opponents warn it is a dangerous backtrack on the EU’s green agenda that plays too readily into the hands of conservative forces, including those within the center-right European People’s Party, von der Leyen’s own political family.

“This could be an extremely problematic precedent” and a possible “first step in the deregulation wave across Europe” said Tsvetelina Kuzmanova, EU sustainable finance lead at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership — voicing concerns shared by many green groups.