European NGOs Set Out European Post-Brexit Aims
A group of 10 leading European environmental NGOs have penned another open letter to key European leaders outlining their priorities and guidance for how the European Union should proceed in a post-Brexit world.
The group, calling themselves Green 10, is unsurprisingly made up of 10 environmental NGOs including Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace, and WWF. The group’s open letter (PDF) is intended to provide attendees to the upcoming EU-27 leaders gathering in Bratislava, which is an informal summit to discuss the EU’s path forward in the wake of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union, otherwise known as the Brexit. The letter’s aim is to inform the attendees of the summit of the group’s priorities for the unfolding post-Brexit debate, and the direction they believe the EU should thus take.
“The EU is at a crossroads,” the groups wrote.
“It can either continue on the current path of deregulation and ‘less Europe’ – a path which has clearly failed to convince citizens both in the UK and across the Union – or it can embark on something new, answering to the needs and aspirations of European citizens. On this new path, instead of focusing on promoting globalisation, the EU would direct its efforts towards managing its impacts on our planet and ensuring that all its citizens can live a good life, well within the planetary boundaries.”
Green 10 backs up its desires by pointing to “successive opinion polls” which have shown the value placed on the environment and the importance of action being taken to protect the environment by European citizens. According to Green 10, “the UK referendum result should thus give added impetus for the EU to increase its efforts to address environmental challenges.” Returning to the days of individual countries with their own interests and blind-spots could actually do more harm than good to the environment.
Therefore, Green 10 advocates tackling the global challenges of climate change as a whole — rather than as individual countries, such as the UK has now set its sights on.
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