The European Union is the key level for climate and environmental policy where we make those crucial, shared decisions that steer European societies on a greener path.
Thanks to the mobilization of the climate movement, we Greens managed to push for a European Green Deal in 2019 and put the climate crisis at the top of the agenda. But progress is too little and too slow. The quicker Europe moves forward with its green transition, the sooner our investments and efforts will pay off. The climate will not wait for other crises to pass.
Our Green and Social Deal envisions a major investment plan to build a prosperous and dynamic society based on climate neutrality, green industries and technologies, and sustainable digitalization.
Investing in a green and better future
Europe’s economic and fiscal policies need to focus on improving people’s wellbeing and quality of life and maintaining a stable climate and a healthy environment. In a break with the austerity of the past, Europe must enable and encourage investment to fix the problems of the present and future.
We will revise the arbitrary limits of the Maastricht Criteria and the Stability and Growth Pact. They have left Europe exposed to crises and led to cuts in public services in several countries and limited public investments, undermining social cohesion.
Instead, we will introduce a new wellbeing-based macroeconomic governance that prioritizes quality investment in public goods and the green transition over the outdated growth-at-any-cost paradigm to avoid further crises and their social consequences.
We call for the introduction of a Green Golden Rule and a reformed European Semester to create space for future-oriented green and social investment. We will revise the rules regarding state aid and public investment to encourage green investments without undermining fair competition on internal market.
The mandate of the European Central Bank should be revised to include full employment alongside price stability. As fossil fuels are vulnerable to price hikes and drive inflation, we also want the European Central Bank to make use of all tools at its disposal to encourage green investment, including differentiated interest rates.
Greening industry for our future competitiveness
The green transition is the challenge of our generation, and it will not be achieved without active industrial policy. Greening industries through investment in Europe is a huge opportunity in terms of both competitiveness and climate neutrality.
We will push for a Green and Social Transition Fund equivalent to at the very least 1% of EU GDP per year, mainly financed by joint borrowing at the EU level.
The backbone of our Infrastructure Union, it will fund green infrastructure projects such as public transport and rail freight, renewables, and energy grid connections. It will fund emerging green industries and the deep renovation of housing stock. The fund will also support training programmes essential to the creation of decent jobs in new green sectors and improving essential social infrastructure necessary for a just transition.
A key lever to fight deindustrialisation across the EU, this fund will support member states with fewer economic resources and sectors affected by the transition. EU-level investment is needed to protect the single market and win political backing for the green transition in all EU countries.
EU industrial policy must be designed with the participation of citizens, trade unions and businesses and not become a way to socialize the costs while privatizing the profits. We will make sure that the public purse benefits from the proceeds of investments in industries, for example through equity stakes. Social conditionalities must ensure the creation of quality jobs. Industrial policy should not be introduced at the expense of emissions reductions and regulation. European support for research and development can also contribute towards scientific and technological development, as well as other societal goals, and should be increased.
Financing the Green and Social Deal
The money to finance this much-needed investment is there. We are convinced that the EU can help channel it towards green and social investment. A mix of fiscal policy, public investment, and private initiative will drive this change. A fairer economic system requires greater redistribution, the better use of public funds, and all actors in society playing their part.
Creating a fair tax system
Europe needs a just tax system that takes the burden off workers and small businesses and makes polluters, multinationals, and the ultra-rich pay their fair share.
We will establish a minimum level for capital gains tax in the EU to rebalance the tax burden away from employees. We will close the loopholes in the OECD corporate minimum tax agreement and push EU member states to implement the agreement at a higher level. Loopholes that leave room for tax avoidance and evasion inside and outside the EU as well as fraud and money laundering will be closed. We will fight against tax havens, be them in the EU or anywhere else in the world.
The European Union requires greater budgetary resources to face our common challenges. Europe must extend the carbon border tax to new polluting sectors, apply the polluter pays principle across all sectors, and abolish free quotas ahead of the current 2034 date. We will increase the scope of existing taxes on plastics.
We will push to massively increase the size of the EU Social Climate Fund to ensure a just transition for low-income households.
We call for an EU-wide wealth tax to fight inequality and finance the green transition. In addition, we will push for a European financial transactions tax to generate revenue while curbing speculation. We will make the EU windfall tax on energy companies permanent to prevent profiteering in future energy crises and apply it to commodity traders and banks too.
Greening finance for real
We will regulate financial services to promote long-term investment in a green and social future over short-term speculation. We will fight to revise the Green Taxonomy to make sure that gas and nuclear are not greenwashed as “sustainable”. Fossil gas and nuclear energy cannot be labelled as clean.
Investments in new coal, oil and gas extraction, coal-fired energy projects, and the companies that develop them must be disincentivized. The continued development of high-emission activities jeopardizes the EU’s climate and environmental commitments and increases financial risks.
We will oblige financial actors to adopt robust climate transition plans to support their economic transition and enable a gradual transformation. Their content and implementation must be regulated, with sectoral policies for the highest-emitting activities and methods for setting decarbonization targets. We will fight to include all banking sector activities in the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, so the banking sector is accountable for the human rights, environmental and climate impact of its investments.
