To Mr. Juncker
President of the EC
Dr. Mr. President,
We are very concerned by the political profile of some of the candidates to the College of Commissioners, but with this letter we would like to point out on Mr. Miguel Arias Cañete, called to be Commissioner of Energy and Climate Change.
There are plenty of facts that araise serious doubts on Mr. Cañete to be in charge of the Energy and Climate Action portfolio. Some of them were brought to light during his last period as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Enviromenment in Spain:
– He promoted the Coastal law reform, that not only was a step forwards of a model based in sauvage urbanization and depredation of the enviornment, but that introduced significant changes to clearly satisfy private interests related to the Popular Party;
– He is a clear defender of nuclear energy;
– As a Minister, when dealing with the CAP reform, he was clearly advocating against the greening elements of it;
– He has publicly stated in favor of fracking and oil prospections;
– Mr. Arias Cañete introduced changes in the electrical legislation that had as a dramatic consequence an important price increase, worsening the energetic poverty situation of milions of families in Spain:
– He modified the legislation related to reneable energies with the clear aim of favouring the big corporations. The effects of this reform devastated such an important sector in terms of environment and climate change.
But to all these “achivements” as Minister, we must add the fact that there is a clear conflict of interests. He only renounced to his participation in two big petrol companies, DUCAR s.l. and Petrologic Canarias, two days before he was nominated as a candidate. Besides, even though himself sold these participation, it is his family who holds the rest of them. DUCAR makes benefits of bunkering, a very dangerous practise that has been even of the EP concern in the past.
If these are not enough reasons, Mr. Arias Cañete performed one of the most polemics episodes during the past electoral campaing to the European elections. As head of the Popular Party list, in a public debates he stated that it was difficult to debate with a women beeing him a man, because he could not show his “intelectual superiority”. These declarations brought to light his repulsive sexism.
For all these reason, Mr. Juncker, we do believe that Mr. Arias Cañete is not suitable to be a the Commissioner of Energy and Climate Change and we ask you to reconsider and withdraw your proposal.
Yours sincerely,
Gabi Zimmer
President of GUE/NGL
