Bosanac: Today's temperature could become our unbearable daily reality, thanks to the right-wing parties that have loosened environmental protection rules for corporations

Bosanac: Today's heat records could become our unbearable daily reality, thanks to the right-wing parties that have loosened environmental protection rules for corporations

‍

Brussels, June 24, 2026 – “Heatwaves are silently killing across Europe, and the record, historically high temperatures we are experiencing this June clearly indicate that our opportunities to mitigate climate change are dwindling. And while the heat further burdens already overburdened and underfunded public healthcare, in the European Union, we face continuous efforts by the far-right and the European People's Party to further weaken the EU Green Deal, a generational agreement for the protection of the environment and people.”, stated today Gordan Bosanac, Možemo MEP, member of the Greens / EFA group. 

It is precisely the EPP, together with far-right parties, that has worked to blunt the edges of the Nature Restoration Law and the Green Deal as a whole, to satisfy the interests of corporations, especially oil companies, since the beginning of this term of the European Commission and the European Parliament. They have shifted the cost of this onto citizens, specifically their health, contrary to public interest, he explains. 

Bosanac reminds that in 2025, the Commission, through its "Omnibus Simplification" package, narrowed corporate sustainability reporting obligations and postponed their implementation. A proposal to halve pesticide use in the European Union by 2030 was also withdrawn. The European Parliament eased CO₂ emission rules for car manufacturers, and the implementation of the Deforestation Regulation was postponed by a year. The Commission also proposed that part of the emission reduction target by 2040 be achieved through the use of international carbon credits from projects outside the EU. Simultaneously, in the European Parliament's work, attempts to remove references to the European Green Deal and its goals of climate neutrality and environmental protection are becoming more frequent.

“The heat we are witnessing, as well as the lack of political will from center-right and right-wing parties to face the fact that mitigating the consequences of climate change requires clearly, without hidden agendas, siding with citizens and protecting their health. Under the guise of "competitiveness," the Green Deal is systematically being weakened in this mandate, and it is being overlooked that the Green Deal and competitiveness can go hand in hand, not one against the other. ”, stated Bosanac. 

He emphasized that those least responsible for the record temperatures are particularly affected by the consequences of heatwaves: poor working families, outdoor workers, the elderly and vulnerable social groups, as well as impoverished urban residents who cannot afford cooling or live in poorly insulated buildings. 

“It is precisely those least responsible for the climate crisis who are most exposed to the heat. The EU has the opportunity to take a different path: by investing in clean energy, green industries, sustainable transport, and reducing the use of fossil fuels. If we fail to do so, today's climate records will become an unbearable daily reality tomorrow.”, Bosanac concluded.

‍

‍