Brussels, my love? The EU’s economy and the ‘make polluters pay’ policy

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

This week’s episode features Monique Goyens, the secretary general of the European Consumer Organisation BEUC, Daniel Gros, the director of the Centre for European Policy Studies and Silvia Ganzerla, a policy director at Eurocities. 

Panelists reacted to the news this week that the EU is likely to “narrowly” escaped a recession with the protest by Extinction Rebellion at a conference organised by the European luxury aviation sector another talking point. 

Activists shouted at conference-goers and went up on stage with helium balloons and banners that read “make polluters pay”. Extinction Rebellion say 1 per cent of the global population causes 50% of aviation emissions due to their tendency to travel on private jets.

Silvia Ganzerla welcomed their demonstration.

“They are competing to get coverage in the news, and I think they’ve done pretty well by their actions. They have achieved it. The question is now, what do we do with this information? Because it does raise some questions on the principle of polluter pays. Does it mean that rich people can pollute? There should be some common standards,” she said.

“I think that there should be a wake-up call that something needs to happen in that area in order to have indeed the environment being protected and not just wasted because you are full of money,” said Monique Goyens adding that she hoped to see more investment in fast train links across Europe.

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