CPMR Member Regions came together on 26 March for their spring Political Bureau meeting, with a strong focus on the role of regions for European recovery. As worrying signs on the lack of consultation and future involvement of regional authorities emerge in the drafting process of national recovery plans, the CPMR is sounding the alarm…
Air pollution causes more than 400,000 premature deaths per year. It is the largest environmental risk to health in Europe and has a direct negative effect on the environment. This must stop. The Ambient Air Quality Directives have been only partially effective so far. Several pieces of legislation have already been passed but implementation is…
The European Parliament is calling on European leaders to make social rights legally enforceable and reach concrete social objectives by 2030. The Socialists and Democrats had pushed for the 2017 adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights in Gothenburg and are now leading the drive for a Porto Agenda, to be signed by EU…
The Commission on Monday adopted its 2021 work programme, designed to make Europe healthier, fairer and more prosperous, while accelerating its long-term transformation into a greener economy, fit for the digital age. It contains new legislative initiatives across all six headline ambitions of President von der Leyen’s political guidelines and follows her first state of the union…
Responding to the conclusions of Monday’s meeting of Europe’s Agriculture Ministers Stanka Becheva, food and agriculture campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, commented: “Europe needs a strategy to urgently combat the ecological, climate and farming crises – that is not what Ministers have served up today. They have backed away from the already moderate goals proposed…
The EPP Group in parliament says that it wants to ban dangerous chemicals from human contact. “We must ban dangerous chemicals from situations where they are dangerous to humans and the environment. The health of European citizens must come first. We support the European Commission’s goals in achieving a toxic-free environment”, stated Peter Liese MEP,…
The Greens/EFA group are calling for support for refugees, climate protection and a permanent binding mechanism to uphold the rule of law in Europe. Ska Keller MEP, President of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, commented: “The current state of this Union is defined by our own failures; by the fact that EU governments let…
The European Commission has set out strategic guidance for the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility in its 2021 Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (ASGS). The Facility is the key recovery instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU which will help the EU emerge stronger and more resilient from the current crisis. The Facility will provide…
Following a vote on Thursday in the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) on Climate Law, the S&D Group stressed its “satisfaction for the important outcome achieved.” The EU Parliament’s chief negotiator and committee on environment S&D coordinator, Jytte Guteland, commented: “This is a significant improvement of the Commission’s proposal and makes the European Climate Law fit for purpose….
The European Commission’s ambitious European Green Deal aims to address the twin challenge of energy efficiency and affordability and states that the European Union and the member states should engage in a ‘Renovation Wave’ of public and private buildings. This policy enjoys broad support and the renovation wave has also become a key element of…
