Michael Forte
banner
mforte.bsky.social
Michael Forte
@mforte.bsky.social
110 followers 180 following 23 posts
EU Politics & Climate Governance @e3g.bsky.social Brussels. Improving decision-making to strengthen climate action. Views my own. (at)mforte_polgov on the other place.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Sandra Tzvetkova and I round up five things climate watchers should pay attention to in the #MFF proposals. The last thing to read before going on holiday, the first thing to read when you come back!
Deciphered some Commission prose on #2040ClimateTarget flexibility for @carbonbrief.org
NEW – Q&A: European Commission’s proposal to cut EU emissions 90% by 2040 | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @daisydunne.carbonbrief.org @mollylempriere.carbonbrief.org w/ comment from
@lindakalcher.bsky.social @mforte.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/HG72yBk
Reposted by Michael Forte
@neilmakaroff.bsky.social and I might have advocated for the 2040 target to be discussed at EUCO. Just not this way.

A debate on how the target boosts competitiveness, investments, innovation, affordability and enabling policies to reach is required. Not to ditch 2040.

pro.politico.eu/news/200907
POLITICO Pro
pro.politico.eu
Reposted by Michael Forte
❗BREAKING: French President Macron is putting the EU 2040 climate target agreement at risk❗

More info: www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Fr... (In PL)

🗣️ @harmeling.bsky.social reacts:
Je ne sais vraiment pas par où commencer. Voici comment le gouvernement français veut souhaiter bon anniversaire à l'Accord de Paris:
‼️ Alors que la France se dit garante de l'Accord de Paris sur le Climat, Emmanuel Macron envisage de tuer l’ambition climatique européenne pour 2035 et 2040, en s’alliant avec des pays ultra conservateurs et populistes.

Un thread 🧵
6/7 So, "national and regional partnerships for investment and reforms" could be an opportunity to kick-start horizontal planning for the 2030-2040 period, as the RRF did for 2020-2030. But only if they draw on the work that has already been done for the NECPs.
5/7 NECP enforcement via infringement procedure is fraught. The reform & investment plan model offers a way through - deliver on the plan, get the money. With the right guardrails, this could incentivise more serious, whole-of-government planning for the energy transition.
4/7 NECPs are varying in quality, depending on how seriously Member States undertake this whole-of-government planning exercise. But they offer a template for multiannual planning in line with the European Climate Law (net-zero) and international commitments.
3/7 The National energy and climate plans (NECPs) are a completely separate exercise undertaken by govts to outline how they will reach their energy & climate targets (energy efficiency, renewables, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, interconnections, research and innovation).
2/7 Tying EU spending to national reforms is not new, it was a feature of the #RRF.
The National recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) were supposed to address country-specific recommendations issued by the EU, but also incorporate other existing planning exercises, notably the NECPs.
At the 2025 Annual Budget Conference, @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu just confirmed that the Commission will propose "national and regional partnerships for investments and reforms" (NRPIR?) for the next #EUBugdet. What could this new set of reform plans mean for energy & climate?
Some thoughts: 1/7
Reposted by Michael Forte
🔋 How can the EU budget accelerate decarbonisation & build a greener & resilient economy?

Key reforms to the Multiannual Financial Framework are crucial:
- boosting synergies
- aligning national plans
- simplifying governance
- & empowering local action

Read @e3g.bsky.social's briefing👇
Improving climate and energy policy coordination through the next EU budget
With the right changes, the EU's multiannual financial framework can become a much more effective tool to pursue common priorities such as climate and security.
www.e3g.org
Reposted by Michael Forte
🧵The EU’s next budget offers a key opportunity to enhance climate and energy policy coordination. We explore how better governance of the Multiannual Financial Framework (#MFF) can support #decarbonisation and a greener, more resilient economy.

🔗Read the full briefing: www.e3g.org/publications...
Improving climate and energy policy coordination through the next EU budget
With the right changes, the EU's multiannual financial framework can become a much more effective tool to pursue common priorities such as climate and security.
www.e3g.org
7/8 Lastly, this section includes a dig at monopolies, in particular Big Tech. Good to see that competition policy may look more closely at the distributional impacts of monopolistic behaviour. Could this be linked to ongoing supermarket boycotts in the Balkans? (balkaninsight.com/2025/01/31/w...)
6/8 On social leasing for clean tech, the experience from the French EV leasing scheme shows increased uptake among young people and low-income households (www.transportenvironment.org/uploads/file...), but this is also a tool of industrial policy to boost demand.
5/8 The lessons of the US #InflationReductionAct start to be reflected in the proposals on public procurement and State aid rules reform, thanks to campaigning from unions and CSOs: COM commits to explore training and skills conditionalities for firms receiving subsidies or public contracts.
4/8 The #QualityJobsRoadmap (Q4 2025) takes onboard some elements of a #JustTransitionDirective, a framework to anticipate change. But as @etuc-ces.bsky.social argues, reskilling cannot benefit workers without a right to training during working hours (etuc.org/en/pressrele...)
3/8 #UnionofSkills (Q1 2025): a strategy "to enhance the EU’s competitiveness and preparedness”. Measures are limited to soft law (such as on skills recognition, or quality jobs), with a passing reference to additional funding from Erasmus+.
2/8 Though the section is framed around social fairness and the just transition, there is a clear focus on skills. Skills shortages are a central concern of the #DraghiReport and the #CompetitivenessCompass - social rights and the distributional impacts of decarbonisation not so much.
What does the #CleanIndustrialDeal 's section on jobs and skills tell us about how the "new" Commission leadership understands workers' place in the industrial transition?
A thread 🧵 1/8
This is the issue with the Commission choosing to focus on the reform side of the RRF and ignore the huge leap in size of NGEU. This carrot is much smaller. Two options: 1. more money, or 2. an innovative, yet-to-defined mechanism that somehow creates reforms buy-in without cash.
Finally, method risk: The experience with NGEU seems to have led to a believe that EU-level money is a good lever for the Commission to force member states to do things nationally they don't want to. That was true because the RRF was a lot of money. It won't work the same way without it.