, however, be tightened further, according to the EU's climate science council, which wants to see an emission reduction of 90-95 percent by 2040. And on Tuesday, the EU Commission is expected to present its recommendations for a climate target for 2040 in particular.  

 

As the EU elections approach, the task of presenting a legislative proposal, which member states and parliament can agree on, will be left to the next commission. It remains to be seen whether it will want and be able to prioritize the climate as highly as the current one.  

 

What is politically possible with regard to the 2040 climate goal depends a lot on what happens in connection with the European Parliament elections in June, according to Engström.  

 

- The question is what the election campaign will look like. In a way, it is easier to decide on goals that are far away in time. 

Symbol question? 

Much is determined by how the parliament's largest party group, the conservative EPP, stands, according to Engström.  

 

- One scenario is that they think the goal is okay but that it should be solved in a way that doesn't cost too much for companies, farmers and other sensitive voter groups, he says. 

 

- Or you make a symbolic issue out of it and say that "we're not going to go this far this time anyway". When it came to the goal for 2030, the EPP initially did not want to go as far as the 55 percent that it later became.