Suitability of Hoekstra as next EU climate commissioner continues to be questioned

The suitability of Dutch nominee Wopke Hoekstra as the next European Union climate commissioner continues to be questioned.

Mr Hoekstra, the Netherlands’ caretaker foreign minister, was proposed for the position by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday. Hours after Ms Von der Leyen cleared Mr Hoekstra, praising his “strong motivation for the post” and “great commitment” to the EU, leaks in the Netherlands suggested he had been ambivalent in applying sanctions against Russia – and, separately, that he may have been a considered a shoo-in for the climate job.

Mr Hoekstra was nominated by outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte’s caretaker cabinet last Friday after his predecessor, Frans Timmermans, resigned to lead a new party combining Labour and GreenLeft into the November general election.

His nomination came as a surprise given Mr Hoekstra’s reputation as a vocal critic of sharing fiscal burdens. He rallied a group of “frugal” EU countries at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to oppose issuing collective debt in the form of “corona bonds”.

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Additional concerns about his credentials, raised by Greenpeace Netherlands, also helped to put Mr Hoekstra under pressure in advance of a European Parliament confirmation hearing in early autumn. The latest allegations, however, could be even more damaging.

Internal emails from the department of justice obtained by Dutch daily newspaper NRC, suggest Mr Hoekstra was slow to react on sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Specifically, while he pledged publicly that his department would co-ordinate efforts to identify and seize Russian assets in the Netherlands in line with the EU’s “freeze and seize” policy, in reality he left that co-ordination to the organised crime section of the justice department.

[ EU capitals shocked by proposal for new Dutch commissioner ]

After four meetings of the co-ordination body passed without the presence of a foreign affairs official, an email from the justice department dated March 14th said it would be “more appropriate” for foreign affairs to attend because it was “first signatory” on sanctions decisions.

“We have no role in, know little about and are not equipped for” this work, the email said.

Separately, current affairs TV programme Nieuwsuur revealed that an earlier version of Ms von der Leyen’s statement announcing Mr Timmerman’s resignation had included a sentence inviting the Dutch government to put forward two candidates, one male and one female.

In the published version, however, Ms Von der Leyen referred only to a single candidate, sex unspecified – fuelling speculation, the programme said, that Mr Hoekstra’s name may already have been “pencilled in” where it mattered.

From 2020 to 2023, Mr Hoekstra (47) was leader of the Dutch Christian Democrats, whose European Parliament grouping, the European People’s Party, has been criticised for allegedly trying to block and dilute the EU Green Deal.