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Kommissarin Roswall: EU-Umweltpolitik muss Teil der Verteidigungsstrategie sein
Der EU-Umweltkommissar sagte Euronews, Brüssel müsse endlich die Zusammenhänge erkennen und begreifen, dass Umwelt-, Wirtschafts- und Sicherheitsinteressen Hand in Hand gehen.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/06/09/kommissarin-roswall-eu-umweltpolitik-muss-teil-der-verteidigungsstrategie-sein
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Der EU-Umweltkommissar sagte Euronews, Brüssel müsse endlich die Zusammenhänge erkennen und begreifen, dass Umwelt-, Wirtschafts- und Sicherheitsinteressen Hand in Hand gehen.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/06/09/kommissarin-roswall-eu-umweltpolitik-muss-teil-der-verteidigungsstrategie-sein
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
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NewsTranskript
00:07Hello and welcome to the Europe Conversation. I'm Stefan Grobe.
00:11Today's guest combines a foundational career in criminal and family law
00:16with extensive experience in Swedish and EU politics.
00:20She served as a Member of Parliament and then Minister for EU Affairs and Nordic Cooperation
00:26before joining the European Commission in 2024.
00:31Welcome, EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessica Roswall.
00:38It's good to have you here, ma'am.
00:40Thank you very much for taking me.
00:41So that's a long title. I want to start with something particular, hazardous chemicals.
00:48Because more than 80% of European citizens are actively concerned about harmful chemicals in everyday products,
00:57you know the numbers, they are demanding a clean environment.
01:01Is the Commission hearing this call and taking it seriously?
01:05Absolutely we are. I am also concerned.
01:08I am one of these citizens who do care about how the chemicals that are hazardous is affecting me and
01:14the environment.
01:16Myself, during the Danish presidency, I took a PFAS test.
01:19So I also have, like most people, PFAS in my body.
01:22I am a mother and a grandmother.
01:24PFAS we should explain are the forever chemicals.
01:29So of course I am concerned and that is why we are taking action.
01:33At the moment we are assessing together with the European Chemical Agency.
01:39They are doing the assessment and then we will take it further on how we can both tap the fluid
01:47to chemicals.
01:48I mean, how can we see that we can seek a ban for PFAS in consumer products.
01:54But also the other part, which is also very important, how we can see that we can do the cleanup
01:59more efficiently and more cost efficiently.
02:02So absolutely we are trying to stop the tap, if you may say so.
02:07You recently said you want to impose stricter restrictions.
02:12Yet Osa von der Leyen has repeatedly refused to visit communities affected by forever chemicals.
02:20Do I detect the problem of messaging here?
02:23No, I mean, we are addressing the forever chemicals, but also other hazardous chemicals, or it can be pollution, whatever.
02:31I mean, we all deserve and we want to have clean water.
02:35So we are addressing both chemicals, but also micropollutants and other things.
02:39This is a core issue for me and for European citizens.
02:41Myself, I have done a lot of study visits around Europe, different hotspots, also meeting people who have chemicals in
02:52their body or born polluted.
02:54Four years ago, the Commission sought to push what was hailed at the time as the largest ever ban on
03:01toxic chemicals, but little has moved since then.
03:05And why is starting this process of regulating chemicals so difficult?
03:09I mean, I should not say start, because of course we have a regulation since 20 years.
03:14We call it the REACH regulation.
03:16I mean, it's a core regulation in Europe, and it's also very popular.
03:21It's been exported, if you may say, around the world, which has helped us.
03:24But with that said, we also know that there's some that needs to be modernized and it needs to be
03:29updated.
03:30Here, the forever chemicals is one, which we have taken into trying to address.
03:36It's not easy.
03:37It takes time.
03:38It's not like one chemical, it's thousands of chemicals.
03:41So it takes time to assess and also to discuss on where, because unfortunately we cannot just say skip the
03:49forever chemicals,
03:49because we need them also in different health products, in different digital solutions.
03:57So the other core issue for me here is to say, okay, if we don't have substitution on this, whatever
04:03project it is, that is necessary for our daily life,
04:06then we need to safeguard that the substances doesn't go out in the nature or in people's bodies.
