BRUSSELS — A quick scan of a leaked EU priority list for the rest of the decade reveals a telling quirk: The only mention of “environment” is a promise to create a “business-friendly environment.”
Instead, the document — essentially a mood board EU leaders compile every five years to guide the incoming EU executive in Brussels — is littered with references to defense, security and migration. Climate change is barely mentioned. Nature and biodiversity don’t feature at all.
The draft, still subject to change before EU leaders endorse it after the June European Parliament election, reflects months of talks between European Council President Charles Michel and the heads of state and government he represents. And it serves as a neat illustration of their shifting priorities: bullets, not bees.
It’s a marked difference from 2019, the last time EU leaders set out their vision. That “strategic agenda” put climate change front and center, calling it an “existential threat.” One of the EU’s top four priorities was “building a climate-neutral, green, fair and social Europe.”
