Virginijus Sinkevicius is used to opposition and fierce criticism. As European Commissioner for the Environment, you are more often in the wind. This also happened in the Netherlands this spring, after an unluckily timed letter to Minister Christianne van der Wal (Nature and Nitrogen, VVD). In the letter, Sinkevicius once again explained the rules regarding nitrogen and that nature restoration is of great importance to Brussels. MPs and MEPs tumbled over each other with harsh criticism. Cabinet members also lashed out at Sinkevicius’s letter, which was seen as unwanted interference in a Dutch discussion that is already under high tension.
The fuss surprised and touched Sinkevicius, you hear in Brussels. This Monday he will meet a delegation of MPs for a discussion about nitrogen, nature and the environment. The pressure on these issues has recently increased – not only in the Netherlands, but also in Brussels in particular, where MEPs and Member States are increasingly opposing green legislation.
Read also: Opposition is growing against European nature restoration plan
Particularly controversial are the ‘nature restoration law’, which obliges member states to protect and restore more nature, and a law that aims to halve the use of chemical pesticides. The Netherlands is also strongly opposed to the first proposal. There is also resistance to his plan to make fishing more sustainable, including a ban on bottom fishing in Natura2000 areas.
He has to fight now
It means that a crucial period has arrived for Sinkevicius, in which he must fight to realize his plans for improving biodiversity.
Will the young Lithuanian (32) succeed? Or will the sizeable Green Deal, arriving at nature conservation and agrarian reform, come to a halt this year?
Contrary to what the incident letter suggests, Sinkevicius is known within the Commission as someone who prefers to avoid conflict. People who work with him describe him as amiable and pleasant to deal with. Many point to the important role he played last year in the global agreement on biodiversity that was concluded in Montreal. They see a driven, hard-working young man with a good nose for politics.
I think he is seen by many as too green
Bas Eickhout MEP GroenLinks
The latter is not superfluous if you have to enforce environmental rules that are always met with resistance elsewhere in the EU. Not an easy task, says Slovenian economist Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for the Environment from 2010 to 2014. “You also have to fight for your position within the Commission, because economic interests always take precedence.”
Potocnik emphasizes that since the Green Deal, the environment commissioner has risen in esteem. And what also helps Sinkevicius is his excellent relationship with ‘Climate Commissioner’ Frans Timmermans. When post-corona travel became possible again for the first time in 2021, they planned a working visit to Lithuania together, including forest walks and a visit to beehives on a roof in the capital Vilnius.
Direct, but also haughty
Sinkevicius is “incredibly smart” and “really intrinsically motivated,” says GroenLinks MEP Bas Eickhout, who has a lot to do with him. But he also sees how the Lithuanian arouses resistance with his “almost Dutch directness”. “He does not adapt his story for his audience. That goes down well with green MEPs, but not at all if he then makes the same argument in the fisheries committee. I think that’s the fair story, but I think he’s seen by many as too green.”
Read also: ‘A bottom fishing ban just about means the end of the shrimp sector’
Several people who spoke to NRC say: Sinkevicius is convinced that he is right. This is valued as ‘idealistic and authentic’, or seen as ‘haughty, almost arrogant’. “You really feel that he understands what you are saying, that you are being heard,” says Marilda Dhaskali of nature organization Birdlife, who regularly sits around the table with him. Tim Heddema, of the interest organization PFA for the fishery, says: “I often have the impression that what we say does not really matter.”
The fact that fisheries has been placed with the Environment Commissioner since 2019 was already viewed with suspicion by that sector. It is there, says Heddema, “ever worsening”, especially since the presentation of the bottom fishing ban. According to him, the European Commissioner is “extremely result-oriented, almost impatient”. Birdlife’s Dhaskali praises the Lithuanian for his perseverance compared to his predecessors. “Environment has always been seen as something that mainly hinders the economy. He understands the urgency.”
The youngest ever
Sinkevicius also seems to have had haste in life. At the age of 25 he was elected to the Lithuanian parliament, two years later he became Minister of Economy and at 28 he was nominated for the post of European Commissioner – the youngest ever.
He was also young when he left his home country at the age of eighteen to study economics in Wales at the University of Aberystwyth. Obviously it wasn’t. Sinkevicius’ childhood was not always easy. He grew up without a father, while his mother worked several jobs to make ends meet. He would later tell Lithuanian television that it taught him to work hard to achieve something.
Environment has always been seen as something that mainly hinders the economy. He understands the urgency
Marilda Dhaskali nature organization Birdlife
University lecturer in Aberystwyth Jan Ruzicka remembers a serious boy, who immediately made a very mature impression. “He immediately had all kinds of different jobs, as a salesman of fish and chips and newsagent. He kept to himself and that was certainly not usual.”
Outside his studies, Sinkevicius played basketball fanatically and organized events. He passed with good grades, but was not “extremely ambitious” and especially strong in “social intelligence and cooperation.” Ruzicka also noticed this when the former student came back for a chat a few years ago. “Everyone remembered him and he had many old friends here to visit.” Ruzicka and his former student are also in regular contact.
Sinkevicius did his master’s degree in Maastricht. There he also met his future wife, a Ukrainian. Together they had three children in recent years an interview he once said that that number was the duty of every Lithuanian. The family occasionally appears with shiny photos in the Lithuanian press. The Russian invasion of Ukraine deeply affects them – several family members had to flee, the worries remain great.
Farmers and Greens
The fact that Sinkevicius was able to make such a rapid career cannot be seen separately from the party he joined in his twenties: the Lithuanian Union of Farmers and Greens. A small party, says professor of political science at Vilnius University Gediminas Vitkus, with clear populist tendencies that suddenly grew sharply during the 2016 elections.
Read also: In Brussels, too, people are now eyeing the peasant voice
The party has a very different character than many green parties elsewhere in Europe, emphasizes Vitkus: “They mix farmers’ interests with a romantic image of nature and fairly conservative family values.”
The party is now no longer in the Lithuanian government and has unraveled: Sinkevicius also indicated last year that he was no longer associated with it.
A second term as European Commissioner therefore seems unlikely: in new elections next year, his new green party, which is still being formed, should immediately enter the government. In Brussels, his ambitions are expected to lie more in his own country – he is still regularly on television.
“I have the impression that he is very busy in his own silo and thus loses sight of the bigger picture,” says CDA MEP Esther de Lange, who warns that, in her opinion, the nature restoration law can collide with the roll-out of renewable energy. The Christian Democratic group recently announced that it would not support the two green proposals. De Lange mentioned Sinkevicius in a tweet recently “activist”. “You have to take people with you,” she says. “I don’t think he cares about that.”
More time to explain
The liberal MEP Martin Hojsik, part of the group of VVD and D66, among others, and formerly employed by Greenpeace, rejects the accusation of ‘activism’. The Slovak does think that Sinkevicius, like the rest of the European Commission, should have taken more time to explain the reasons behind the nature plans. “But compared to other Commissioners, he really listens – especially to science. There is no choice but to take action.”
Hojsik also says, not alone: it is not only up to Sinkevicius, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should now also explicitly defend the green proposals. But whether she will do so, in view of her chances of re-election next year, is uncertain.
The coming weeks will be crucial for the natural law – in mid-June an important vote will determine whether there is enough support left in the European Parliament. Until then, Sinkevicius must do everything he can to convince people of the plan.
“I don’t know if he has built up enough support in recent years,” says Eickhout. Nevertheless, the GroenLinkser also sees room for adjustments and a compromise. “He is now standing at the bar for that: striking the right tone and listening to criticism.” Can Sinkevicius do that? “I think he’s smart enough for it.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 22, 2023.
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