How does the EU work, and what is it doing about climate change?

To what did we become so used to, that we don’t even notice anymore? It is very much human nature to take for granted what previous generations fought for and secured, often at great costs. First and very importantly, we take for granted that Europe is a region at peace. And in fact, it has been so for the most part since the end of World War II, after centuries of constant and very bloody infighting between neighbouring countries. Conflicts were also taken abroad during colonisation. 

The war in Ukraine, started by Russia a year ago, is a wake-up call, a high-intensity war raging at the gates of the European Union, and involves it in many dimensions short of direct military involvement. Within the EU however, peaceful relations have been a very solid norm, and a bedrock of our lives.

Equality and human rights are guaranteed for everyone living in the EU, in the European treaties and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. This prohibits any discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, age or disability. One only has to read the international news to realize how precious those rights are, and easily taken away in many parts of the world, particularly those ruled by authoritarian regimes.

Traveling within the EU has become immensely easier. This is thanks to most EU countries, and some non-EU European countries, having removed border controls between each other. This was enabled by the Schengen Agreement signed in 1985. As a European citizen, one can travel without a passport within the 26 ‘Schengen countries’: 22 EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Not to mention that when traveling one doesn’t need an international health insurance, as this is granted by the European Health Insurance Card. 

A common market and a currency, the euro, was introduced in 12 countries in 2002, to replace the national currencies. This contributes to trade and travel being a lot easier. It implies that consumers have a much broader choice and easier price comparison when purchasing goods or services within the eurozone (now comprised of 20 countries), amongst many other macroeconomic benefits. 

Freedom of movement within the EU applies to people, goods, services and capital. For people, this is fundamental not only for travel and holidays, but also for people to train, study and work anywhere in the EU under the same conditions as the country's nationals, and work anywhere in the EU. Free movement of goods, services and capital within a huge and affluent market brings many benefits to citizens-consumers. 

And what about the climate? Protecting the environment and tackling climate change will be detailed in the second part of this article but we can advance that the EU has been leading the global action on several fronts and it has recently introduced innovative laws and policies. The EU has committed to a European Green Deal an extensive package of measures to tackle climate change, pledging to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Part II of this article will dive into EU's climate policy.

The European Union is a supranational political and economic organisation of 27 member states, with about 447 million citizens, or just short of 6% of the world population. Within that, the eurozone is composed of 20 member states who have fully implemented the economic and monetary union, and use the euro as a national currency.

The first seeds of the union were planted shortly after the end of World War II, as a key step to avert future wars, and went through different, increasingly ambitious forms of political and economic cooperation. It all started in 1951 with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community and the Treaty of Rome that in 1957 established the European Economic Community (EEC). 

Over the last seven decades, various treaties have been shaping the regional cooperation and integration, with some recent milestone such the Treaty of Maastricht (1993) and that of Lisbon (2009) which fully established what is now known as the European Union. 

Throughout the years, the union was growing in scope but also in members, from the initial “club of six” founding countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) to the current 27 members. Eight more countries are on the list of candidates to integrate the union, that includes Ukraine and Turkey.

The EU has grown also in institutionally complexity, so much that it is a real challenge to understand and to communicate around its governance, and make it relatable to the citizens.

There are seven key institutions to better understand how the EU works:

1. The European Parliament, which makes European laws. It represents the citizens of EU countries, and is elected directly by the voters of EU countries. There are 751 Members of the European Parliament, elected every 5 years, and a president elected every 2.5 years. The number of seats per state depends on the size of that state.
The next European Parliament election is scheduled to be held in 2024. Due to Brexit, 27 seats from the British delegation were distributed to other countries in January 2020 and the other 46 seats were abolished, with the total number of MEPs decreasing from 751 to 705 after that. This will be the tenth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first European Parliament election after Brexit. The elections are likely to be influenced by the recent Qatargatecorruption scandal and how institutions react to avoid similar cases in the future.

2. The Council of the European Union is made up of representatives (ministers) from the governments of the member states, it coordinate policies. The presidency of the Council rotates between member states every six months. The presidency is currently held by Sweden (from 1 January to 30 June 2023) and Spain will be president for the second half of the year. 

3. The European Council comprises all the heads of state and governments of the member states plus the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council. It defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union. The European Council is chaired by a president elected for a 2.5-year term, renewable once. It does not adopt laws except for possible EU Treaty amendments. Currently, Belgium holds the presidency.

4. The European Commission is the main executive body, and puts EU policies into action; it also proposes laws and is actually the only institution that can do that. There are 27 commissioners, one per member state, and one president, proposed by the Council and approved by the Parliament. 

