For an EU budget and an EU Green Deal working in sync

Building on the strong collaboration between the CEE Bankwatch Network, FEPS and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), and following the success of our joint events in 2022 and 2023, we organised a workshop  ‘For an EU budget and an EU Green Deal working in sync’ as a way of sharing knowledge, generating ideas, networking and enhancing the visibility of the pathways at hand to achieve a Just Transition in the context of the upcoming new Multi-annual Financial Framework.

The event took place at a critical moment, as the new European Parliament gets settled and the new European Commission refines its priorities for the new term. This provided an opportunity to build on the political guidelines presented in July and use them as a basis to discuss the commitment to “increase funding for a just transition across the next long-term budget.”

Moreover, the prevailing narrative of competitiveness and industry focus was further explored, particularly to highlight synergies between the need for a Just Transition and Ursula von der Leyen’s promise of “competitive industries and quality jobs.” We stressed the importance of maintaining and enhancing the European Green Deal’s social and environmental conditionalities, emphasising the role of place-based policies and funding in the next EU budget.

With that in mind, we started from a broader perspective: What is the role of the EU budget in driving just environmental and social transformation with a progressive angle? And how do we combine the social dimension with the political priorities of the new European Commission? These and other topics were discussed with European activists, academics, stakeholders and policymakers to contribute to this critical debate. 

For more information regarding this event, please do not hesitate to contact Luis Sáez Jiménez, Project Officer, at luis.saez@feps-europe.eu