EU Greens’ manifesto: A ‘Social’ Green Deal and embrace of NATO

The European Greens are pushing for “massive” investments to simultaneously boost the green transition and protect living conditions under what they are calling the “Green Social Deal”, according to a draft electoral manifesto seen by Euractiv.

The 40-page draft manifesto, which foregrounds the party’s strengthened foreign and defence priorities, lays out an ambitious vision – the final version of which is set to be adopted on 2-4 February in the party’s electoral congress in Lyon. 

Where the socialist (PES) and centre-right (EPP) put their political priorities front and centre of their draft manifestos, the Greens’ text is highly detailed in its policy plans.

As polls are predicting a right-wing shift at June’s European elections, right-of-centre parties have been gearing up for a pushback against a mix of Green Deal regulations and red tape.

Despite headwinds and turning tides for the EU’s green policy, the European Green Party (EGP) is planning on doubling down its efforts through a renewed “Green and Social Deal” with new legislative proposals and “massive” investments across policy areas, according to the manifesto.

While mounting voices across the EU call for a green ‘regulatory pause’ to allow member states and businesses to digest the Green Deal legislation approved in this term, the Greens are turning up the heat.

“We welcome the progress but continue to push for more ambition and the full implementation of the plans already set in motion,” the draft reads, proposing a new batch of EU regulations, including the transformation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), retargeting EU funds subsidise only “organic farming and agroecological production”.

The Greens also want tighter deadlines for phasing out fossil fuels, calling for full climate neutrality by 2040 and an end to the use of “coal by 2030, fossil gas by 2035, and oil by 2040″. On fossil subsidies, the Greens urge the EU to come up with a plan to phase them out by 2025 “at the latest” and “all other environmentally harmful subsidies by 2027”.

‘Massive investment’ across policy areas

In essence, the paper proposes more money as a fix to key problems of the green transition, including renovating energy-inefficient homes, smoothing the implementation of the green transition in agriculture and industry, affordable housing, and the extension of sustainable mobility links.

The party justifies its insistence on additional spending with the continued urgency of the fight against climate change, as well as a need to spread the social costs more evenly.

With costs likely to shoot up to hundreds of billions of euros, the Greens plan to finance their proposals with “a mix of fiscal policy, public investment, and private initiative”, while also pushing for EU-wide tax harmonisation to top up the EU’s budget – a proposal which is highly unlikely to materialise. 

“We call for an EU-wide wealth tax to fight inequality and finance the green transition (…) 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,” the drafts reads. 

Who is more ‘social’?

The Greens are framing their boosted green policy proposals with the urgency of improving people’s living conditions, placing human well-being as the top priority. 

“With our Green and Social Deal, together we can turn lives (…) into more secure, happier, and healthier ones, with cheaper energy bills, healthy food at affordable prices, and clean air in our towns and cities,” the draft reads. 

The idea of boosting the social dimension of the green transition is also a centrepiece of the European Socialists manifesto, who, too, are attempting to champion a continued “Green Social Deal”.

With the same motto for the campaign and overlapping policy proposals, the two parties are bound to battle for the same political space, with a heated electoral battleground on the horizon. 

Realpolitik-turn

Meanwhile, on foreign and security policy – the third chapter of the manifesto – the Greens have taken a Realpolitik-turn compared to the 2019 manifesto, advocating for deeper military cooperation and building up the EU’s diplomatic capabilities. 

“In today’s world, we believe the European Union must be a strong player. The EU is and has always been a peace project,” the draft reads.

“As no country can face the threats to security alone, the EU must develop a Security Union that centres human security and people’s needs,” it adds. 

For that, the Greens argue in favour of a strong EU diplomatic service (EEAS) as a “force for truly transnational diplomacy that can fight impunity and build reconciliation and lasting peace”. 

In reference to the EU’s ‘mutual assistance clause’, they stress the EU must increase “cooperation on military capabilities and creating synergies, for example through promoting interoperability and coordinating procurement, maintenance, and supply systems”. 

Deeper cooperation with NATO is embraced, as well as the creation of “conditions to allow the EU to freely determine its engagement in the rapidly shifting geopolitical environment”.

“For the EU, a multilateral approach also includes strengthening and deepening cooperation with NATO, while respecting a clear division of competences and without setting precedence,” the draft reads, adding that “member states decide for themselves about NATO membership.”

The more pragmatic tones on security echo the sharp centrist turn of the German Greens towards a “values-based foreign policy”, the most powerful sub-organisation of the EGP, who built their national manifesto around the terms of “prosperity” and “security”. 

“Our answer starts with the EU achieving greater security in geopolitical and economic terms and acting as one internationally. For the EU, our security also depends on our support for Ukraine,” the draft reads. 

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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