EEB (EASD is the Member of EEB) analysis on the state of “delusion highlight” – the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen’s, State of the Union (SOTEU) speech, September 2025. The Commission President referred to the power of the European Green Deal and the need to stay on course of climate neutrality by 2050, but she also celebrated the recent and upcoming omnibuses many of which jeopardise the Green Deal objective.
Action is followed by the letter sent to all EU Environment Ministers, sharing the EEB’s input ahead of the upcoming EU Environment Council Meeting in Brussels on 18 September 2025.
Key points addressed are the proposal to amend the European Climate Law to establish a binding intermediate climate target for 2040 (–90% GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels), as well as the EU’s updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) for 2035 to be submitted to the UNFCCC ahead of COP30.
To ensure the EU’s long-term budget delivers the predictability needed to meet our strategic priorities—including ecological transition and health protection—EEB call on EU Environment Ministers to consider the following essential adjustments in the upcoming negotiations:
• Allocate at least 50% of the next EU budget to genuine climate and environmental investments and dedicate at least 10% to biodiversity, to reflect growing investment needs inter alia stemming from the new Nature Restoration Regulation.
• Improve the “mainstreaming” of the environmental objectives across the entire EU budget based on robust tracking methodologies, ex-ante earmarking of funds, as well as closing the loopholes in the application of the Do No Significant Harm principle to ensure harmful subsidies are phased out of the EU budget.
• Establish a clear and dependable budget for long-term EU priorities, with dedicated funding for LIFE programme objectives. For more than 30 years, the LIFE programme has served a wide range of stakeholders, encouraging cooperation to address the increasing risks emanating from climate change and environmental degradation. The EU budget needs to continue to support these beneficiaries. Shielded from other (at times competing) policy objectives, the LIFE programme has delivered targeted, cost-effective results for nature, climate and public health that are essential for Europe’s competitiveness and security.
• Maintain dedicated funding within National and Regional Partnership Plans for the transition to a climate-neutral, nature-positive, and zero-pollution economy. In particular, the weakening of the conditions for disbursement of the Social Climate Fund, no longer targeted at vulnerable households and small businesses, is unacceptable; and so is the lack of ringfenced budget for agri-environmental measures and objectives under the Common Agricultural Policy.
• Strengthen guarantees that the European Commission will continue to provide directly managed funding for civil society organisations across all sectors, including climate and environment
