Wopke Hoekstra is going to have her big oral with Ursula von der Leyen. On Tuesday 29 August, the current Dutch Foreign Minister and Commissioner designated by the Netherlands to replace the departure of Frans Timmermans, the former Vice-President of the Community executive, has an appointment with the President of the Commission to discuss his future portfolio.
He should theoretically inherit climate action within the Commission, the portfolio that Mr. Timmermans managed, but not his vice-presidency in charge of the Green Pact which fell to the Slovak Maros Sefcovic. Unless M.me von der Leyen did not decide to propose another portfolio, forcing him to reshuffle his executive more in depth.
This appointment, however, caused a lot of turmoil, both in the Netherlands and at European level. If the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, did not wish to comment on the decision of his government, the appointment of Mr. Hoekstra did not only make people happy, especially within the Reform Party (D66, liberal left), the most pro-European of the Dutch parties. Second formation of the resigning cabinet – the legislative elections will take place in November – she hoped that one of hers would succeed Mr. Timmermans.
Weaken the Green Deal
“A lot of factors came into play” in the appointment of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, only indicated Mr Rutte. Including, it is said in The Hague, the strong insistence of the President of the European Commission, eager to see a Christian Democrat, member of the European People’s Party (EPP) like her, manage this important portfolio. However, for some months now the EPP Group multiplies the blockages within the European Parliament against the texts of the Green Pact, which aims to make Europe a carbon neutral continent by 2050. After having tried to scuttle the law on the restoration of nature, he tries to weaken future legislation on the use of pesticides, still under negotiation.
If approved by Parliament and the Council, Mr Hoekstra will represent the Union at the next Conference of the Parties (COP28), on climate change, in Dubai in November, and must, at the beginning of 2024, draw the European climate ambitions for 2040. A daunting task for a leader who, in 2021, during a debate in which he confronted the leader of the Dutch environmentalist left, criticized his “dogmas” and his “ideological biases”.
In the European Parliament, the first reactions were also severe against this former Shell, where he began his career in 2002, then the consulting firm McKinsey. The Social Democratic Group (S&D) reacted strongly. “Wopke Hoekstra became known to the general European public thanks to controversial statements during the Covid-19 crisis”, recalls the socialist group in a press release. At that time, Mr. Hoekstra was Minister of Finance, and his nickname, “Mr. No”, pretty much summed up his philosophy.
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