The war in the Middle East poses a risk for a new supply crisis, and politics have yet to improve the situation.
When Russia attacked Ukraine four years ago, there were food shortages, grocery prices exploded and the supply chain suffered from disruption. Back then, the authorities promised to focus more on regional food items to encourage less dependence on imports. But the Mouvement écologique says this goal has not been achieved, as president Blanche Weber declared:
“On EU level and in Luxembourg we moved forward at double speed, but continuing in the wrong direction.”
Campaigns such as “Tastes of Luxembourg” (“Esou schmaacht Lëtzebuerg”) rely on goodwill and raising awareness to promote regional goods, but actual facts show politics going in another direction.
“The Mercosur agreement, which was rightly rejected by farmers, has been supported by Luxembourg at EU level and was passed without hesitation by the Chamber. For various geopolitical reasons, these agreements are being put in place with dubious autocrats which are detrimental towards small farmers in south American states, and put European farmers under even more pressure.”
Another point of contention for the Mouvement écologique consists of pesticides. Luxembourg seems to want to continue bowing to the pesticide lobby, Weber said.
“It is bizarre and unrealistic to say everything is OK even if up to 15 pesticides are found in our food items, as long as the individual threshold for each pesticide is not met. There is no threshold for cumulative pesticides. No threshold, no problem, seems to be the logic here.”
Mouveco also sees deficits in energy politics. The expansion of renewable energy in the electricity sector has seen progress, but there is room for improvement. While sun and wind energy expansion is going well, the strategy for heat is lacking.
“In private households, if we don’t count cars, we use two-thirds of our energy to heat our homes, not for electricity. So the government has not done enough and is not doing enough to plan for renewable heating.”
The question of who should pay for the socio-ecological transition remains. Mouveco says the support for people with financial hardship must be increased, and the super-rich should be taxed more.
