00:00 He is the new face of the European Green Pact.
00:04 Maro Zefkovic, vice president of the European Commission,
00:07 succeeds Dutchman Frans Timmermans to lead the EU's efforts
00:10 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
00:13 In an exclusive interview with Euronews,
00:15 the Slovak leader makes implementing the adopted texts
00:18 while protecting businesses and citizens his priority.
00:22 We are in a new phase because, I mean,
00:26 until now we've been focusing a lot on legislative work.
00:30 So I think we built this new political but also legislative
00:33 framework for the Green Deal.
00:35 And now we are approaching the phase
00:37 which should be equally challenging, if not more.
00:39 And this is rollout.
00:41 This is proper implementation.
00:43 This is how to make sure that this climate transition will
00:47 be done in a socially fair way, that it will help our industry
00:52 to be a top competitor.
00:54 Do you know already how you're going to manage
00:56 to bring on board industries?
00:58 So I'd like to introduce a series of, I would say,
01:01 structured roundtable with the industries which
01:04 would be the most affected by the green transition, which
01:08 are under a lot of pressure from international competitors.
01:12 Also jumped on the wagon of climate change.
01:15 And I think that also our industry
01:17 should know that we are here to fight for them.
01:19 We want them to not only to stay but to prosper in Europe
01:22 because we've been the first major economy who
01:26 started to tackle the climate change with all the vigor.
01:30 We have excellent innovators, great companies.
01:32 And I think that we have to work closely with our citizens
01:36 and with industry to make Green Deal a reality
01:39 and to really demonstrate that this
01:40 is our strategy for growth.
01:42 Four years ago, you said there was this feeling of urgency
01:45 to act.
01:47 Do you think the feeling is the same today?
01:49 Or do you feel this fatigue towards regarding
01:52 climate change?
01:54 I mean, non-action at this stage would
01:58 be the worst possible solution because let's
02:01 look at this summer.
02:03 Let's look at the last summer.
02:04 Last summer we saw was terrible.
02:06 This summer was much worse.
02:08 And we just can brace what would be the next summer's look
02:13 like if we wouldn't act.
02:16 And therefore, I think that we have to behave responsibly.
02:19 We have to be engaging more.
02:21 And we have to work hard to make sure
02:24 that we would manage these three overarching goals--
02:28 be socially fair, tackle climate change,
02:31 and make our industry competitive.
02:34 [Whoosh]
