An exclusive interview with Reinhard Bütikofer MEP for EU Today

As the current legislature of the European Parliament comes towards its end, EU Today was privileged to obtain an exclusive interview with Reinhard Bütikofer, a senior member of the Parliament.

Next year’s European elections may still be a little over seven months away, but in Brussels attention is very much focussed on June 6th, when the polls will open.

In the European Parliament the current legislature has been a difficult one with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine destabilising the agenda somewhat, and causing frictions between member states.

One of the most prolific of MEPs during the last five years has been Reinhard Bütikofer, a German member of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the Parliament, first elected in 2009.

I asked him for his thoughts on progress made during the current (2019-24) legislature.

What has been achieved, and what is still left to do?

Concerning the European Green Deal, first presented in 2019 and intended to transform the EU into “a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy” and to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 he said “Indeed, a lot has been achieved in setting important goals. But I’m not sure whether the European Green Deal will continue to be the guiding star. If the European Peoples’ Party (EPP), which has strongly opposed this reformist policy lately, gets its way, we could be facing a reversal, turning the European Green Deal into a priority of the past, even though our future depends on it.

“As far as European Green Deal implementation is concerned, there is much to be desired.

“I see some initial de-greening of President von der Leyen. When the nature restauration law was at stake, she did not fight as hard as she could have or should have. She allowed EPP to pretend that all of that had been the solitary fancy of Franz Timmermans (the EU Commissioner charged with driving the initiative).

“So obviously we have a mixed result until now: Quite some ambition on one hand, but how much fruit we’ll be able to reap remains to be seen.”

EP Plenary session – Joint debate – CFSP and CSDP (Article 36 TEU).Implementation of the common foreign and security policy and the common security and defence policy- annual reports 2022

Mr. Bütikofer has a particular interest in trade policy, and he has excelled in ensuring the green agenda exerts strong influence on policy in these areas.

Trade agreements are very much a priority for the EU, and I asked how the landscape looks as the legislature comes towards a close.

“Regarding trade I would say it’s been quite an active legislative period, as had been expected.

“The Commission did redraft its general approach of trade policy. On balance that has been positive. They opened up to some degree towards concerns that our Greens/EFA group had been raising for a long time. Sustainability issues and human rights issues like forced labour get more attention in the EU’s trade policy than before.

“But some of the trade agreements have gotten bogged down. I cannot see how the Mercosur agreement (with Argentina, Brazil Paraguay and Uruguay – Ed.) Could be turned into a success story.

“The Australia FTA should have been delivered before the end of the legislative period. Now it has run into a dead end because of narrow-minded agriculture lobbyism.

“The New Zealand negotiations produced a very positive result. It can be considered the gold standard for other agreements in the future. With Chile we could schieve a relative success.

“I think it’s good that the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment was put into the deep freezer by the European Parliament: it would not have really benefited European industry because it didn’t address the main concerns of EU investors in the Chinese market. And it cannot be revived in years to come as its inadequacy is ever more obvious.

“By the way, creating new trade defense instruments like IPI oder ACI will certainly strengthen the EU’s hand.

“Over all, on trade we had some successes, but also some failures.”

He did point out that this has been a legislature that has faced unexpected challenges: “Of course the general performance of the Commission was impacted heavily by unforeseen developments.

“Two in particular, the Russian war against Ukraine and before that the pandemic.

“The commission had its hands more than full in managing those major crises. It limited centrifugal tendencies during the pandemic and it helped creating a gigh level of EU coherence in our response to RuSia’s war of aggression. For that achievement I would not just give Commission a passing grade, but a positive grade.

I suggested that during both the pandemic and the Russia war a number of EU member states took it upon themselves to act unilaterally and close their borders, drawing the wrath of the European Commission. More recently border checks are being reintroduced due to rising concerns over migration.

Reinhard BUTIKOFER in the EP in Brussels

Might all these factors have contributed to a rise of the far-right in Europe?

