Climate protection and ecological behavior have been at the top of the European agenda since the Green Deal initiated by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but the MEPs are anything but climate-neutral.
As German news outlet Junge Freiheit learned exclusively, EU parliamentarians flew more than 82 million kilometers (51 million miles) in 2021 alone and drove over 1 million kilometers by car. The news that Europe’s top political representatives are preaching climate action but flying an enormous amount of miles by plane comes at the same time that the European Parliament is demanding dramatic carbon taxes on airlines and has “targeted airlines in a major climate policy shakeup,” according to one Reuters headline.
According to the research service of the European Parliament (EPRS), in response to a request from Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Gunnar Beck, MEPs traveled a total of 82.074 million kilometers by plane last year — primarily to reach locations in Brussels and Strasbourg as well as to attend external events. The politicians produced CO2 emissions worth 19,390 tons. While the average German produces 8 tons of CO2 emissions per year, the average MEP produces 27 tons, and that is just for flying.
In addition, MEPs covered 1.01 million kilometers in the official vehicles of the European Parliament, corresponding to 124 tons of carbon dioxide.
Numbers at the lower end because of Covid-19
EPRS expressly points out that the numbers are at the “lower end” compared to the years before the coronavirus pandemic. That means that before Covid-19 social restrictions, the MEPs were traveling a lot more, despite climate change having been an important issue for Brussels for well over a decade. In addition, EPRS figures only include the trips made by MEPs, not those of their employees or of EU commission members.
Commenting on the figures to Junge Freiheit, Gunnar Beck called the EU parliament’s travel policy “hypocritical” against the background of the propagated climate protection.
“The EU authorities in Brussels demand strict subordination to climate madness from citizens and companies. Everything that could emit CO2 should be avoided,” he told the publication. “You just don’t really like to stick to it yourself. The travel behavior of the MPs contradicts their own absurd climate policy,” he added.
Since the beginning of the year, Germans have had to pay a climate tax of €30 for every ton of CO2 they produce. If that same policy also applied to the MEPs, they would have had to have raised €585,420 in taxes for their various trips last year.
