The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, apologised yesterday for dismissive comments about youth climate activists during a television interview, in an about-turn a few months into his role as top EU diplomat.
Borrell recently said on Spanish television that he doubted “the idea that young people are seriously committed to stopping climate change – we could call it the ‘Greta syndrome’”.
He said people were happy to take to the streets if it cost them nothing, while questioning whether demonstrators were prepared to reduce their quality of life to pay for the high cost of combatting climate change.
Climate change is a priority issue for the European Commission, of which Borrell is a vice-president.
“I want to apologise to anyone that may have felt offended by my inappropriate reference to the important youth movement fighting #climatechange,” Borrell wrote on Twitter yesterday, while returning from a visit to the United States.
The television interview was met with strong criticism on Twitter.
The Greens in the European Parliament have called the comments “unacceptable” for someone who represents the European Union and promised to confront Borrell on the issue.
The European Commission distanced itself from the remarks on Friday, with spokesman Eric Mamer noting that all its top officials – Borrell included – stood behind the executive’s European Green Deal, “which acknowledges and supports the ambitions of young and less young people to combat climate change”.
“I don’t believe the ‘Greta syndrome’ has been defined as a medical condition yet,” Mamer quipped, when pressed further on the issue.
Borrell also appeared to backtrack on Friday, when he posted on Twitter that “youth movements to fight climate change have my full support and inspire politicians and societies”.
“Climate change is one of [the] biggest geopolitical challenges, we can’t afford costs of inaction,” he added, while noting that “to be successful, we also need to tackle social and economic costs of the transition”.
The 72-year-old veteran Spanish politician, who took up his current post on December 1, has a reputation for making undiplomatic remarks.
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