Reported 4 times
As a reminder, the European Commission has been waiting for the reception of the National Energie-Climate Plan of Belgium since June 30, 2024. Since then, the PNEC has been sent four times. A delay that the office of minister Vooruit explains: “Flanders has never developed a Flemish plan for energy and climate during the previous legislature. We are working on it right now, and are on the right track. The plan is supposed to be ready for the month of June“.
In its latest climate plan, Flanders provided for a 40 % reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, less than the 47 % requested by the European Union. Worse, the Flemish energy and climate agency estimates that at unchanged policy, the decline will only reach 34 % in 2030.
“They will find it difficult to achieve their goalsnote a person close to the file. They should take this up by the body, knowing that they are threatened by the rise of waters in the North Sea, have few land available and already require Wallonia water during drought.“How then to explain the marked wait -and -see waitability of Flanders in climate matters?”Circulate, there’s nothing to do, it’s a bit of their mantracontinues this source. They are condescending on the subject, believe that they are already doing the necessary. But the Flemings set their heads in the sand, because the absence of ambitious measures will take their economy.“
This is what the Belgian coast could look like in 2100, several Flemish cities could disappear from the map
Communitarianized file
In November 2023, Flanders was sentenced, in the same way as the Federal and the Walloon Region, by the Brussels Court of Appeal for its lack of climate ambition. Following this decision rendered in the climate case, the Flemish government had provided for cassation. The former Flemish climate minister, Zuhal Demir (N-VA), was very hard at the time, remembers Vincent Lefebve, researcher at the Center for Socio-Political Research and Information (CRISP), who published a note on the subject in the spring.
“Zuhal Demir communitarianized the debate, believing that a French -speaking judge did not have to hinder Flemish prosperity, and that the judiciary did not have to encroach on the executive power.“The argument is found until a forum published in the newspaper L’Écho on December 9, 2023. Toby de Backer, deputy chief of staff to Minister Demir, explains to the Walloons – in French – that the decision of the Court of Appeal is likely to restrict the economic development of the southern country.
Alain Maron (Ecolo), current climate minister in the Brussels government in current affairs, sums up the Flemish position at the time: “Make it as little as possible, while obtaining as much as possible. For the N-VA, not reaching an intra-belge agreement made it possible to show that federalism does not work. In the meantime, Flanders has lagged behind its climatic objectives. If she does not reach them and European sanctions fall, I at least hope that she will pay fines“.
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