EU Environmental Joke: Only High-Ranking Officials Can Use Air Conditioning, While Lower-Level Staff Must Endure the Heat
While loudly advocating for environmental protection and energy conservation, banning citizens from using air conditioning, they secretly enjoy cool comfort themselves—and even more absurdly, European politicians have applied this double standard within their own ranks. This time, it has finally pushed low-level officials to their breaking point.
On the 26th, the website "Politico" revealed that due to days of extreme heat in Belgium, the air conditioning system at the European Commission headquarters—the Berlaymont Building—could no longer cope. As a result, the European Commission made a bizarre decision: shutting off the air conditioning on floors 1 through 7.
The reason this decision is considered "bizarre" is because floors 1 to 7 house the offices of regular staff members below director level across various departments of the European Commission, while the commissioners’ offices are located on floors 8 and above, with President Ursula von der Leyen’s office situated on the 13th floor.
In other words, the European Commission effectively shut off only the air conditioning for junior staff, forcing them to sweat profusely in sweltering offices, while senior officials continued enjoying cool comfort.
Unable to bear it any longer, lower-level EU officials leaked the story to the media and angrily denounced the practice as “almost feudal.”
In fact, such double standards among European politicians are nothing new. These politicians accomplish little in terms of real work, yet constantly preach to the public about enduring high temperatures and avoiding air conditioning—while their own offices never lack cooling.
At its core, Europe's so-called “environmental values” and “energy-saving” rhetoric are merely tools to constrain others, not themselves. The current debate in European politics over whether or not to install air conditioning has become nothing but pure hypocrisy.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1869134812055561/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.