The only thing more powerful than hate is love.
Bad Bunny dropped that line on one of the biggest stages in the world, in a US gripped by weaponised fear and the persecution of racialised communities. And the message travelled. Because at a time when hatred is being normalised, rebranded, and institutionalised, going back to basics feels almost revolutionary.
So yes, this Valentine’s, we’re talking about love.
Not the candlelit-dinner kind. The stubborn, community, universal kind. The kind that drags you out of your individual bubble and into collective action. The kind that reminds you that rights, nature, and liveable communities are worthy fights. And yes, the kind we feel for you, dear New Leaf crowd.
Love is always stronger. So strong, in fact, that it can blind us and even get a little… toxic. That’s when you need a best friend to stage a gentle intervention. We’re trying to be that friend to the EU Commission.
Because if your ‘lover’ keeps asking you to lower your standards, drop your boundaries and subsidise their bad behaviour… it might not be love. It might be regulatory capture.
So, join us in this friend-intervention edition:
❤️ The problem isn’t EU, it’s them.
❤️ A care, not a competitiveness issue.
❤️ A relationship based on well-being, not toxic growth (he said it).
❤️ Missed chances on water, housing.
❤️ Healthy dopamine hits.
DISCLAIMER:If our words make your heart beat a little faster, follow us on our new Substack account, where we’ll be sharing longer, deeper New Leaf reflections on the issues we care about. Think of it as taking the relationship to the next level.
And if you really want to show affection, you can always buy us a coffee. No roses required, caffeine is our true love language. ☕
🫰 DEAR COMMISSION, SIT DOWN
This week was symbolic for the EU’s complicated love life.
Toxic anniversary dinner – The Commission kicked things off in Antwerp – one of the world’s most polluted industrial hubs – at an event with industry reps to mark the second anniversary of the Antwerp Declaration. To anyone with backyard hens nearby, here’s your reminder: do not eat those eggs.
Gaslighting in Antwerp – The Declaration reads like a delulu wish list from some of Europe’s biggest polluters: Fewer rules. More public money. All in the name of Competitiveness™. Its publication marked the start of what can only be described as a toxic rebound: rollbacks of environmental safeguards and accountability rules, and a growing tendency to scapegoat green rules.
Setting boundaries – Corporate lobbies arrived at this meeting in high spirits (why wouldn’t they?), and with a new round of demands. Top of the list? Killing the planned phase-out of free pollution permits under the EU carbon market (ETS1). But this time the Commission didn’t cave. Commissioner Hoekstra and later von der Leyen pushed back on the idea of extending free allowances. Slowing down decarbonisation is not exactly a visionary competitiveness strategy.
See? Boundaries. We love to see it 👏
Domestic bliss? von der Leyen spoke about the need for a “deep regulatory housecleaning”. She argues that simplification means avoiding regulatory fragmentation at the national level and harmonising rules across Member States – and honestly, this looks good in principle. But in this case, harmonisation would mean stronger, clearer, EU-wide rules, not quietly weakening the bloc’s protections…
If your “spring clean” always means cutting environmental rules, that’s not cleaning; that’s throwing out the smoke alarm because you don’t like the noise.
Château speed-dating – For the informal European Council meeting the very next day, a more romantic setting was chosen: EU leaders gathered at Alden Biesen Castle in eastern Belgium. Where competitiveness was the plat du jour. But, while France wants Eurobonds and a “Buy European” flavour of industrial policy, Germany and Italy are flirting with archaic recipes: private capital and deregulation.
Two-tier love affair? Friday morning, it emerges that some EU leaders are flirting with the idea of a “two-speed Europe”. The argument goes like this: if unanimity blocks ambition, let the willing move ahead, à la eurozone or Schengen. Germany, France, the Nordics and the Benelux could deepen cooperation on fiscal policy, defence or digital markets without waiting for the most reluctant to RSVP.
But here’s the catch: that’s not quite the European Dream, with some members in the fast lane and most not.
Everyone, as usual, blames Brussels for their problems 🙄
Which raises the question: what does the Commission actually want?
Self-esteem is policy – At times, the EU executive looks like someone trying desperately to bag the most matches at the speed-dating event. But the EU is not a bystander in global politics. It has a mandate. It has a Green Deal. It has the power to shape markets within and far beyond its borders. What it might need right now is a bit of self-esteem. The EU is a rule-maker, not a rule-taker.
