Europe’s center right will find another socialist running EU climate policy hard to swallow — but perhaps not impossible.
Peter Liese, a German MEP from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), told POLITICO he was “not enthusiastic” about Teresa Ribera, a prominent Spanish socialist and climate official, becoming the bloc’s green boss.
“But I wouldn’t exclude that she gets a responsibility,” added Liese, a member of the European Parliament’s environment committee since 1999 and the EPP’s top green policy lawmaker.
Ribera, a deputy prime minister who runs Spain’s green transition, is not just campaigning to run the EU’s Green Deal after June’s election — she also wants to do it from a position of power, pitching an EU commissioner role that would run climate, energy and environmental policy. Those portfolios are currently divided among three commissioners overseen by a Green Deal vice president.
In making her case, Ribera has sharply criticized Liese’s EPP and its lead candidate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for watering down and rescinding green initiatives.
While there have been tensions between the EPP and von der Leyen over green policy, Liese said von der Leyen had “moved in our direction” and that he backed her candidacy.
If von der Leyen is reappointed and gives Ribera a job, Liese said, the 27-member Commission must have a strong industry voice as a counterbalance. In other words, there can only be another Frans Timmermans — the Commission’s former hard-charging climate chief — if another commissioner is willing to defend “traditional industries.”
Ideally, Liese added at a press conference on Thursday, the next Green Deal commissioner would be more like Maroš Šefčovič, the lower-profile official currently overseeing the Green Deal, and less like Timmermans.
“The person who is responsible for the Green Deal in the future should be a person who engages in dialogue with agriculture and industry, who focuses on the implementation of targets and not so much on raising the level of ambition,” Liese said.
Liese told POLITICO the EPP would discuss an alternative to Ribera from its own ranks.
The current EU climate chief is Wopke Hoekstra, a Dutch EPP politician. In 2023 Wopke replaced Timmermans, who had forced through sweeping environmental regulations often defying resistance from the EPP.
Liese said Hoekstra had made it easier for the EPP to push its priorities in recent debates, especially during EU deliberations over a 2040 emissions reduction target.
“It makes a difference with an EPP commissioner,” he said. “But it’s part of the overall package. And we need to see after the election how the situation is.”
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