Virginijus Sinkevičius EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries

Andrea Macdonald founder of ideaXme interviews Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries.

The EU Commission:

The Commission helps to shape the EU’s overall strategy, proposes new EU laws and policies, monitors their implementation and manages the EU budget. It also plays a significant role in supporting international development and delivering aid. Following the result of the European elections, and the mandate received from the European Council and the European Parliament, the Dr Ursula von der Leyen Commission put forward a set of ambitious goals for Europe’s future: climate neutrality by 2050; making the 2020s Europe’s Digital Decade; and making Europe stronger in the world with a more geopolitical approach. Since the Covid-19 crisis, the twin green and digital transitions are now even more firmly at the core of their programme, with new resources to accelerate the transformation.

Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius:

Commissioner Sinkevičius is the youngest EU Commissioner appointed to the EU Commission. He is a Lithuanian politician, a European Commissioner since 2019. Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, he was the Minister of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania.

On this ideaXme show the Commissioner talks of:

– His role as EU Commissioner of the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries

-The new plans, policies and laws put in place to protect the environment, oceans and fisheries – The Green Deal

– The Commissioners work spearheading action on both the European and International levels

– How the EU Commission creates laws

– The importance of Public participation in the roadmap to creating law to protect the environment, oceans and fisheries

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:00:00] Hello, I’m Andrea MacDonald, the founder of ideaXme a Global Network to encourage everybody to participate in the future. ideaXme is a podcast, creator series and mentor program. I’m here with Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius. European Commissioner for the Oceans, Environment and Fisheries. In your words, Commissioner, who are you?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:00:31] First of all. Hello to everyone. Thank you for having me! My name is Virginijus Sinkevičius. I’m a husband and father of two children, a son and a brother. At the same time, I am currently the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. I am part of the team which is attempting to realise the ‘European ambition’ to become climate neutral by 2050. I have been given the opportunity to deliver the task that will change lives of future generations is a huge and probably the biggest motivation the one can have. At the same time, I am honoured and privileged to be serving and carrying out this duty.

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:01:23] You are the youngest European Commissioner ever, your appointment by President Dr. Ursula von der Leyen, was seen as one of the most ambitious appointments that she has made. Could you explain your journey to this point? How does the European Commissioner nomination process work?

How is an EU Commissioner Appointed?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:02:00] I was nominated by the Government of Lithuania. Each member state nominates one Commissioner, which has then to go through the hearings at the European Parliament. So, in case of my homeland, Lithuania, the nominee is nominated by the Government, but then has to be approved by the President. And then the final voting is by the National Parliament. After the National Parliament vote, you are nominated for the position. This is the process that I went through to become European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. At the time of the nomination, I was serving as the Minister for Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania prior to my appointment at Commissioner. And yes, Madam President Dr Von der Leyen trusted me with this task and this portfolio, accepting me on her team. And later I succeeded in convincing the European Parliament that I am the right fit in order to drive the change Europe and our planet needs.

Environment, Oceans and Fisheries

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:03:11] Could you explain in greater detail your remit within the context of the European Green Deal, which is overseen by First Vice-President Frans Timmermans?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:03:32] Let’s start with the oceans. Europe has a very ambitious regulatory framework to protect its sea basins and oceans, and that revolves around the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which again obliges EU member states to achieve good status of our seas and oceans. It helps member states to monitor the impacts.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:03:57] And in identifying the pressures affecting the sea and the life it sustains, making it easier to design strategies to reduce them, then, of course, it is important that in the major initiative Green Deal, you find at the centre at the core initiatives led by me.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:04:18] So it’s the Circular Economy Action Plan. It’s, of course, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Just recently, we adopted as a first step towards the Zero Pollution Ambition over this toxic free environment, chemical strategy, but also, I would like to mention that we are going ahead with a number of international initiatives on protection of marine protected areas in Antarctica. Also, we are driving in new Arctic policy, seeking better conservation of Arctic resources. Finally, it is worth mentioning that we are keen on reaching these as the Sustainable Development Goals, which we all are working towards. And of course, we want to be the ones leading by example.

How are EU Commissions Laws Created?