💔 THE EU HAS A CARE PROBLEM
We know many EU officials read New Leaf, so consider this the caring part of our intervention. Because the current “simplification” agenda risks damaging the most valuable relationship the EU has: the one with its citizens.
People don’t want deregulation. They want clean water – Europeans are losing sleep because rent is unaffordable, energy bills are volatile, pollution is widespread, and climate disasters are no longer abstract. Not because large corporations making record profits are having trouble integrating the rules! (cue the tiny violin 🎻). Look at any recent Eurobarometer. Cost of living, safe environment, climate action and energy affordability. Those are the things people want the EU to protect!
Step out of the lobby bubble – People are not asking the EU to step back. They’re asking it to step up. To value and defend shared goods. To protect health and nature. To show that democracy works for the 450 million citizens in the EU, not just the loudest lobby in the room.
The #HandsOffNature campaign gathered almost 200,000 signatures in just a couple of weeks (sign now!). Nearly 200,000 people recently mobilised to defend EU nature laws in a Commission consultation, the highest participation ever recorded.
That’s a public alarm bell. EU leaders have a duty to listen – and act.
Costs, costs, costs – Ursula von der Leyen keeps claiming that simplification could generate €15 billion a year in “administrative savings” – a figure dwarfed by the infinitely greater costs of such ‘savings’. Poor enforcement of existing environmental laws already costs €180 billion a year. The Commission itself estimates that inaction on PFAS pollution alone could cost up to €1.7 trillion by 2050.
Show us the evidence – There is zero evidence that EU environmental laws undermine competitiveness. None. On the contrary, strong standards have historically driven innovation, rewarded early movers and provided legal certainty for businesses. Sweden proves the point: with a tech sector more than twice as productive as the EU average, thriving under some of Europe’s toughest environmental and labour standards.
Strong rules don’t kill competitiveness. They define it.
🔗 Read our media advisory and opinion piece.
💸 LOVE BEYOND GROWTH
Cost of living, not GDP – Europe’s problem is not “too little growth”: it is an economy that concentrates wealth into a few hands, locks households and smaller businesses into high bills and debts, and exhausts natural systems while millions struggle to make ends meet. More GDP won’t fix inequality, lower bills, or restore ecosystems. These failures are structural, and they require active public intervention, not laissez-faire orthodoxy.
As UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned, an economy that rewards pollution and extraction can still look “successful” on paper, even as it erodes the foundations of human and planetary wellbeing.
Growth-at-all-costs is killing the things we love – Over 150 countries, including EU members, endorsed the IPBES report showing that unchecked GDP growth drives biodiversity loss and undermines business confidence and long-term prosperity. Markets fail to value nature’s essential services: clean water, fertile soils, pollination, and climate stability. Growth at the planet’s expense ensures both human suffering and ecological disaster.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💧 EU waters dealt another blow – The Commission’s new fertiliser rules (RENURE) weaken the EU Nitrates Directive with minimal transparency and no proper impact assessment. Excess nutrients from intensive agriculture are already overloading rivers, lakes, and coasts, creating dead zones and higher costs for citizens. Instead of tackling the root cause, these changes risk treating symptoms while putting water, health, and farming at long-term risk. Read our press release.
🏠 Europe’s housing crisis isn’t about lack of supply – it’s about untapped potential. Thousands of homes sit empty while millions struggle with rents and energy bills. The Commission’s Affordable Housing Plan points in the right direction, but without clear definitions, dedicated funding, and safeguards for affordability, vacant buildings will remain a missed opportunity. Read our OpEd.
🧠✨ DOPAMINE HIT
As ever, here are a few happy updates to get your weekend off to a perky start:
- Italy: Florence becomes the 1st Italian city to ban fossil fuel ads. Read more here
- France: former coal town becomes a model for the transition beyond coal. Read more here
- China: solar power is set to overtake coal for the first time in 2026. Read more here
- Global: Ocean Twilight Zone Protection Gains Ground as Global Conservation Body Votes for Safeguards. Read more here
- Bermuda snail is coming back from the brink of extinction. Read more here
- Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. See it here
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By: Alberto Vela. Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Ben Snelson, Ruby Silkand Roi Gomez. Editor: Christian Skrivervik.
