Conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) MEPs have thrown their weight behind their European political family’s (EPP) push to abandon essential parts of the European Green Deal, which the EU centre-right launched at its party conference last week.

Last week, the European People’s Party (EPP) rejected the proposal on the sustainable use of pesticides, a key legislative project within the EU’s sustainability flagship, the Green Deal.

The MEPs of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) are standing by this move.

“Farmers are at a point where they can no longer keep up,” Simone Schmiedtbauer told the press in Strasbourg on Tuesday, ORF reported.

A debate on the role of farmers in facilitating the green transition and maintaining a robust agricultural sector is set to take place in the plenary of the European Parliament on Wednesday. However, no resolution is expected to be reached since the topic has sparked escalating controversy.

European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans is responsible for the Commission for the Green Deal, which aims to take significant steps towards a reduction of emissions and a conversion to sustainable economic activity. Timmermans has recently reaffirmed its necessity.

The ÖVP and the far-right FPÖ, on the other hand, clearly reject this stance.

“We reiterate our opposition to Timmermans,” stressed Schmiedtbauer.

FPÖ MEP Georg Mayer referred to the Green Deal as a “Green Disaster” and suggested limiting lorry journeys through Europe as a more sensible approach to reducing emissions.

For the social democratic SPÖ MEPs, meanwhile, the “increasing watering down of climate targets” by the EPP is “a sign that the agricultural lobby has prevailed”, said delegation leader Andreas Schieder. “I see that the EPP wants to water down and destroy the Green Deal. The EPP is caught in the populism trap.”

Liberal NEOS MEP Claudia Gamon dismissed the EPP’s rejection of the Green Deal strategy, stressing it would only increase farmers’ dependence on subsidies. The Greens echoed this sentiment, criticising the EPP’s defence of an outdated model and rejection of pesticide regulation.

(Chiara Swaton | EURACTIV.de)

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