Strasbourg (AFP)

To finance a "just" energy transition that will cost billions, the von der Leyen Commission unveiled in Strasbourg on Tuesday an investment plan which is based on a new fund to support the regions most dependent on coal.

With his "Green Pact" presented in December, just a few days after taking office, Ursula von der Leyen made climate the priority of her Commission. But the continent's transition to carbon neutrality by 2050, as the German wishes - the objective has not yet been finalized by the various institutions - will be costly.

Where to find the 260 billion euros of additional investment per year that Brussels considers necessary to achieve its ambitions?

The first legislative proposal of the new Commission partly responds to this.

With its "just transition mechanism", it hopes to mobilize up to 100 billion euros over the next decade while ensuring that communities still very economically dependent on fossil fuels are not left behind. .

In total, with its "Investment Plan for a Sustainable Europe", up to 1.000 billion euros would be mobilized in the next 10 years in favor of the transition of a continent where greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse would be as low as possible. And this through multiple sources of funding.

The Fund is part of what the Commission more generally calls the "just transition mechanism". It is accompanied by other means of financing, via investment programs from the Union but also from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is evolving to become the "climate bank" of the EU.

In addition, there will be spending on climate across the different categories of the EU budget, for example transport or agriculture, as well as private-public investment. The Commission wants a quarter of the expenditure in the multiannual budget to be devoted to it.

- Nuclear support? -

With this legislative proposal on the just transition mechanism, which will be subject to negotiation between the Member States and the European Parliament, the Commission is also trying to reassure the Eastern countries which are still reluctant to commit fully.

Concerned about the economic and social cost of its transition, Poland refused to adhere to the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 at the European summit in December.

In their conclusions that day, the member states had already "welcomed" future proposals which "will aim to facilitate 100 billion euros of investment" over the decade.

The transformation towards a European economy with low carbon emissions will weigh on the regions still very dependent on coal, very present in Poland, Czech Republic, but also certain regions of Germany.

The proposal will detail the criteria for allocating the fund. It aims to support the regions where carbon emissions linked to industry and energy production are the highest, in order to support the development of new technologies and the retraining or training of populations whose employment is linked to fossil fuels.

The question of support for nuclear energy, which has not yet been fully resolved within the EU as part of the reflection on the transition, will arise again.

Much less greenhouse gas emitter than fossil fuels, some member states such as the Czech Republic or Hungary, but also France, defended its inclusion in the energy mix during the last European summit.

© 2020 AFP