European Union News - Environmnet

The European Court of Auditors (ECA), has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, on November 1st, its Special Report n° 7/2008 concerning the Intelligent Energy Programme, 2003-2006.

The event will give the latest news and background on the Marco Polo programme and explain how to apply for Marco Polo funding under future calls for project proposal.

The European Commission has approved funding for 143 new projects under the first call for the LIFE+ programme (2007-2013), the European fund for the environment. The projects are from across the EU and cover actions in the fields of nature conservation, environmental policy, and information and communication. Overall, they represent a total investment of €367 million, of which the EU will provide €186 million.

The Commission has published a staff working document related to the Summary of the Impact Assessment of additional options to combat illegal logging related to the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council determining the obligations of operators who make timber and timber products available on the market (COM(2008) 644 final - SEC(2008) 2615).

The European Commission has published on the 17 october a Communication Addressing the challenges of deforestation and forest degradation to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss SEC(2008) 2618  - 17.10.2008 where it is analyised the sources of funding.

According to the Commission's annual progress report on emissions, the EU and most member states are on track to deliver on their Kyoto Protocol commitments for reducing or limiting emissions of greenhouse gases. The latest projections from Member States indicate that the EU-15 will achieve its 8% reduction target through a combination of policies and measures already taken, the purchase of emission credits from projects in third countries, and forestry activities that absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

The European Commission, DG for Environment, Civil Protection Unit launched October 14th, a call for proposals aiming to improve civil protection preparedness and response for emergencies throughout providing a testing environment and learning opportunity for all actors involved in civil protection assistance interventions under the Community Civil Protection Mechanism. This support will take the form of co-financing grants.

The European ministers responsible for transport, meeting in Luxembourg on October 9th, 2008, under the presidency of Dominique Bussereau, the French Minister of State for Transport, decided jointly to take a decisive step towards the safe and sustainable development of transport. A political agreement was reached fro two main legislative propositions the III Erika package on maritime transport security.

The European Parliament's Environment (ENVI) Committee voted on the draft reports on the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system, on shared effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and on geological storage of carbon dioxide, at its meeting on October 6th and 7th 2008. Those are the main elements of the climate-energy package proposed by the European Commission in January this year.

The Official Journal of the European Union publisjed on Octobe4r 3rd, 2008, a Calls for Proposals under the Civil Protection Financial Instrument, to promote cooperation between Member States in the filed of Civil Protection cooperation to combat forest fires. The anual budget of this Call for year 2008 is 3.5 M€.

The second Agriculture and Fisheries Council under the French Presidency, was held on September 29th and 30th. The Council, chaired by Michel Barnier, followed the  meeting of the EU’s fisheries ministers. The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was one of the main points of the Agenda, focusing an important part of the meetings.