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:05:21] Could explain how the system works in order to get these laws online that fall under your remit. There are four main European bodies, as I understand it, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Commission, as well as the European Supreme Court. How does the process work? Maybe using one of your examples, one of the initiatives you have recently been working on. How does it work to get it from an idea to making it law?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:06:07] First of all, it starts with the idea, with the vision. Usually that vision becomes some sort of paper legislation at the DGS level (General Directorate).

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:06:33] And usually it is drafted within DG level. We of course at this level, consult the science community. We are open for public consultation. It’s a long process which involves lots of stakeholders and participants because, of course, we take responsibility for 27 member states. Each legislation has to be adjusted so that it fits them as well.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:07:01] Let’s say we start one of these processes now. It usually takes a few months, then it, of course goes through inter-service consultation inside the House, that is the European Commission were different DGS or different cabinets from other Commissioners involved bring their suggestions to the table. And when the inter-service consultation, sometimes it requires a couple of them is finalized and approved, then usually, of course, it has to be in line with the Treaty.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:07:39] So legal advice is also extremely important here. When it’s approved, it goes through “the special chefs”. Then it goes through the heads of Cabinet meetings. When it’s approved at the heads Cabinet meetings, it usually goes to College, where, again, the European Commission takes all the decisions, within the collegiality principles. All Commissioners have to agree. If it’s agreed by all Commissioners, it becomes an official proposal which has to go through the Parliament and the European Council to be fully adopted. The Council and Parliament adopts their mandate for the trialogue and then, of course, it’s being negotiated at the trialogue level and decided on final changes. Then, of course, it has to go through the final voting at Parliament and be approved by the Council. And then, of course, it becomes already something that member states have to implement. So, it’s a long process.

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:09:02] The European Commission is the only one of those bodies other than the Supreme Court of course, that isn’t political, despite the fact that your country nominates you, the ties as it were, are severed in as far as your job as the Commissioner is concerned.

The Importance of Public Engagement to Drive Change

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:09:25] Could you explain during the course of that process how you allow the public and other organizations to feed into planning, developing road mapping to the laws? I saw on the European Commission website that there are various stages where the public are invited to participate. Something like this is particularly interesting to ideaXme, because what we’re trying to do is to encourage everybody to participate in these major issues. Could you talk a little bit about that, please?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:10:05] Absolutely. So, one of the most common is, of course, the stakeholder consultation, which usually the initiative is open for. And let’s say NGOs, they are extremely active on that, sending their suggestions and so on. But let’s not forget a very simple step as of citizens’ dialogue, where Commissioners meet with citizens, talk and discuss different ideas, where citizens also have a freedom to express themselves and share their opinions with us. So, there are multiple possibilities to get involved. We now have social media, where most of the Commissioners are on it. Not only on one, but on many of the social media platforms. I think there are multiple possibilities to get involved in the process. The decision making becomes much more interesting.

Robert Billot, Environmental Lawyer at the EU Parliament

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:11:19] Robert Bilott, lawyer, and Mark Ruffalo, movie star who starred in Dark Waters, the story based on the work of Robert Bilott, who has filed a number of legal cases against Dupont for going against the usage of PFOA chemicals, C8, Forever chemicals.

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:11:48] They both spoke at the European Parliament. Could you talk to our audience about the impact this sort of engagement, in a sense citizens engagement, affected your chemical plan of the 14th of October 2020 this year?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:12:15] So, first of all, speaking about the EU Chemical Strategy. Its goal is of course, to protect, first of all, protect the citizens from the exposure to harmful chemicals. Through the Chemical Strategy we address persistent substances that stay in our soil, our groundwater and in our bodies.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:12:38] Secondly, of course, we aim to protect nature from exposure. And, of course, we are ready to take a number of actions through which regulation on protecting most vulnerable groups. We would like harmful chemicals to be substituted if there is a substitute chemical available. If there is a case when it is not possible, there must be sufficient explanation and proof why the particular chemical is so critical.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:13:22] Equally important, we of course seek to encourage competitiveness and innovation within the chemicals industry by helping them to develop safe alternatives.

