Debate over the EU and the upcoming referendum in the UK are heating up. However, rather than having an open debate about what EU reforms are would be most beneficial for Britons and other European citizens, discussion is often dominated by the UK Government’s narrow demands.

This is damaging both for the future of the EU and for the protection of the environment, so it’s good to have European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a Brussles based NGO, trying to redress the balance. Their alternative agenda for Europe has the environment at its heart and is a good starting point for a much needed real debate about the UK’s membership of the EU - including how the union can and should be reformed for the benefit of all.

Few would argue against the need to reform the EU. However, environmental protection is widely recognised as one of the EU’s relative success stories. Whilst complete environmental sustainability is still some way off, environmental issues have been consistently addressed at European level – from water quality and clean air, to wildlife and nature conservation. This success is reflected internally in the EU’s environmental legislation and externally through their role as a leader and a facilitator at international level. 

But David Cameron poses a real and imminent threat to these achievements – and he's said that, for the UK to remain in the EU, it should agree a target for reducing the so called ‘burden’ of EU regulation on businesses. This goes way beyond earlier demands to remove unnecessary administrative burdens, as it would apply irrespective of the benefits of EU regulation to society as a whole, which often vastly outweigh the costs to business, even in purely monetary terms.

Such a target could seriously impede efforts to solve major problems like ecosystem collapse, climate change and the depletion of our natural resources. It would likely undermine further progress on the path towards sustainability and could even reverse what has already been achieved through action at European level.  

Worryingly, certain leading figures in the European Commission, not least its president Jean-Claude Juncker, appear to be taking Cameron’s deregulation demand seriously. They seem to believe that support from some business associations celebrating the EU single market will be sufficient to secure support from citizens - unaware that undermining environmental protection will undermine support for the EU itself.

The need to tackle climate change makes it onto Juncker’s list of 10 policy priorities, as part of his  energy and green growth agenda. That’s welcome as far as it goes, but  fails to consider the bigger environmental – and associated economic - picture.

I therefore welcome the EEB’s call for Juncker to green his priorities in each area:

1.    Investing in a green economy and quality employment

2.    Greening the digital market by helping consumers chose the most sustainable goods and services and exposing false green claims

3.    Living within planetary boundaries by stepping up action on climate change, biodiversity, chemicals and air pollution

4.    Pioneering new business models and a circular economy to improve resource productivity and tackle over-consumption

5.    Eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies and fundamentally overhauling tax policies

6.    Replacing free trade and TTIP with fair and green global trade policies

7.    Securing environmental and social justice for all by empowering individual citizens to hold politicians and companies to account

8.    Tackling the root causes of the unprecedented movement of refugees, including environmental factors such as drought, in addition to an urgent humanitarian response

9.    Making a firm commitment to responsible and reliable global leadership and assisting poorer countries develop using non-polluting, resource efficient, development models.

10. Bringing the EU closer to citizens, prioritising democratic reform and transforming the political culture to put citizens centre stage on sustainability and beyond.

I would like to see this alternative agenda being used as a springboard for a debate about how we can genuinely reform the EU.

Only then, will the EU and the UK be able to genuinely tackle the economic and social problems we face, and live up to international commitments made under the recent climate deal in Paris and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed under the auspices of the UK last September.

The UK will not be able to develop a sustainable economy or protect our environment by turning its back on its neighbours and focussing on giving polluting industry a permanent get-out-of-jail card.

We need progressives from across the political spectrum to speak out and take action, together, against Cameron’s efforts to export his ideological obsession with deregulation. It’s bad for innovation and jobs as well as environmental protection. As the International Trade Union Confederation has said time and again, “there are no jobs on a dead planet”.