Date and time: Tuesday 26 March, 16:00 CET

Please register here to participate.

A few months before the elections, the European climate agenda is facing crippling challenges. Powerful corporate lobbies are resisting change and the European Green Deal does not pay enough attention to the social impact of the transition. The strategy for its financing relies on boosting companies’ competitiveness via clean technology innovation and making projects more profitable for private investors. What is missing is a thorough and just transformation that takes into account people’s needs while respecting environmental limits.

In a context of incessant emergencies, how can the European Union chart a course towards long-term social and environmental well-being? Two decades of perpetual crisis management have severely undermined Europe's capacity to pursue a sustainable future, and considerations of short-term expediency continue to impede environmental and socio-economic transition.

Political actors pay lip service to a just transition while corporations remain the winners of the green public investments.

But the agenda of decarbonising the status quo must end. Public finance should be reclaimed for financing a true just transformation and the promised Green Deal - centred at public services like green affordable transport, energy or housing, and high quality jobs. As austerity measures return and the future of public resources is uncertain, people’s grievances are bound to be increasingly exploited by far right actors, while solutions currently at the table remain insufficient or ignored.

In this webinar, Counter Balance will bring together CSOs and experts to collectively explore the biggest obstacles to financing a people-centred Green Deal, and how we can join forces to push these needs to the top of the public finance agenda.

  • Melanie Brusseler, Senior Researcher at Common Wealth
  • Olivier Vardakoulias, Finance and Subsidies Policy Coordinator at CAN Europe
  • Mathieu Strale, researcher at l’Institut de Gestion de l’Environnement et d’Aménagement du territoire (DGES-IGEAT) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • Alexandra Gerasimcikova, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Counter Balance

The debate is moderated by Frank Vanaerschot, Director at Counter Balance.


This webinar is organised by Counter Balance within the “Citizens’ Observatory for Green Deal Financing” project, financed by European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).


EN Co funded by the EU BLACK