When the ninth EU Parliament came back it, was on the back of a massive ‘green wave’ crashing across Europe during the 2019 election.
While the effect was not as dramatic in Ireland, the Green Party here also benefitted, electing two MEPs – their highest since the 1999 election race.
The result of this sweeping change was obvious from the first day. The election of more left and Green candidates, along with some far right anti-EU candidates, at the expense of centre-right and centre-left MEPs changed the political landscape significantly.
Where once the EU Parliament was dominated by the financial crashes and austerity, now the impending crisis was climate.
While the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) – of which Fine Gael is a member – retained the presidency of the commission, the vice-president from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Frans Timmermans, was given a new role as executive vice-president responsible for the European Green Deal.
Timmermans set his sights immediately on reforming the agricultural system and courting the then rising Climate Strike youth movement.
Following a meeting with prominent environmental activist Greta Thunberg, he tweeted about the then ongoing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms and implied that reforms may have to be amended to better match the Green Deal.
EU
This caused immediate outrage from two quarters. Firstly, the farming organisations across the EU decried the danger of last-minute changes to the existing proposals and the short time for farmers to adapt to new demands.
The second was from a smaller group of legal scholars who pointed out that the EU Commission was forbidden by legal treaty from amendment proposals once they had been presented to the parliament.
Nonetheless, the divisive ‘withdraw the CAP’ campaign rolled on, headed by environmental celebrities like Thurnburg, but more significantly by various groups across such Europe, including endorsements by Irish organisations such as Birdwatch Ireland and An Taisce.
This was despite it being unprecedented and posing significant risk of damage to the institutions of the EU.
Thankfully despite some minor amendments and a two-year delay, farmers were not left with no support and instead other legislative packages were brought forward.
These included updates to the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD) which aimed to slash pesticide and herbicide use by 50%, and the EU carbon farming initiative which allowed for new genomic techniques (NGTs) and revisions on animal welfare.
Analysis carried out in February 2024 however showed that more than half of these did not meet their targeted deadlines.
The then president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen pulled the proposals on pesticides, carbon farming was also delayed, and only the NGTs and animal welfare proposals – which would affect most Irish farmers – made significant progress.
Nature Restoration Law
Next came a bruising fight over the Nature Restoration Law (NRL).
Not only did this divide member states – as countries like the Netherlands and Sweden opposed it while Ireland, France and Spain supported the law – but it also divided the parliament.
Broadly the left and centre-left of the EU parliament were supportive of the NRL, with some exceptions such as Sinn Féin’s Chris McManus and Fianna Fáil MEPs split on the vote, with the right and centre-right voting against it.
But even internally, the centre-right, EPP voted in favour of it only after their amendments were supported.
Throughout the 2024 election campaign it appeared to be one of the few key pieces of EU legislation that was debated in every member state’s election.
As the counting of votes in all three European Parliament constituencies in Ireland continues today (Monday, June 10) the overall result across Europe is broadly expected to push the EU Parliament more right wing than any before.
The rise of concerns about immigration, sluggish economies and the pushback against exactly the sort of climate policy represented by the EU Green Deal – along with the undeniable effects of online misinformation – was expected to deliver a more hard and even far right.
Latest indicators suggest this will be the most likely outcome, underlined by results from France and Germany and also Italy where the right-wing Brothers of Italy party increased its vote.
The results for Europe’s Greens also deliver a serious question mark over the future of the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy – will it survive or is it for the recycling bin?