World Bee Day

Some tips to help bees every day

1) Replace pesticides Give up chemicals and insect poisons in your home and garden.  Replace these products with more environmentally and bee-friendly alternatives. Natural repellents (e.g. planting mint around cabbages to protect them from caterpillars) and predatory insects such as lady...

The situation of EU sugar beet farmers made worse by a GM sugar beet from Monsanto

EU farmers need a true shift to agroecology

European sugar beet producers have been suffering in recent years from a succession of transformations of the sector and low market prices. Some Member States have been using the farmers’ difficult situation as an excuse to lift the EU ban on tbee-toxic pesticides but are yet willing to let imported GM sugar beet flood the EU market.

New dawn for plastic management

Draft legislative proposal on plastics

Reaction from Greens/EFA MEP Margrete Auken to the leak of the European Commission's draft legislative proposal on plastics.

EU Member States back plans to protect pollinators

Neonicotinoids

The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed has today voted to approve the extension of the European Commission's restrictions on the use of three of the most widely used neonicotinoids. Greens/EFA food safety spokesperson Bart Staes comments: "At long last, this strong a...

Democratic decisions cannot be taken in the dark

Reforming “Comitology”

Last year, the renewal of the license to sell glyphosate, the herbicide, in the EU left the wider public frustrated and angry. The Greens/EFA are pushing for more transparency, more democracy and fewer dangerous products on the EU market - to achieve this we have to change the flawed decision-making process that in the EU jargon is called “comitology”.

Greens/EFA Debriefing

Plenary week, 16-19 April 2018

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary week included: Future of Europe - debate with President Macron; Selmayr: Commission ethics in question – Discharge of Commission 2016 budget; Money Laundering - New legislation will deliver real benefits for citizens; Organics - Parliament seals the deal on new legislation; Greenhouse gas emissions; The Circular Economy; Energy performance of buildings; Facebook & Cambridge Analytica - Parliament response to scandal; Protection of journalists - resolution following recent murders; Dieselgate - new legislation on type-approval and market surveillance.

New rules are a good deal for consumers and farmers

Organic regulation

The Greens/EFA group has welcomed the approval of the new organic farming regulation, steered by the European Parliament’s lead negotiation Martin Häusling.

Organic - it makes a difference

How to make sure that your children are eating food that is both healthy and delicious? Do you wonder if you can always trust the organic label? The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament has fought for better and clearer rules for organic farming and food. Find out what do these new rules mean for organic food

Towards an ambitious and ecological re-localisation of protein crops in the EU

It is no news that one of the main problem of the EU farming system is the huge insufficiency of locally grown protein crops. Only 3% of arable lands are dedicated to protein crops in the EU and we import 75% of our vegetable protein supply - soya for the most part, mainly from Brazil, Argentina and the United States. The consequences of this situation go far deeper than a simple trade question. Is the report just voted by the European parliament answering these concerns?

Organic regulation briefing

On Thursday 19 April, the European Parliament will vote on the outcome of the trilogue negotiations on a new organic regulation. We've produced a briefing summarising the main achievements of the new regulation.

The next CAP reform

12.04.2018

Towards a sustainable farm income and an agro-ecological land use

Discussion during this conference will include the following issues: how we can limit land concentration and corporate control of land in the EU; examination of land concentration across EU, including Romania and eastern Germany; role of EU & national government in ensuring equitable access to land; how direct payments should be adapted to support a diversity of agricultural holdings; how to make healthy soils a CAP priority.

Meat, animal feed and the EU's unbearable hypocrisy on GMOs

How GMOs enter the EU unnoticed

NGO Mighty Earth just published a powerful report on the dire consequences of the current EU meat, milk and eggs production system on those countries, especially in Latin America, which produce the feed for farm animals. deforestation, pollution, cancers, are the direct cause of EU’s letting genetically modified protein crops in for feeding our farm animals.