In his first press conference as European commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevičius presented the European Environment Agency's State of the Environment Report on Thursday. The conference began with praise from EC Vice-President Frans Timmermans who said the Lithuanian commissioner would be “one of our stars”.
“You know me by now [...] but you are gonna get a lot of this guy,” Timmermans told reporters pointing at Sinkevičius. “He's gonna be one of our stars. I really have huge trust in him. We will be working together jointly on what is I think is a transformational agenda for the world and the European Union.”
Videos from the press conference are available here.
In the new European Commission inaugurated on December 1, Sinkevičius is in charge of environment, oceans and fisheries.
The Thursday conference presented the EEA State of the Environment Report, reviewing the present situation of Europe's water, air and soil pollution, biodiversity and circular economy development.
The document, Sinkevičius said, “sends an emergency message” and comes just one week before the EU will publish its Green Deal.
Even before their appointment, Sinkevičius and Timmermans stated that they would work to have the EU achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
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