On the eve of the Future of Europe Summit on 9 May, governments representing eight EU Member States called for putting climate action at the centre of future EU cooperation and for substantially increasing the EU’s efforts to combat climate change.

In a statement leaked by the press yesterday, a coalition of countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden urged the EU to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 and scale up emission cuts by 2030. Signatories of the statement also demanded that at least 25% of the EU budget is spent on projects aimed at fighting against climate change, while not a single euro of EU funds harms the climate and environment.

The statement comes prior to the summit in Sibiu, Romania on 9 May, where EU Heads of State and Government will be discussing priorities for the future of the EU. It aims to put climate change at the heart of this discussion, in response to mass citizens’ protest and stakeholders’ mobilisation demanding political action.

Commenting on the statement, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:

“The recent surge in public protests and unprecedented mobilisation of actors in all sectors of the economy is forcing European leaders to finally recognise the urgency needed to combat the climate crisis. At the Sibiu summit, all European leaders need to follow the call from the most progressive governments and publicly commit to put climate action at the heart of future EU cooperation. Such declaration needs to be followed by immediate steps outlined in our Climate Action Call.”

Increasing the EU’s 2030 and 2050 commitments is one of the key demands of an unprecedented Climate Action Call published yesterday by a broad coalition representing hundreds of European cities, regions, businesses, youth and faith groups and civil society organisations.

An agreement on achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and increasing the 2030 target needs to be reached at the June European Council, the last Council meeting before the UN Secretary General Climate Summit in September 2019. This is when all countries are expected to put forward new commitments for more climate action, as requested by UN Secretary General António Guterres. Delaying this crucial decision would mean that the EU would come unprepared to the summit, undermining its position as a global leader on climate action.

ENDS

Ania Drazkiewicz, CAN Europe Head of Communications, ania@caneurope.org, +32 494 525 738

Notes

The Climate Action Call with a full list of signatories, and short, quality videos with statements of stakeholders supporting the Climate Action Call are available on the website: http://climateactioncall.caneurope.org/

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe's leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. With over 150 member organisations from 35 European countries, representing over 1.700 NGOs and more than 47 million citizens, CAN Europe promotes sustainable climate, energy and development policies throughout Europe.