04:13I think we are addressing it as fast as possible, but it is a complex question.
04:18Moving on to another of your competences, and that is water.
04:23Europe's water resources are under growing pressures from droughts and extreme weather.
04:29We see that every year.
04:31Is the continent prepared for a future of water scarcity?
04:36We can call it water bankruptcy, actually, in the world.
04:41Bankruptcy, you see?
04:41Yeah, I would say that that is the situation that we need to address.
04:45I am the first commissioner with water in my title, even though it's long, as you say.
04:49But that is because we see that we need to take water as a political priority.
04:55We cannot take water for granted.
04:58That comes to all of Europe.
04:59Then, of course, we have different situations in Spain compared to Finland.
05:03But the fact is that we all have sometimes in Europe too little water, too much water.
05:09And we need to address that.
05:11And that is the situation.
05:13And yes, we are taking a lot of action.
05:15We put forward a water-resilience strategy last year with a lot of actions.
05:19But now it's time to act.
05:21Yeah, you mentioned too much water.
05:23We can say that we have a problem of flooding here that comes regularly.
05:28The commission itself has noted that 90% of disasters are related to water in the EU.
05:34And no EU country is spared.
05:37Last week, Belgium hosted a major EU disaster response exercise.
05:44How prepared are we to deal with this?
05:47Better than we used to be.
05:49But we need to continue.
05:51And I think that it is...
05:52And it's linked...
05:53I mean, sometimes it is floods.
05:55But sometimes it's droughts.
05:56Sometimes we have also wildfires.
05:58All these are connected in that way that we know they will come more often and be more severe.
06:04So we need to be more prepared.
06:06We also need to prevent these floods to happen.
06:09Of course, it's linked to climate change.
06:11It's linked to that we need to do more investments in nature.
06:15We need to have more nature-based solutions that functions like a sponge before floods will appear.
06:21So, I mean, I would say that our member states are more prepared because we have had some really serious
06:27floods in the last years.
06:29The thing that is maybe new is that this is not something that's happened just every 20 years, 100 years
06:36or something.
06:37It's happening all over again.
06:39And that's why we need to address this.
06:41And it costs a lot of money for the European Union and the member states.
06:44And if we don't act and do these prevention measures, then it will cost more.
06:49In the past, farmers have staged big protests here in Brussels against strict environmental rules introduced by the European Union,
07:00including pesticide limits and nitrogen emission targets, arguing that these threaten their livelihoods.
07:08Now, did Brussels underestimate the impact of its green policies on rural communities?
07:17I mean, for me, the Green Deal is a growth strategy, inclusive growth strategy.
07:24And of course, farming is a part of that.
07:28And that is not only because it is, according to me, the competitive advantages Europe have,
07:33but also because it's about future proving our industries and our farming's agriculture sector.
07:40And in this, we all see that back to water and the scarcity, back to that water scarcity affects the
07:50possibility to have production of food production, of course.
07:54So that is why we need to take, we cannot choose either environmental legislation or competitiveness, whatever that is, or
08:03growth.
08:03We need to do both.
08:04And that's a little bit my frustration that we sometimes are in a discussion that you have to choose.
08:09And that is not possible.
08:11So we cannot do one without the other.
08:13Exactly.
08:13And that is why I think, for me, the farmers are a really important part of this.
08:19And they want to be the part of the solution because, of course, they see that water scarcity, whether it,
08:24well, it could be floods also, actually, then we will have a problem.
08:27And this is not only for our farmers, farmer industry, agriculture.
08:31It is also about Europe's security.
08:33If everything is linked and this is what we need to do.
08:36But, of course, we need to explain why and we need to have the tools.
08:38What about biodiversity?
08:41Can Europe realistically restore this while simultaneously expanding housing, industry and renewable energy projects?
08:51Again, it's about the links.
08:52We need to understand that the risk of not investing in nature will come with an economic risk, but also
08:59with a security risk.
09:00And that's what we have to understand.
09:02And that's why I think this is an investment in our future, which we don't have a choice to do.
09:07So we need to do it.
09:09And then, of course, we need to do it efficiently and we need to do it gradually so everybody can
09:15follow.
09:17Later this year, the Circular Economy Act is expected to be adopted.
