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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Hoekstra at the Annual meeting of the Heads of the Contact Committee of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union Paris, 13 October 2026 Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for welcoming me during a complicated time. Let me also thank you for your efforts, Amélie, and the efforts of many in the room for supporting the EU's climate neu...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Hoekstra at the Annual meeting of the Heads of the Contact Committee of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union Paris, 13 October 2026 Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for welcoming me during a complicated time. Let me also thank you for your efforts, Amélie, and the efforts of many in the room for supporting the EU's climate neutrality goals. You have a pivotally important role to play in exactly this endeavour. And Laurent Fabius, it's great pleasure to see you again and to get your guidance. I want to salute all the important work you have done. You continue to provide us with a North Star on international climate diplomacy. And that's hugely important especially given the current context. Ladies and Gentlemen, In terms of the current context, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. We are facing a hugely challenging environment. War back on European soil. War raging in the Middle East. Assertiveness – some would say aggression – from China in its own hemisphere but also stretching towards Europe with unfair trade practices. The loss – at least to some extent – of the US as an ally. Add to that everything else that brings a huge degree of uncertainty, including the upsides but particularly the downsides of AI. Many of these challenges will continue to stay with us for years to come. One of the most complicated challenges humanity faces is the significant climate crisis. To make it worse, that crisis is unfolding in Europe at twice the speed around the world. When you see 1.5°C, you roughly have to double that. And of course that's an average, which is unevenly skewed across Europe. Some places are being hit much harder than others. Many of us lived through last “Summer of truth” as President von der Leyen has called it. And unfortunately – and this is the scientific reality – most scientists say that 1.5°C is unlikely to be achievable. It's much more likely that we run over it and then we should do our utmost to get under it again. We also saw something else this year. Not only is the reliance on fossil fuels a huge problem from a climate perspective, there is also a dependency problem if you import 80% of our gas and more than 95% of our oil. When I was talking about how climate and competitiveness go hand in hand, people would buy that. But up to roughly a year ago, it was not fully acknowledged that there was also a dependency problem. That has completely changed with the situation in Hormuz. The EU has by now paid an extra EUR100 billion over the course of the past 9-10 months for the exact same amount of energy. The bill is only rising. This is why this Commission, especially in my portfolio, is looking at everything through the lens of climate, competitiveness and independence. We need all three of these – and we need them all at the same time. With this in mind, we're embarking on a whole set of policies. First, electrification – that means more grid capacity, more interconnectors between our Member State, more solar, more wind, more nuclear, more storage capacity. And we need to make sure that doesn't drive us into the corner of yet another dependency. More of it will need to be made on European soil. Second – and that debate is currently unfolding – we all know that your policy priorities are reflected in your budget. We need to make sure that national governments but also the European budget reflect our priorities. The proposal that the European Commission put on the table does that to a significant extent, but I have to admit that although I understand the cost-cutting of the Irish Presidency, the climate and innovation part have been hit much harder than cohesion and agriculture. I find this unfortunate, to put it diplomatically. Third, we need to change the rules of the game in Europe. I hate to say it, because I think competition is a good thing, and free markets in itself are a good thing, but the rosy days of the nineties are over. We are facing unfair competition on European soil – and this comes with significant consequences for a range of sectors. This is why we must embark on a recipe much more focused on ‘Made in Europe', ‘Buy European and levelling the playing field. To give you an example, if you look at the European solar industry, it was completely wiped out over the course of the last ten years. We had a fantastic industry. However, many companies experienced a huge overflow of cheap, heavily state-subsidised Chinese products, which eradicated their business. If we don't change course, we run the risk of the same happening in steel, cars, chemicals and many other domains. We have to change the rules of the game here as well. Then there is ETS, the cornerstone of our policy particularly for industry. That system, from my perspective, has worked very well. But we can also further improve it. One of the key improvements is making sure that more of the money generated goes to industrial decarbonisation. Too often, companies getting the money sell their free allowances on the market and then invest it in China – this is a missed opportunity for Europe at large. If you look at what governments do with the money they generate from ETS, they spend roughly 90% of it on other budgetary priorities. They are important but it will not help industrial decarbonisation. And that was the deal, some would say. Last piece I want to touch upon is adaptation. The past summer of truth shows us that even if we got everything right in the domain of mitigation tomorrow, it would not get our citizens and our companies out of harms way. That's just the reality of how large this problem has become. We will have to continue with mitigation and at the same time, stand on that other leg of adaptation and resilience. That means we need to do more to fight wildfires. It means we need to prepare much better for the next flood. It means we need to do something for vulnerable citizens, when summers are as hot as the past one. All of this will ask for ample action. The past summer was the hottest on record, but it will probably be the coolest of what's to come. All this means that there is a lot of work at European level, but also at Member State level. If you look at the context, you can be intimidated by the challenges. At the same time, if you look at the innovation we have in Europe, the spirit of commonality, if you see how much Europe has done on resilience and mitigation, and on the global level, we have a huge chance to win this in the end. That is going to be the challenge, where we're putting all our efforts, and where hopefully you can help by occasionally steering the governments you check in the right direction. Thank you for your attention. SPEECH/26/2151 <@rel_link@> Press contacts: Anna-Kaisa ITKONEN (+32 2 295 75 01) Ana CRESPO PARRONDO (+32 2 298 13 25) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email
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