The Brief – The EU election punching bag

Regards from Sofia, where the author of this Brief has witnessed the first days of the European election campaign and concluded the following: The number one election punching bag is the European Green Deal, and it’s no different in many other EU countries.

Let’s not mince our words – the European elections were invented with another goal in mind, but today, the election campaign is increasingly becoming an excuse to bash the EU.

In a democracy, all relevant political players should have the floor in election campaigns where they can make their case before we decide who to vote for.

In Bulgaria, there are 20 political parties and 11 coalitions, and most of these political players are entitled to state funding through media packages. Traditionally, funds for media advertising are the main expense in election campaigns, and political entities are free to choose where to advertise.

This said, some media, including Euractiv Bulgaria, refuse to take money for political advertising.

But most media take the money gladly, and state broadcasters, radio and TV, are legally obliged to give equal advertising space to all political players. It matters little if out of 20 parties, only five can realistically make it to Parliament – all are equally benefitting from the media to voice their messages.

The result is that whether you switch on your TV or your radio, there is always a politician, often from fringe parties without any chance of getting into parliament, happily taking advantage of their media time to hammer at the EU as if it were the world’s biggest evil.

The average citizen is subject to such an overdose of anti-EU rhetoric that it is a miracle that some voters still opt for political forces who don’t want to raze the EU to the ground.

Instead of bashing your opponents on domestic issues, it is easier to whack them for being obedient servants of the Brussels bureaucrats! It’s been tried and tested, and it works as EU bashing is cheap and risk-free, and Brussels is not there to listen, react, or object.

Listening to electoral messages, it becomes clear that the European Green Deal is the number one punching bag for most of these 20 parties and 11 coalitions.

And those openly criticising the flagship policy combining environmental and climate action of the outgoing European Commission are not only fringe parties. They include the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), a PES and S&D member who says the European Green Deal, adopted in 2020, should be renegotiated.

In a televised discussion held on Monday (13 May), the BSP’s lead candidate uttered blatant fake news: that the EU had given up the Green Deal.

Of course, the European Green Deal is also facing headwinds in the broader EU context, but while in Brussels, some details of the plan are being questioned, in Sofia, the whole policy is denounced as brainlessness.

Bulgaria has open-air coal mines and coal power plants with the potential to function for many more years. The only obstacle is the ETS CO2 cost, which makes them uncompetitive.

Many Bulgarian politicians call the EU emission trading system an idiocy, and this message is accepted by big chunks of ordinary people, not to mention unions or energy lobbies.

The EU has set aside funding for the phase-out of the coal plants and for employing their workers in other activities, but the EU effort is marginalised and ridiculed here.

The mildest criticism of the European Green Deal is that it should be renegotiated, and it doesn’t matter if those who call for renegotiation cannot say which of the respective 30 pieces of legislation they want to see revised.

The discussions also clearly show that experienced MEPs seeking reelection are at a disadvantage when faced with the newcomers, who accuse them of being “yes-men” complicit with EU policies, including the Green Deal.

We will judge the result of these debates in the days after 9 June – not only for Bulgaria but across our union.

If so many new MEPs are elected on an anti-Green Deal ticket, can we imagine they will back its architect, Ursula von der Leyen, for a second mandate as the Commission chief?

The Roundup

The EU should assess how Georgia’s foreign agent law will impact the country’s accession process before the parliament’s final vote, twelve EU foreign ministers said in a letter addressed to the bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi.

North Macedonia’s election-winning nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party has sparked reactions across Europe and from its own EU family, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), after President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova refused to use the country’s official name during her inauguration on Sunday.

The European Commission announced on Monday the designation of Booking, the parent company of online travel giant Booking.com, as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and initiated a market investigation of social media platform X.

The EU Council gave its final green light on Monday to a relaxation of the environmental rules under the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which will apply until the end of the current period in 2027 despite vocal protests from green NGOs.

European Conservatives and Reformists do not intend to promise support for Ursula von der Leyen to continue as head of the European Commission, Czech MEP Alexandr Vondra told Euractiv Czechia in an exclusive interview.

France achieved a 22.2% share of renewable energy in its gross final energy consumption in 2023, according to the French Ecological Ministry figures from 7 May, but the trend is not sufficient for the country to reach a target of at least 44% renewable energy by 2030, as set by EU law.

Negotiations for a new pandemic treaty, originally slated to conclude on Friday before the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) on 27 May, are set to continue both in person and in a hybrid format in hopes of producing a new text soon.

Look out for…

• Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council on Monday-Tuesday.
• Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) on Tuesday.
• Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni participates in the Economic and Financial Dialogue between the EU and Western Balkans, Turkey, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine on Tuesday.
• Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski in Romania on Tuesday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran/Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor]