Former Brussels ‘green’ chief Frans Timmermans received an honorary doctoral degree from the Dutch Technical University of Delft after the European Commission authorised almost €1 million in subsidies for environmental research at the institution.
In October 13, 2021, TU Delft announced it was a partner in the H2020 Green Deal Project on EU-Scores.
It received €913,866.25 to investigate the efficient and effective use of renewable energy sources and space, the EU-funded EU-SCORES project.
EU-SCORES “will showcase the benefits of a continuous power output harnessing the complementarity between wind, sun and waves as it leads to a more resilient and stable power system, higher capacity factors and a lower total cost per MWh.”
A few months after receiving the subsidy, the TU Delft awarded Frans Timmermans an honorary doctorate for his “societal achievements'” related to Europe’s energy transition. This came despite protests from a group of university alumni, who launched a petition.
“The TU Delft cannot be awarding an honorary doctorate to someone who spouts nonsense about the energy transition,” argued former TU member Jan Asselbergs, who launched the petition. “TU Delft completely loses its credibility as a science institute with this,” Asselbergs said.
“A scientific institute should be about science. Not about politics or social interest. This honorary doctorate is mainly meant to attract attention and extra money,” he said at the time.
Over 23,000 people signed the petition.
There has been a call for more scrutiny of the Commission’s subsidy system after a scandal broke in Brussels last week. The European Commission was shown to have maintained an incestuous system of subsidies for green NGOs that pushed to enact the Commission’s green agenda. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Timmermans.
At the time, Timmermans faced criticism over his opposition to nuclear energy, which doesn’t emit carbon, and his support for biomass plants, which emit large amounts of harmful pollutants including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde and dioxins. Large-scale use of biomass encourages logging.
A few months later, in April 2022, Timmermans received a second honorary doctorate, this time from the University of Ghent, in Belgium.
According to UGent, Timmermans played a “crucial role” in climate policy.
“Faced with the climate crisis, which presents the world with an enormous challenge, appears overwhelming to many, and seems almost unsolvable in its complexity, Frans Timmermans succeeds in providing direction, inspiring confidence, and spurring action,” UGent stated .
“He does so with a coherent narrative grounded in scientific knowledge and practical solutions for both the short and long term.” According to the university, Timmermans’ work would remain relevant for years to come.
Gent University also received EU subsidies for working on green projects such as “The European Green Deal and climate justice: a comparative assessment of the international distribution of costs and benefits.”
Secret contracts between the European Commission and “green” NGOs were reportedly part of an alleged “shadow lobbying scheme”, according to a Dutch newspaper. https://t.co/cAWxagk9TA
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 23, 2025