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:13:46] Going back to my question about Mr Billot, if I may. What sort of impact did Robert Billot and Mark Ruffalo have on feeding into that process? Because, of course, they’re citizens as well. How important is it for people like that, for people like us to speak up? And how does that process work? How do you get to talk to the European Parliament?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:14:17] We were speaking about one story, which has, of course, become a Hollywood movie and then absolutely it is easy to speak about those stories. But there are a number of initiatives of bottom-up approaches which have managed to gather citizen support, gather signatures and, of course, draw the attention of politicians.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:14:43] I would call the biggest problem victory of citizens is actually drawing politicians’ attention into climate change. And here we are speaking not about something small in size, but rather a huge transition has involved getting the whole world on board. And this is only due to citizens. It is due to those people who walked every Friday in peaceful climate protests, climate marches. The movement, Friday for Futures, was something that really inspired. I go as far to say that it inspired the European Green Deal.

The EU Commission’s Work on the International Stage

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:15:24] Talking of climate change, you obviously follow the Sustainable Development Goals guidelines, the Paris Climate Agreement COP 26 is coming up November next year. Could you talk of the EU Commission’s role within the international context? Because you do a lot in trying to encourage and move the remit of the Paris Agreement forward. Could you talk of how you do that?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:16:09] So challenges we are speaking and discussing today, like biodiversity loss or climate change, they cannot be solved at the EU level only.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:16:20] We need everyone on board. And by everyone, I mean other countries around the world. And I’m happy that more and more of them actually are joining us.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:16:33] But also, as you know, biodiversity loss is one of the most significant challenges of our times. It’s just like climate change and closely connected. In fact, biodiversity loss is actually driving the decline of life on the earth. It’s a vicious circle. Nature is a powerful carbon sink. It is actually our best ally in fighting climate change.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:16:56] But not all policymakers understand that. And getting that message across is one of the biggest challenges, of course, I face. And we hope to deliver this message at the United Nations conference in China next year, which aims to set new targets to protect the Earth’s natural capital and of course, support systems. And the EU is ready to make big commitments, in particular towards developing countries, to mobilize resources to help our partners take ambitious steps towards protecting climate and nature. And wherever you live, investing in nature restoration means investing in local jobs and business opportunities, while also, of course, ensuring a truly green recovery from the crisis. And now it’s time to do this as unemployment is high and interest rates are low. And that is why Europe’s recovery plan will reinforce our goals to invest in nature restoration, including forests and wetlands, rivers and coastal areas, organic agriculture, of course, green and blue infrastructure. But most importantly, we want to lead this transition by example. We are more than happy to share our best practices. And some tend to call sort of this as a competition among the countries. I think there is no competition in green transition because if we achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, absolutely everyone is a winner.

The Circular Economy

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:18:36] You spoke earlier about businesses and your remit being all encompassing. And there’s an initiative called the Circular Economy. Could you talk of that?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:18:51] That probably requires an additional podcast. It is a big initiative! The Circular Economy Action Plan, first of all, focuses on, decreasing the pressure on the environment. One of the biggest pressures on the environment is, of course, extraction of natural resources.

[00:19:15] Unfortunately, those precious resources, especially here in Europe, are used for a way too short period of time. They are being wasted. The goal of Circular Economy is, of course, to keep them as long as possible in our economy. We want to establish principles of reuse, repair and recycle. So, in order that those resources are really kept in the economy as long as possible. But of course, it takes a huge transition touching upon many areas. And the first of the areas which we are starting with and the first action under the Circular Economy Action Plan is actually batteries regulation.

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:20:08] Who’s made the greatest impact on you in moving your career forward?

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:20:16] That’s a good question. I’m not focusing on moving my career forward. Now the whole focus is on the current capacities. I am privileged to be in a unique position. My priority is to deliver the goals set. I am putting all my energy and resources into this mission. What’s next for me will see.

Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme: [00:20:51] Commissioner Sinkevičius, thank you very much for your time. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Virginijus Sinkevičius: [00:21:01] It was a pleasure being here. Stay healthy and I wish you and your audience: All the best!

Credits: Andrea Macdonald founder ideaXme Ltd.

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