Macron calls for 'European regulatory pause' on environmental standards

Emmanuel Macron called for "a European regulatory pause" on environmental standards, during a speech at the Elysee Palace on Thursday. The Head of State believes that the European Union has done "more than all its neighbours" and that it now "needs stability".

"We are ahead, in regulatory terms, of the Americans, the Chinese or any other power in the world," he said during the presentation of his strategy to accelerate the reindustrialization of the France.

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"Now we have to execute. We must not make new changes to the rules, because we will lose all the actors, "he pleaded again. Otherwise the "risk" is "to be the best bidder in terms of regulation and the lowest bidder in terms of funding".

Green MEP David Cormand quipped on Twitter: "The champion of the Earth is back".

The champion of the Earth is back... https://t.co/mrIRHDpnFw

— David Cormand🌻🇪🇺 (@DavidCormand) May 11, 2023

"The French are asking for a pause on the implementation of the pension reform... Macron offers them a break on ecology, "also rebelled the head of EELV Marine Tondelier.

The French are asking for a pause on the implementation of the pension reform...#Macron offers them a pause on ecology#Erreur404 https://t.co/7l6Rqztmnf

— Marine Tondelier (@marinetondelier) May 11, 2023

The Elysee, however, insisted that Emmanuel Macron had asked neither a suspension nor a moratorium and even less a repeal "of the current standards under discussion".

"The president is not talking about suspension but about carrying out decisions already taken before making new changes," the source said. "The decisions already taken are the most ambitious in the world to date," it added. "Above all, he said that these standards must already be applied uniformly in Europe."