09:22What is its role in all of this?
09:26A lot of roles.
09:28It has a lot of legs.
09:29But it is, if I may start with that, the latest conflict that we have that is affecting us is
09:37the crisis in the Middle East and the war in Iran.
09:40That again shows us that dependency comes with a cost.
09:44And that is not only linked to energy.
09:46Of course, that is what we also discuss a lot, rightly so.
09:49But also because we are dependent on fossiles when it comes to other products in our society.
09:55But also, we are dependent on critical raw materials, for example.
09:59So, we, and that is not only Europe that needs these critical raw materials, it's also everyone else in the
10:05world.
10:06And the fight for these materials are getting tougher.
10:10So, we need to be more self-sufficient.
10:13And that, where is the circularity, plays a crucial role to use the materials that we have within the Europe,
10:19in Europe, in a more efficient way.
10:22We are a gold mine, actually, but we don't use it.
10:25Right.
10:26So, critics have argued that the tax is focused too heavily on recycling and does not put enough emphasis on
10:33overproduction and overconsumption,
10:36which is also a threat to competitiveness.
10:39Do these critics have a point?
10:42A lot of people, when we think about circularity, we tend to go to recycling, which is one part, which
10:47is an important part.
10:48But we also need to do the reuse and how we consume.
10:51I think that is the whole part of circularity.
10:54I think that circularity is actually a kind of new revolution that we are into.
10:58We are now in a linear model, which we have been for a long time.
11:01I respect it takes some time to turn that to a circular, but this is what we are into now.
11:07So, I think that we cannot see circularity as only recycling or reuse, or it has to be the whole
11:13circle.
11:14I would say that we all need to have a change of mindset, because the climate change demands that, because
11:21the resources that we use demands that,
11:23and the current geopolitical situation demands that we are dependent on these materials, a lot of them, and we need
11:30to get rid of dependency, whatever that is.
11:34So, I think that is one thing.
11:35But then, of course, it's easier said than done, because we also need, we know that the virgin materials today
11:42is cheaper than secondary materials.
11:44There is a lot of hinders in the single market that we need to address.
11:48So, I think that it's not only me as a consumer to have to do this change of mindset.
11:54Me as a policymaker, businesses, policymakers, whatever, we all need to have this change of mindset.
12:00Should consumers expect to pay more if Europe embraces, fully embraces the circular economy model?
12:08That is what we see today, as I said, the secondary materials is today more expensive, and that is why
12:14we need to get the answers on how to make the business case for secondary materials.
12:20And that is what we will try to address in the Circle Economy Act, because people or industries, business to
12:27business, are neither interested today to do that extra payment.
12:31Of course, we have a lot of extra costs for energy and so forth, so we need to find that
12:36business case.
12:36And I think it's possible, because virgin materials is also scarce and weaponized sometimes.
12:42So, of course, there should be a business case in this.
12:45You mentioned earlier, climate change and the impact on the environment is increasingly seen as a security issue in the
12:54political discourse.
12:57Should environmental policy now be considered as part of Europe's defense strategy?
13:04Yes, I think so.
13:06I can explain.
13:07Please do.
13:09Because I see that, because there is a lot of examples, back to water, which is not only a resource
13:16like anyone else.
13:17We need water for our daily life, we need it for energy production, we need it for food production.
13:22And when water gets scarce, we are in trouble, and that eventually is also a security threat to us, not
13:29only food production, but also on a global perspective.
13:31We know that water is also driving conflicts and so forth.
13:34So that is one part of the defense angle and security angle.
13:38We also see nature as a natural border.
13:42We see it in Poland and Finland, how you can turn wetlands into border controls, make it more difficult.
13:51So, I mean, this is for an invasion to pass.
13:54So there is two signs of that.
13:56But I would argue the main thing is that biodiversity loss, crop loss, floods and droughts, is a security threat.
14:06And that's not only, again, not only me who's saying that.
14:09But I very often now recently refer to the UK MI6 report that came out earlier this year, saying that
14:16natural degradation is the main threat for UK's national security, which of course affects, is the same for a lot
14:24of other countries.
14:26I'm still struggling to make sense of, you know, we have people who are struggling with the cost of living
14:34on the one hand.
