The corona pandemic has started a debate about the future of the European Green Deal.

At the forefront, a growing chorus of voices is calling for the EU’s flagship initiative to be strengthened and used as a “greenprint” for the post-COVID-19 economy. Khaled Diab reports.

Andrej Babiš, the Czech prime minister and populist billionaire, has seized on the coronavirus pandemic to try to sink the EU’s flagship European Green Deal.

“Europe should forget about the Green Deal now and focus on the coronavirus instead,” he said. “Now that the epidemic is nearly over in China, the country is once again the biggest producer of medical material and the entire planet is going shopping in China… We really have a lot to learn from China.”

While Babiš is not alone in seeing the corona crisis as an opportunity to bash the Green Deal, more responsible leaders are already looking at how to restart the economy in a way that protects public health, safeguards people’s welfare and ensures a sustainable future for all.

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