EU climate chief to quit for Dutch general election

EU climate chief Frans Timmermans will leave his position at the European Commission to run in the Dutch national elections in November, resulting in the European Union losing an influential figure in upcoming global climate negotiations.

The Dutch Labour and Green Left parties announced on Tuesday that Timmermans would be their leader in the general election on November 22.

Timmermans, whose term at the European Commission concludes in November next year, expressed his desire in July to become the next prime minister of the Netherlands.

A Commission official confirmed that Timmermans will resign from the Commission following the announcement from the Labour and Green parties.

At an earlier press conference, a Commission spokesman refrained from commenting on the process of selecting a successor for the 62-year-old Dutchman, who is responsible for the EU’s comprehensive package of policies on climate change and the environment known as the Green Deal.

It is unlikely that his replacement will have the same level of influence, particularly at the UN climate negotiations in November, where Timmermans played a crucial role in reaching an agreement during last year’s COP27 summit.

In the absence of Timmermans, Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic and Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni may be asked to assume his responsibilities as they have collaborated with him on various initiatives.

The Netherlands is expected to nominate a new candidate for the Commission, but this nominee will not automatically assume Timmermans’ responsibilities.

Timmermans, who is fluent in English, German, French, Italian, Russian, and his native Dutch, is a well-known figure in the Netherlands as he previously served as foreign minister from 2012 to 2014.

After spending almost a decade in Brussels, Timmermans will participate in the first Dutch election since 2006 in which outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte will not lead his conservative VVD party.

In July, Rutte, the longest-serving leader in the Netherlands, surprised the nation by announcing his resignation after his four-party coalition government failed to reach an agreement on migration policy.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout Yun Chee Foo, writing by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alison Williams, Devika Syamnath and Christina Fincher)