State of the Nation: Simplifying procedures is good, but politics must do more!

In his first speech on the state of the nation, the Prime Minister emphasized that the central responsibility of politics is to make decisions today to shape the future. This might sound mandane, but it is positive how much the Prime Minister repeatedly stresses this point. Often, supposed short-term interests stand in the way of longer-term challenges, including ecological ones.

It is also understandable that the Prime Minister addresses the frequently mentioned “concerns” of people and businesses and accordingly focuses on simplifying procedures. The Mouvement Ecologique, like probably everyone, sees a need for action here.

However, the well-structured speech highlights a fundamental problem: It gives the impression that responsible future planning can primarily be achieved through optimized and simplified procedures and reforms of existing state aids.

The energy transition, climate and biodiversity protection, sustainable urban development, and the protection of our waters and springs do not primarily fail due to procedural problems. There are other, deeper reasons, requiring more fundamental reforms. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister does not address these.

And this is precisely where the significant shortcoming of the declaration lies.

In addressing the truly relevant fields of action, the speech is thus inadequate. The following examples illustrate this:

• The Prime Minister has announced, for example, that energy price caps will also be tied to social criteria, as will subsidies for bicycles. This may be partially correct.But it is far from a socially just transformation if one merely cuts or eliminates existing subsidies for certain groups and retains them only for financially weaker households. There is little added value for financially weak households if their existing subsidies are only minimally increased. A truly socially just policy to promote the transition goes far beyond this. New strategies and programs for these population groups are necessary. The fact that only the improvement of the role of the Climate Bank and the advance funding of state subsidies in certain cases is announced for the umpteenth time, without finally naming more concrete measures, is actually unacceptable. The majority parties had already announced during the elections that they would make concrete improvements in this area. In the speech on the state of the nation, it remains once again just an announcement. The fact that the issue of energy-efficient renovations or the expansion of renewable energies in existing rental apartments was not addressed at all is also highly problematic. Measures for a stronger linkage of social and ecological issues cannot be based solely on not cutting subsidies for financially weak households. Instead of such isolated measures, the first concrete cornerstones of a strategy for an ecological-social transition would have been necessary.
• Furthermore, there is a broad consensus that, in addition to individual subsidies, the abolition of counterproductive subsidies is the absolute prerequisite for ecological transition. This means the abolition of state subsidies that fuel the climate and biodiversity crisis, a review of the state budget to determine how effectively state funds are used (“green budgeting”), and the abolition of incorrect financial incentives. These measures are not only essential from a biodiversity and climate protection perspective but also from a financial perspective, as they allow the state to save hundreds of millions of euros. This would be particularly important in times when there are questions about how certain measures will be financed. Why these crucial instruments are not even mentioned in the longer discussions about subsidies is incomprehensible…

Were these and other instruments not mentioned because they involve truly structural reforms?

The lack of factual basis is another major shortcoming of the speech.

The subsidy for the purchase of new electric cars is to be reduced, with the argument that electric cars have become more affordable. In economics, there is the concept of “price elasticities,” which examines what financial incentives are necessary for an individual to make a certain purchase decision. Due to the lack of information or analyses from the Prime Minister, it is not clear what negative impacts the cuts will have. The Mouvement Ecologique expects concrete information from the Prime Minister to demonstrate that the purchase of electric cars will not decline. The fact is: electric cars, especially more affordable models, have not yet established themselves, and a technology needs state support for a certain period. Only when it has established itself can this support be reduced or reoriented. Is this already the case with e-mobility? On what calculations is the realignment of state subsidies based? Without such factual information, it is difficult to estimate whether the reforms risk a decline in electric car sales or not. As the Mouvement Ecologique also communicated to the Prime Minister in a meeting, it would have been especially sensible to impose a fee on the registration of particularly energy-consuming cars. This is the case in France and has led to people being charged a fee (the so-called malus system) for the burdens caused by their particularly energy-consuming cars. A policy should not only rely on incentives but also on upholding the polluter pays principle.

The Mouvement Ecologique has also always been a critic of the blanket energy price cap. Therefore, corrections are appropriate in principle. But: there is a lack of any data to show based on what facts (price calculations, impacts on different household groups, etc.) the announced changes were decided. The competitiveness of electricity compared to gas is also not addressed.

The Mouvement Ecologique repeatedly advocates for decisions to be made based on comprehensible facts and goals. However, the announcements were not linked to such information.

In this context, it is worth mentioning that, according to the speech on the state of the nation, access to information for journalists is to be improved. Unfortunately, the necessary improvement of access to information for citizens was not even mentioned. Does this mean that the current, completely inadequate “information prevention law” for citizens is not to be revised? Then it would probably make little sense to request the background information mentioned in the report on the state of the nation…

Therefore: it is good that administrative hurdles are to be simplified. However, what this will look like in detail is not known. Relying solely on simplifying procedures and reforming individual state aids without tackling more fundamental, also socially relevant reforms does not represent real progress from a sustainability perspective.

Mouvement Ecologique asbl.

The Mouvement Ecologique has also taken note of the announcement regarding compensations in the area of nature conservation in urban areas. However, the rather general statements of the Prime Minister currently do not allow for a proper analysis. More importantly, the question of how our settlements can be made more resilient against the inevitable heat periods through better greening is left out. This is urgently needed from a health perspective and to improve the quality of life.

The Mouvement Ecologique will therefore address this topic in more detail in 2-3 weeks.

You can find the statement as a PDF in the downloads.

13.06.24