14:36And then we have environmental protection that remains a priority.
14:43How do we get people to sort of on board and embrace this?
14:48I mean, if I may go back to the first question you asked, this was that 80% of the
14:54people in Europe are putting hazardous chemicals as a top priority.
15:00That is the answer to the question.
15:02We want clean water.
15:04We want clean air.
15:05We need healthy soils.
15:08And that is one reason I think we need.
15:11And I'm not sure that it always has to cost more money.
15:14It's doing things more efficiently, using new techniques, using AI, using digitalization.
15:20I think that is one part.
15:20The other part is that we today, again, see the dependencies cost.
15:26And that is something that me as a consumer, at the end of the day, is paying the price for.
15:31So we need to treat our environment.
15:34We need to get in a more sustainable way, because that is the future proof.
15:39So, of course, we can discuss and we can put plaster of things at the moment, but that will only
15:43postpone the cost.
15:46The cost of doing nothing to prevent from flooding, to prevent from droughts, or wildfires, that is costly.
15:54And it will, at the end of the day, cost me as a consumer money.
15:57Here's a tricky one.
15:59Which environmental target is Europe likely to miss?
16:07We are, I mean, we have, we are getting, we are doing better when it comes to air pollution, for
16:12example,
16:12and less people are premature death in that, which is a good thing.
16:16But still, we are not reaching the targets.
16:19Water quality, we have a target in the Water Framework Directive into 2027.
16:24Probably we are not going to reach that.
16:27Healthy soils, 80% of our soils are not in a good shape.
16:30So, that is the brutal truth, which means that it's even more saying, confirming what I say,
16:40we need to start investing in nature and seeing this, an economic asset.
16:46And a risk, the risk is to do nothing.
16:49That is what we are facing.
16:51If you meet your non-European colleagues, do you have the impression that everybody is on the same wavelength here?
17:00Not everyone, of course, because it's, we are a lot of states around the world.
17:05But I feel, and it's, of course, we know that multilateralism and cooperation getting harder and harder now,
17:12due to a lot of reasons.
17:14But I feel that there is this ask for Europe to stand firm and stand in the front line,
17:22because I also meet a lot of states around the world that is heavily affected from climate change or nature
17:28or plastic pollution.
17:30And there is a lot of cooperation around that.
17:32So, I feel that there is also a lot of willingness to move forward in the multilateralism.
17:39And how problematic is it for you that the United States have basically left the global climate endeavors?
17:49So, U.S. is and will always be important partners for Europe and our countries.
17:55So, when I talk about, I've been to G7, G20, discussing desertification on the desertification cup coming up,
18:03or plastic pollution, of course, we have differences.
18:06But also, seeing the benefit of cooperation is also there.
18:13So, I'm trying to move forward.
18:15Because the water issue, the broken water cycle, that is not one member state.
18:21That is something that we need to work together on.
18:24So, I'm trying to move forward on things that we can cooperate.
18:29Critical raw materials, for example.
18:30We just recently did an agreement with the U.S. on that.
18:34So, that's a little bit how I try to work.
18:38But with that said, of course, the multilateralist, the global cooperation, is difficult today.
18:43If your term ended tomorrow, what would be your biggest failure?
18:50Oh, I usually get the question, what do you want to achieve?
18:56Well, if we have not moved the needle, actually reset the clock in one way when it comes to circularity,
19:04because the dependency, as we see today, is really, it is here for us.
19:10So, we need to do something more on circularity, and it's linked to environment than water, actually.
19:14So, I hope that we can.
19:16So, I did not answer your question then.
19:18I don't want to, I mean, I hope that this will be a successful mandate,
19:21and that we take, see, connect the dots, that it cannot be seen as environmental in one silo.
19:29This has to be horizontal.
19:30Okay, now I have to ask you what you consider your biggest achievement.
19:33Oh, then it will be that if I can help to bring different sectors on board on the investment part,
19:43on the nature, that will be my biggest achievement.
19:46All right.
19:46Jessica Roswell, thank you very much.
19:48EU Commissioner for the Environment and many other things.
19:52Thanks for a very interesting conversation.
19:54Thank you very much for having me.
19:55Thank you very much.
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