European Union News - Environmnet

In a meeting of the Ecodesign Regulatory Committee held July 7th, EU Member States endorsed the Commission's proposal for a regulation reducing standby energy consumption of household and office products. The regulation lays down energy efficiency requirements for all products sold in Europe, thus cutting the EU's standby electricity consumption by almost 75% by 2020.

The Opinion of the Committee of the Regions upon the “Green Paper: Towards a New Culture for Urban Mobility”, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, in July 7th. In this Opinion, the Committee welcomes the EU's commitment to continuing its efforts to raise the competitiveness of the European economy as well as to tackling sustainability and climate change.

President of the Generalitat of Valencia, Francisco CAMPS ORTIZ, has made political recommendations to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council — Addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the European Union COM(2007) 414 final thought a report with the opinion of the Committee of the Regions. The report has publised at the Official Journal of the European Union.

Following Slovenia in the first half of the year, France takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2008.

The Spanish Public Entity Puertos del Estado, hosted on June 26th a Seminar on the scope of the Western Europe Sea Transport and Motorways of the Sea, WEST-MOS. The project aims to make progress with the preparation and implementation of Motorways of the sea corridors in the Western area of Europe (West and South West European sea areas) and to provide a platform for co-ordination for the development of the Western European and South-Western European corridors of the Motorways of the sea.

The European Commission has decided to refer nine Member States to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EU directive on liability for damage to the environment into their domestic law. The deadline was 30 April 2007. The nine are Austria, Belgium (concerning the Brussels region only), Greece, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

The Commission decided on the 26th June 2008, to send reasoned opinions to Italy for failure to adequately implement EU legislation on port State control of shipping and to Slovakia for failure to respect EU legislation on ship-source pollution and on the introduction of penalties for persons responsible for polluting discharges.

Calling climate change "the single biggest problem humanity has faced", former London mayor Ken Livingstone told a session of the EP's Climate Change committee that the tools necessary to halve emissions are already in place. Though political will and sustainable energy consumption are key requisites, a successful EU climate change policy will have to involve the pooling of best practices across Europe.

On the 20th June 2008, the European Commission published in the Official Journal publications of job vacancies in order to fill the position of Executive Director of both the IMI JU (The Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking) and the Clean Sky JU (The Clean Sky Joint Undertaking).

The European Commission welcomes the European Parliament's second reading vote today approving the agreement reached with the Council on the revision of the waste framework directive, the central pillar of EU waste management policy.

The European Commission welcomes the European Parliament's second reading vote today approving the agreement reached with the Council on the proposed directive on environmental quality standards in the field of water. The directive will better protect rivers, lakes and coastal waters against pollution from a range of chemical substances.

The European Commission has on the 17th June 2008, announced that it is closing the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic for the purse seine fleets, as it deems that the quotas allocated to them will shortly have been exhausted. Purse seiners from Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta will be prohibited from fishing as of 00h00 16 June, and purse seiners from Spain will be prohibited from fishing as of 00h00 23rd June. So as to ensure that the closure is effective in preventing overfishing, the Regulation also prohibits EU operators from accepting landings, placing in cages for fattening or farming, and transhipments of bluefin tuna caught by purse seiners whatever flag they are flying (EU or third country) as of 00h00 16 June, with the exception of Spanish purse seiners which may continue to land, transfer and tranship until 00h00 23rd June.