Brussels, my love? European mayors gather in Brussels to brainstorm how to go green

The Euronews Brussels bureau brings you its latest episode of a talk show that aims to break down European news and politics to make it more accessible to viewers. 

This week, we are joined by the former Prime Minister of Romania and current mayor of Cluj-Napoca Emil Boc, the deputy mayor of Budapest, Kata Tutto, and the leader of the Greens in the city of Cork, Dan Boyle. 

They were all in Brussels for a meeting of mayors from all across the continent, to swap notes on how to make their cities cleaner and greener.

Panelists welcomed the EU’s climate law and plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 despite the challenges and said a complete change in mindset was needed to put the planet first.

The EU Green Deal includes an array of policy initiatives covering everything from energy to transport and agriculture. The EU has said 30% of the bloc’s current budget of €1.8 trillion should be directed towards funding green projects, but for cities like Budapest, in Hungary, due to strained relations with Brussels, not a penny of the EU recovery funds has been seen.

“The Hungarian government is at war with the European governments, so it makes it much harder for Budapest,” Kata Tutto told the panel. “We didn’t receive anything from the Recovery and Resiliency facility, although that would be the best tool that we could use as a city.”

Watch Brussels, my love? in the video player above.