European Union News - Environmnet

The European Commission launched a call which is targeted particularly at SMEs that have developed an innovative green product, process or service, which is struggling to find its place in the market. Therefore, businesses and entrepreneurs from across Europe can apply for funding to help bring novel environmental projects to the market.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted an opinion that stressed the need for sustainable European agriculture and for the policy's implementation to be tailored as closely as possible to realities on the ground. The opinion also calls for a fairer and more ambitious CAP.

The EU reached an international agreement to update the Gothenburg Protocol according to a joint statement by the Danish EU Presidency and Commissioner Potočnik which welcomed this new agreement. There is also agreement to act on so called 'Black Carbon', a pollutant with short-lived climate forcing characteristics.

The Various Interests' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) organised a conference in which it was reached the conclusion that the implementation of a new sustainable development strategy with clear inter-linkages between the social, environmental and economic pillars requires a renewed sense of urgency, ambition, policy coherence and accountability.

The European Commission presented through its Joint Research Centre a set of guidelines for conducting cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of smart grid projects. The guidelines are based in a JRC study that serves as key input to the definition of an eligibility assessment framework for "common interest" smart grids projects.

The European Parliament approved a resolution which calls on the European Commission to propose a Seventh Environmental Action Programme (EAP) as soon as possible, and MEPs also ask that the Programme must take steps and set targets to protect the EU's environment and spur more efficient use of energy and natural resources.

The European Parliament approved a resolution which calls for building into key EU policies the biodiversity conservation. On this way, MEPs also highlights that environmentally harmful subsidies should be named and phased out by 2020, and to redirect the CAP towards compensating farmers for delivering public goods.

The Informal Environment Council celebrated in Horsens, Denmark, ended with the Ministers agreement in that the inclusive green economy is a vehicle for achieving long term sustainable development to ensure global job creation and for eradicating poverty. Janez Potočnik, the European Commissioner for the Environment, welcomed the strong support for the approach suggested by the Commission which will provide a clear negotiation basis in the run up to the Rio Conference.