While those four EU institutions cover the legislative and executive tasks of the EU, another three EU institutions complement those tasks, managing the judicial, financial and external audit aspects of the European Union.

1. The Court of Justice of the European Union ensures that EU law is applied and treaties are correctly interpreted and applied; it holds trials at the European level

2. The Court of Auditors’ mission is to ensure that the European finances are managed appropriately

3. The European Central Bank decides on monetary policy for the eurozone.

The EU institutions and bodies cooperate extensively with a large number of EU agencies and organizations across the member states, which translate policies into realities on the ground. 

The European Union has set itself the objective of taking action on climate change. The EU and all its member States are signatories of the UN Climate Change Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, therefore the EU is legally bound to contribute to the global goals of limiting global warming and adapting to the impacts of the climate emergency.

To achieve that objective, the EU has adopted a number of policies and initiatives over the past few years, foremost, but not only, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean technologies and increase its use of renewable energy. The current geopolitical context, and especially the war in Ukraine, has provided additional impetus in 2022, and the EU has reduced dramatically its dependency on Russian oil and gas.

Very recently, the EU Commission announced a Green Industrial Plan, intended to counter the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act’s effects. The European move can be seen as protectionist retreat after decades of globalization. The plan would secure the EU’s goal of becoming the first net-zero carbon emissions continent, by 2050. At this stage, this plan is still at the proposal stage, some fear it may fuel a so-called international subsidy race that would signify a return to protectionism in global trade. 

The EU’s 2030 climate and energy framework, which also represents its commitment under the Paris Agreement, includes the following goals: 

·  reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% below 1990 levels

·  improving energy efficiency by 32.5%

·  increasing the share of renewable energy sources to 32% of final consumption

On the latter goal, on 18 May 2022, the Commission published the REPowerEU plan, which includes a series of measures to rapidly reduce EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The REPowerEU plan is based on three pillars: saving energy, producing clean energy and diversifying the EU's energy supplies. As part of its scaling up of renewable energy in power generation, industry, buildings and transport, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) seeks to ensure that by 2030 renewable energy such as solar power, wind, hydroelectric power and biomass will make up at least 32% of the EU’s total energy consumption in terms of electricity generation, transport, heating and cooling – the Commission has proposed to increase the target in the directive from 32% to 45% by 2030.

Another major initiative the EU has taken to combat climate change is the launch of the European Green Deal, at the end of 2019, which is a package of measures aimed at making the EU's economy more sustainable, and ultimately climate-neutral. 

The Green Deal includes plans to increase the use of renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy. Supported by investments in green technologies, sustainable solutions and new businesses, the Green Deal is also designed to be a new EU growth strategy to transform the EU into a sustainable and competitive economy. This remains a hot topic as the EU needs to adjust to major shifts in the globalization landscape and a trend towards continental protectionism, as is apparent in economic superpowers such as China and the U.S. with its Inflation Reduction Act referenced above. 

In addition to the Green Deal, the EU has also set ambitious targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, including a goal of reducing emissions by 55% below 1990 levels by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality (i.e., net zero emissions) by 2050. 

To help achieve these goals, the EU has implemented a number of policies and programs, such as the Emissions Trading System (ETS), which is a cap-and-trade system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector and heavy industry.

The revised Directive on Energy Efficiency sets an energy efficiency target of 32.5% for the EU by 2030 (calculated using the 2007 reference scenario baseline), with a clause for upward revision by 2023. It also extends the annual energy saving obligation beyond 2020. In addition, the revised Directive on Energy Performance in Buildings was adopted in May 2018. This includes measures that will accelerate the rate of building renovation and the move towards more energy-efficient systems, and improve the energy performance of new buildings, with the use of intelligent energy management systems.

The European Union is one of the so called “historic polluters”, meaning that although reducing its emissions in the recent years, the region’s economic growth has provoked significantly high pollution and resources exploitation at home and abroad. 

In recent years, the EU has promoted ambitious global action at the multilateral level and these are some examples:

· Active participation in the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) and other international fora

·  Bilateral relations with non-EU countries; this includes EUROCLIMA+ , which is a cooperation program on environmental sustainability and climate change with the Latin American region. 

·  Finance to support developing countries in their efforts to tackle climate change.

This article only provides a snapshot of how the EU is acting on climate change, without going into detail. Future articles will look at more concrete solutions but we thought it was important first to summarise the general context of how the EU works and what its climate objectives are, which are not always easy to explain. 

Write to us to give us your feedback on this article and to give us ideas on other topics you would like us to write about in the future.

To find out more about the EU's climate policies, here are some useful links:

· Learn more about EU climate action 

· Learn more about EU environmental action

· Visit the European Environment Agency

Cover photo: EU flag in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. Credit: artJazz