Peter Liese: The two will make a good team / International climate diplomacy and cooperation with industry for economic growth and climate action must now be priorities / Chemical legislation apparently postponed

After hearing the two candidates on Monday and Tuesday, the European Parliament confirmed Wopke Hoekstra as the new Climate Commissioner and the current Vice-President of the EU Commission Maroš Šefčovič as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the Green Deal with a large majority.

The coordinator of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats), Peter Liese, welcomed the result: “Hoekstra and Šefčovič will be a good team. Hoekstra has the qualification that is needed most now - diplomacy. We cannot save the climate alone, but we also need to convince other major economies to act with similar ambition as the Europeans. Šefčovič will be more pragmatic than his predecessor, Timmermans, and will put more emphasis on working with industry and on integrating the day-to-day concerns of citizens into the EU's climate and environmental policies. This will now give us the Green Deal 2.0. Regarding the earlier answers to the written questions, it's interesting to note that clear commitments exist for the Commission to introduce certain legislations, for instance, on animal protection, but this is not the case for chemical legislation. I expect that the proposal for the so-called REACH regulation will not be presented before the election. In my view, this makes sense as we should now focus on climate protection, competitiveness and jobs and not introduce additional burdens for the industry," said Liese.

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