During a panel at the ECR Study Days, Beatrice Timgren, Member of the European Parliament for the Sweden Democrats, warned that the EU’s climate policy risks undermining competitiveness and alienating ordinary citizens. She criticized the Green Deal for burdening businesses with bureaucracy and chasing ideological goals.
”The panel discussion was about climate policy, first at the EU level and how it affects our competitiveness and ordinary people living in Europe,” Timgren explained.
Central to the discussion was energy, which Timgren identified as the foundation of a strong economy:
”We talked a lot about energy. If we want to be competitive, we need cheap energy. Because if energy is expensive, then products also become expensive.”
She argued that without affordable and efficient energy, European industry will falter—along with its climate ambitions:
”We think it’s important to make sure we’re competitive, and I also believe that this is a part of environmental and climate policy. Because if we’re going to succeed with it, we have to make sure we can produce products that are efficient. Only then can we reduce emissions while also growing the economy and ensuring people have jobs to go to.”
Timgren sharply criticized the EU’s Green Deal, which she sees as detached from reality and hostile to industry:
”But that’s not what the Green Deal has focused on. Instead, it’s just made things harder for businesses. They’ve added even more bureaucracy. When I meet with companies—it doesn’t matter if it’s a car company, or they work with metals or forest products—
Everyone says the same thing: there’s too much bureaucracy. The EU is suffocating us with bureaucracy.”
According to Timgren, this approach drives companies out of Europe, resulting in job loss and economic decline:
”Either they risk going bankrupt or have to move outside the EU. If all companies move outside the EU, then yes, we’ll reduce emissions. But at what cost?
That we no longer have jobs, that we become poorer.”
She dismissed the idea that the world will emulate Europe’s climate agenda:
”If they see that we are losing economic growth, that we’re getting poorer, that our products are so expensive we can’t compete with the rest of the world, then they’ll just see us as a cautionary tale.
No one will follow.”
Instead, she called for a pragmatic shift focused on innovation and real-world solutions:
”We need to invest in innovation, development, and produce products that people actually want. That way, we can strengthen the economy while also reducing emissions in a realistic way. Instead of the ideological goals that have been set.”
The Study Days concluded with reflections on Sweden’s image abroad. Asked what EU colleagues thought of Stockholm, Timgren shared a local joke:
”We celebrated Midsummer yesterday. Of course, Midsummer means rain. As soon as you talk about Midsummer, it always rains. It’s been cold, we’ve heard. Today the sun is shining. Otherwise, I’ve heard that people think Stockholm is a beautiful city. We don’t have trash on the streets like they do in Brussels, for example.”