There’s a butterfly-shaped hole in Brussels’ plans for a new European budget structure.
The European Commission presented its controversial proposal to pool a number of existing funding programs into a single “Competitiveness Fund” last Wednesday, as part of a broader €1.816 trillion multiannual budget proposal that has angered EU countries and civil society groups alike.
Under the new plan, biodiversity goals have no earmarked funding at all — and will have to compete with the EU’s other environmental aims, including climate change, water security, the circular economy and pollution.
Some warn that unless clearly allocated, money will inevitably flow to industrial projects that fit with the commission’s competitiveness agenda, leaving unprofitable but no-less-urgent environmental programs unfunded.