Stable and inclusive banking for Europe
Households should no longer end up lining the pockets of financial players speculating on food, energy and housing or bear the fallout of financial crashes. The EU needs to complete its much overdue banking union and introduce a common deposit insurance system.
The European Central Bank should offer a public digital euro to offer an alternative to private payment systems, crypto-currency markets should be properly regulated, including their environmental impacts, and the right of people to access and use cash should be protected as a matter of inclusion.
Closing the loop with a circular economy
Produce, consume, and throw away – the economy of our society leads to resource use beyond the limits of our planet. If we do nothing to change this, by 2050, we will need three Earths to satisfy our need for raw materials. This linear model fuels the climate crisis, environmental destruction, and human rights violations in resource extraction. It leaves our supply chains vulnerable to crises and our economies and businesses dependent on imports.
Waste must become a design flaw. We want to build a fully renewable, fully circular, and non-toxic economy by 2040 with clear and binding targets and transition pathways to reduce consumption and resource use by 2030.
As the green transition requires growing amounts of metals, we must adopt a sufficiency approach and prioritize the development of processing and recycling capacities for strategic materials.
If extraction in the EU proves to be necessary to ensure secure and sustainable supply chains, we must impose the highest environmental and social standards. There should be no exemptions from EU legislation or human and environmental rights conditions, strict and irreversible “no-mining” areas, and continuous effort to improve mining techniques and working conditions (including health and safety coverage) and ban of the most harmful ones. Affected communities – particularly Europe’s last indigenous community, the Sami people – must receive early information, participation, consent, and fair compensation.
Zero waste is the business model of the future
Our vision is a fully circular economy where we reuse, upcycle, share, and recycle our products to keep the materials in a closed loop. This approach protects resources and the climate and saves money for consumers as products last longer. Environmental and consumer protection go hand in hand. As Greens, we will push for the fast implementation of the mandatory sustainability requirements for our products and for EU action to ensure industry compliance.
We will fight the premature obsolescence, including from software and the lack of repairability, that is devastating the planet as well as household budgets. We will make sure that an effective and affordable right to repair, including an EU-wide repair score and an open repair market for independent repairers and consumers, is properly introduced. We will support the creation of an internal market for second-hand goods and refurbishment. We want new technical standards, such as the common charger, that incentivize product durability and that pave the way a zero-waste society with no waste exports to third countries.
Building a social and collaborative economy
Our vision of the economy is dynamic and circular where the small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that form the backbone of Europe’s economy thrive alongside new models of community, social and collaborative economies.
SMEs should operate on a level playing field with large companies. We strive to avoid bureaucracy and regulation that is more complex, rigid or otherwise burdensome than is necessary to protect the public good. We promote digital tools wherever they can make compliance easier.
The power of sustainable public procurement should be unlocked to foster high ecological and social standards and promote collective bargaining. European regulation should enable alternative economic models such as cooperatives, crowdfunding, social entrepreneurship, and the commons. This fertile ground for local initiatives should be strengthened, with priority for sectors that face strong international competition such as textiles.
Sustainable digitization for the people and the planet
Digital technologies are an ever-more important part of our lives; they should protect the rights of individuals and serve the common good before the interests of private corporations. Caught between US surveillance capitalism and China-style state control, Europe needs a rights-based, decentralized approach to digitalization to reap its benefits.
We will introduce a European Data Space that opens anonymized social data uses that serve the common good, including the fight for climate justice and medical research. Interoperability is key to successful digital policy. The European Interoperability Framework is a good starting point, but it does not yet create a level-playing field. We will push to open standardization to developers, civil society and SMEs. Their involvement must be compensated so that everyone can equally participate in this process.
If truly open and with rights protected by legislation, digitalization will be an opportunity for people in Europe. Recent EU legislation will provide greater choice and transparency online, protecting against violations of rights and freedoms. However, the EU needs to introduce a Digital Fairness Act to protect people from intrusive online advertising practices.
We will legislate to increase the reuse and recycling of digital devices and components within the EU and cut the energy consumption linked to data processing and cryptocurrency to massively reduce the internet’s material footprint.
Continuing a success story: protecting European consumers
Strong consumer protections such as roaming rights and passengers’ rights and product safety measures are major successes of the single market. But with the economy changing fast, the EU’s high standards need an urgent update to protect people, especially online.
Consumers should enjoy the same rights online and offline. With an increasing share of e-commerce involving potentially unsafe purchases directly from third-party sellers, we call for greater responsibility on online marketplaces and extended and coordinated approval and testing procedures by customs and market surveillance authorities.
As Greens, we will make sure that people receive clear and comprehensive information about the environmental impact of products and services sold in the EU, including information on expected product lifespan and its environmental footprint. In the single market, there must be no first- or second-class consumers. Products marketed in the same way in different European countries must be of the same quality and composition. Consumer rights should be upheld fully everywhere in the EU.