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The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the 2019 European Green Deal initiated a wave of EU policies and legislation to combat climate change and protect the environment. Achieving a green transition became a key driver of EU policies. While many pieces of legislation were being discussed or adopted, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine moved the political focus to supply chain security and energy dependencies. Since then, achieving open European strategic autonomy for the EU economy has become an equally important EU policy driver. The European Commission is trying to reconcile these environmental and economic objectives by advocating a green and digital transition, which should lead to green growth, decoupling growth and pollution. The 2023 strategic foresight report 'Sustainability and people's wellbeing at the heart of Europe's open strategic autonomy' illustrates this effort. However, greening the economy and making the EU more autonomous do not always overlap. Whereas the Commission emphasises synergy between these objectives, that is just one possible scenario for the EU's future. Focusing on greening or autonomy only are equally viable scenarios, as is the possibility of achieving none of these objectives. Recently, tensions between the objectives of greening and becoming more autonomous have surfaced in political debates. French President Emmanuel Macron suggested a pause in European environmental legislation to increase industrial competitiveness. In debates on the EU nature restoration law, opponents pointed to possible negative economic consequences for European farmers of the proposed law. Tensions may also increase in the area of energy production, particularly if energy prices rise again. To achieve a combined transition towards a green and more autonomous EU, the EU and its Member States will have to focus on win-win solutions. A more circular economy with a higher degree of recycling and nature-based solutions in construction or agriculture are examples of such solutions. Some consider that long-term solutions should also question the principle of economic growth itself, and Western societies may have to aim for 'de-growth', whereas others fear this might hamper green investment, and therefore stick to the notion of 'green growth'.