“I don’t think that you can address everything that is going on in that political spectrum under one single heading and identify one single reason for those developments. I prefer not to generalize, but to treat every national case separately.

“When you look at Poland, for instance, you find the reverse development. The glorious return to power of the extreme right didn’t happen. The hard right lost steam there.

“AfD in Germany, on the other hand, is veering off right into neo-fascism.

“Prime Minister Meloni in Italy does, indeed, try to implement a hard right agenda domestically, but helping the ambitions of the Russians or the Chinese authoritarian systems is not a tune you hear from her. That is different from some other people in the ID group in the European Parliament.

“Everywhere, the hard right thrives on the basis of the weakening of the traditional pillars of our party political systems, namely Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. You can observe that in different countries. In France, Macron managed to fill the resulting gap in the political centre, but only for a while.

“In Germany, the Green Party wants to become a central player in defending and developing our democracy. We obviously cannot do that without partnering with others, but do encounter many difficulties in pursuing such a course and pay a high prize for it. The resulting loss of progressive attractiveness feeds into growing strengh of AfD.

“The Dutch elections show a high level of volatility. Voters are not wedded to a certain political party and are sometimes shifting like sand in the wind. Before Wilders pulled off his victory, it had been predicted that a completely new party, New Social Contract, (NSC was founded by dissident Christian Democrat MP Pieter Omtzigt – Ed) could be the big winner. Before that we saw BBB peak and wane.

“We need a specific analysis of every specific situation. But two requirements exist in all our countries: There must be at least one strong political anchor opposing a drift to the right by not just denouncing it, but offering a combination of clear democratic vision, pragmatism, and the will to learn from the people instead of just insisting on teaching them. And there must be the reliable will of all democratic parties to form a phalanx against authoritarianism.

Support for Ukraine

Mr. Bütikofer has spoken quite strongly in Parliament on the need for the EU to continue the flow of arms to Ukraine.

I asked if he felt that within the institutions there’s any kind of fatigue setting in, maybe behind the scenes?

“That’s not what I see in the polls in Germany,” he replied without hesitation. “But there is too much hesitation in the government.

“There are, of course, those that follow a nativist ideology, pretending that whatever happens in the world has nothing to do with us. That we should just care for ourselves as if we were an island. That is a very stupid ideology. But it is not the main problem for upholding the necessary support for Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, some of our leaders do not want to lead. They cultivate reluctancy, where courage is asked for. That effectively has so far denied Ukraine the chance of winning.

“These are the same leaders that were hesitant from the beginning. Scholz for one always had to be kicked in the knee before he moved. Same with Macron, probably even worse.

“These leaders seem to be still underestimating the Russian challenge.”

Russia’s war of dominance

“I feel that too many think about this war in Ukraine only as a war against Ukraine, full stop. Yes, it is a war against Ukraine and a war to annihilate Ukrainian statehood, but it is also more than that: it is a war to achieve Russian dominance, in at least the eastern half of Europe. If Putin wins, Russia will become the preeminent European power.

“You will probably recall that before he sent his troops in, Putin tried to negotiate a deal with NATO and the Americans that would have given him control of the security of at least the former Warsaw Pact countries, plus Sweden and Finland.

“Whenever somebody talks about helping Ukraine, he should be reminded that Ukraine helps us to avoid a wider Russian aggression. The Polish, the Baltic countries, also some Romanians, Czechs, have understood that better than many Western European leaders. That’s what is our problem at the moment, not so-called fatigue.”

I wondered how the Russian people might see the current conflict. How do they justify the actions of their country? Are very gullible, do they perceive every other nation as being a threat, everything as a zero-sum game?

“I don’t know how the Russian people think. But I know that some of my Russian friends from the democratic opposition do think very differently from Russian propaganda.

“They think that Ukraine should win the war in order to defend its own freedom and open a free future for Russia, too!”