While the Omicron variant is the majority in Europe today, Pascal Canfin believes that the situation is rather well managed: "When we look at the situation a year ago, we clarified all that. We have a pass that works at the borders and the rest of the world envy us."

Faced with the fifth wave, he says he is optimistic: "Omicron's challenge is partly behind us. The healthcare systems have held up, and if they have held up, it is mainly thanks to massive vaccination. We are today the most vaccinated area in the world."

Pascal Canfin also speaks on the need for transparency, a few days after the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was pinned down by the European ombudsman for having refused to reveal her exchanges by SMS with Pfizer.

"If every exchange between a political decision-maker and a private decision-maker is public, there is no longer any possible negotiation. On the other hand, that we have a new initiative from the European Parliament to look at the question of laboratory margins, that, I I am totally in favor of it", he declares before recalling that he "initiated all the requests for transparency. If we have partial access to the contracts signed between the European Commission and the labs,

it's because we put the maximum pressure from the European Parliament and the Environment and Public Health Committee.

We are the only ones in the world to have this degree of transparency."

Finally, the chairman of the committee in charge of the environment returns to the question of the green taxonomy: "It is the first attempt in the world to define what is green or not and what is useful for the transition or not, in order to redirect investment flows in the transition. Many questions arise, and on gas and nuclear, we come to the conclusion that they can be useful for the transition without being green."

According to him, things are progressing despite everything, even if efforts remain to be made: “The emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change were falling by less than 1% per year when Emmanuel Macron arrived at the Élysée. end of his first term, they are down 2%. The drop in emissions has doubled. We have doubled, we still have to double."

Also on the table are the issues of deforestation and pollution of the oceans, two major battles that Pascal Canfin assures us not to forget: "It's a very big battle that we are waging to get out of a business model that is totally at odds with our environmental commitments. We are gradually winning these battles, which is one of the things I am most proud of today: over the past two years and our action in Parliament and in Europe. We have changed the European software to integrate commercial issues climate issues."

To give your opinion on the European Green Deal, go to the platform of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Program prepared by Georgina Robertson, Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats.

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