President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday night called for the European Union’s climate goals to “be more realistic” after the conclusion of the day’s European Council meeting.

“Many member states, including the Republic of Cyprus, have expressed the need for the EU’s green goals to be more realistic,” he said, before adding that an extraordinary informal competitiveness council – a meeting of the EU’s member states’ ministers responsible for trade and innovation – will be held on the matter in Brussels in February.

Cyprus is typically represented at competitiveness council meetings by either Commerce Minister George Papanastasiou or Deputy Research Minister Nicodemos Damianou.

“Within this framework and on our own initiative, the need to review some European Union decisions in relation to green goals, which, if implemented, will increase the cost of electricity, has been included in the conclusions [of Thursday’s meeting],” he said.

He went on to say that the EU’s current climate goals are “particularly ambitious and, in some case, difficult to achieve within the foreseen timeframes”.

Additionally, he said, “excessive ambition in environmental goals may affect the competitiveness of the European Union itself”.

On this matter, he said that policies which would increase the price of energy for consumers would “limit the competitiveness of the European economy as a whole”.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also spoke about the discussion on climate after the end of the meeting, saying the matter constitutes “a complex debate that needs constructive positions, adapting to each member state’s situation”.

However, he said that not taking climate action may cause further economic problems down the line.

“The EU has spent more than €40 billion in economic losses as a result of the effects of climate change. [The green agenda] is one of the engines of competitiveness, not an obstacle for it,” he said.

European Council President Antonio Costa, meanwhile, stressed that “Europe is at the forefront of climate action”.

The discussion came after the European Commission had proposed that the EU set a target of reducing the EU’s net emissions by 90 per cent by 2040, stating in July that the proposal “sets out a pragmatic and flexible pathway towards a decarbonised European economy by 2050”.

This goal, the commission said, will “ensure predictability for citizens, businesses and investors, by making sure that resources invested now and in the upcoming decades are compatible with the EU’s pathway to climate neutrality, avoiding wasted investments in the fossil fuel economy”.

It added that it will “boost the competitiveness of Europe’s businesses, create stable and future-proof jobs, and enable the EU to lead in developing the clean technology markets of the future”, while also making Europe “more resilient” and strengthening the EU’s strategic autonomy.