Why the European Union is a less-than-jolly green giant

ASIMPLE RULEEUEUEUEUEUNUTSEU applies when analysing an scheme: the sillier something’s name, the more important it is. When the launched €750bn of common debt, it came under the seemingly Star Trek-inspired title of Next Generation . The European Semester, which makes little sense in any of the club’s 24 languages, dictates whether a government’s budget fits with spending rules. Schengen, the radical experiment in passport-free travel across an entire continent, is named after a nondescript village in Luxembourg. Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is a vital tool for dishing out funds, turning Europe’s map from a land of wiggly rivers and mountains into a patchwork gerrymandered by cynical officials aiming to scrape up cash. It is better known by a satisfying French acronym: .“Fit for 55” is the apogee of this rule. What sounds like a gentle aerobics class for the middle-aged is in fact a series of sweeping environmental reforms that will set the direction of climate policy for the next decade. In a glut of legislation, the European Commission put forward 13 proposals with the aim of slashing emissions to 55% below their 1990 level by 2030. Carbon-intensive imports, such as industrial materials, face a levy at the ’s border for the first time—which is already causing . Sectors once exempt from emissions-trading schemes, such as transport and domestic heating, will have to pay for the carbon they spit out. Those already covered will have to pay more. Cars with internal combustion engines will disappear from European forecourts by 2035.