Speaking at the New Year’s event ‘The Future of Europe’ of Belgian daily De Tijd, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has stated that European leaders must engage in a ‘crackdown’ on the European Commission, saying:
“I think the European Council needs to crack down on the European Commission, with the message: ‘These are the priorities. You can’t do everything. Work on the top priority, which is, please, to further integrate our markets.’”
De Wever thinks this is necessary in order to strengthen EU competitiveness and to counter American hostility under President Donald Trump. (Remarks about this in the video from 17’25)
De Wever made his statements in the presence of European Commissioner for Climate Action Wobke Hoekstra, who also spoke at the event. Thereby, the Belgian PM criticised EU climate policies, urging for them to be watered down. He warned:
“The decarbonisation of Europe will be synonymous with the deindustrialisation of Europe.” He thereby complained about “environmental rules that make it impossible to provide in our own energy needs, that make it impossible to mine for rare minerals”
De Wever also criticised wind energy, referring to the recent summit with North Sea states in Hamburg on wind energy, stating:
“We’re unable to finance these projects and why are we unable to because it’s very very expensive. So the wind guys, I had a round table with all the wind guys. They sell wind. (…). It’s a bit like a politician. It’s competition. We sell wind. So I say, “Well, what do you need?” They say, “Well, if we have the wind on sea, the production is unpredictable. (…) There’s demand and production and the gap between it. We will electrolyze on the sea and we will produce green hydrogen.” I said: “that’s brilliant. It sounds extremely expensive.”
“I said, ‘What do you need from me?’ He said, ‘Well, you politicians in Europe, you should create a market for green hydrogen.’ Then I feel like I’m in the Soviet Union. If a politician has to create a market, this sounds like subsidies until eternity. And I asked these people, “Okay, green hydrogen, but how do you feel about blue and purple hydrogen?” They looked at me like a heretic that walked into the church and just spit in the holy water.” (Remarks about this in the video from 10′ on)
De Wever furtheremore stated that he considers the EU to an onion with different layers: at its core, the existing Member States must further integrate their markets, while new countries must be added to the outer layer. He said:
“Perhaps European core countries (such as France and Germany, ed.) could move faster? Or perhaps the Benelux countries? I believe that the Benelux countries, as they were historically, could serve as an example. We already had the Schengen area when other European countries joined.”
As areas for cooperation, he mentioned the energy market, to be deepened by establishing interconnections, the banking union and the capital market, to make it easier for companies across the EU to access capital. He also mentioned the labour market and logistics centres.
"Charles Michel sprak steeds over de 'European Onion'. Hij bleek visionair. De EU zou effectief moeten gaan functioneren als een ajuin. Met een kern die werkt maakt van snelle marktintegratie. De Benelux kan fungeren als die kern", zegt premier @Bart_DeWever. #TheFutureofEurope👇 pic.twitter.com/XwkuiIY5GD
— N-VA (@de_NVA) January 30, 2026
According to De Wever, all this must be discussed in concrete terms at an industry summit in Antwerp on 11 February, where he hopes to welcome the leaders of France and Germany, as well as an upcoming informal European summit at Alden Biesen Castle in Limburg, which will be held on 12 February 2026.
At the event, Climate Commissioner Hoekstra endorsed the idea of a multi-speed EU and “coalitions of the willing”, something which Germany recently also floated, stating “let’s move ahead with member states that are willing to go further, deeper and faster.”
When asked about industry closures due to high energy prices, Hoekstra responded that “in many member states, there is a markup in terms of taxes for energy prices”, suggesting governments are able to cut taxes to lower energy prices. He also claimed climate policy is only playing a limited role for high energy prices.
Hoekstra thereby did not utter a word about the massive impact of the EU’s ETS climate taxation on European energy prices.
Why is EU industry bleeding? The cost of the EU's de facto climate tax (ETS, a cap and trade scheme) is about twice as big as the total US natural gas price (red vs blue bar), which is only about 1/5 of the EU's natural gas price: https://t.co/t66Vmwj6xA
— Pieter Cleppe (@pietercleppe) September 22, 2025
