Environment

A Greens/EFA take on the plenary week

13-17 January 2020

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included the European Green Deal, the Sustainable Investment Plan, Just Transition Fund, Roadmap on Social Europe, the Council hearings on the rule of Law in Hungary and Poland, Czech PM Andrej Babiš' conflicts of interest, Convention on biodiversity, ...

New global agreement on biodiversity needed

Biodiversity

The European Union has already set climate change high on the agenda. Now it needs to do the same with protecting biodiversity.

Parliament calls for more ambition in green transition

European Green Deal

A majority of MEPs have voted in favour of a cross-party resolution on the European Green Deal, initiated by the Greens/EFA group. The Greens/EFA group have succeeded in including demands for more biodiversity protection, more climate financing and a more social approach to tackling the climate crisis.

A necessary tool but commitment to coal phase-out needed

Just Transition Fund

The Just Transition Fund is a necessary tool to support the regions that will be affected by the move away from coal and other polluting industries, which we have long been calling for. Unfortunately, the Commission's proposal does not set a binding date for the phase-out of coal.

This week in the European Parliament

Greens/EFA priorities - plenary session 13-17 January 2020

A look ahead to the plenary session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and the Greens/EFA priority issues on the agenda

Europe will benefit from public drinking water dispensers and cleaner water

Drinking Water Directive

Yesterday (Wednesday, 18 December), the representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of Member States and the European Commission agreed on stricter limits for lead and endocrine disruptors such as bisphenol A allowed in drinking water.

Our future : fair & healthy food

Decades of yield maximization and export-oriented monocultures in a globalising economy have broken our food and agricultural chain. Business-as-usual has become impossible. But the tide is changing. More and more cities put agroecology in practice in concrete urban food policies. It is now time for a new EU policy that reflects and supports this holistic vision.

Greens/EFA Debriefing

Plenary week, 25-28 November 2019

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included the votes on climate emergency and the Climate Summit in Madrid (COP25), the new European Commission, the votes on the 2020 Budget, public country-by-country reporting, combatting gender-based violence, and an EP Mission to Malta following recent revelations around the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Calls for bolder and urgent climate action

Press Release from EFA MEP Aileen McLeod

The European Parliament today voted to declare a climate and environmental emergency in Europe. There were calls for the EU to take the necessary action in cutting greenhouse gasses in order to achieve climate neutrality. The European Parliament resolution was supported by SNP MEP Aileen McLeo...

Climate emergency declaration must lead concrete actions

The EU must commit to a range of goals including: Achieving climate neutrality by 2040, a 65% reduction in emissions by 2030, and to put the environment and biodiversity at the centre of the EU's agricultural policy to halt biodiversity loss

The EU-Mercosur Agreement: A threat to the environment and livelihoods?

A Greens/EFA Conference

The EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, due to be voted by the European Parliament during this mandate, will be discussed in detail with researchers, experts and civil society. The event is open to all and will be livestreamed on the day

Greens/EFA call on action instead of empty declarations

Climate emergency

A Group of MEPs among which the Greens/EFA tabled an amendment for the resolution ahead of the UN Climate Conference COP25 to ask for the declaration of climate emergency on a European level. The European Parliament should not only officially declare climate emergency, but also agree on a number of concrete measures to make the declaration tangible.