Pesticides

Long-term budget stronger on climate, biodiversity & rule of law

MFF/Own resources

Negotiators for the European Parliament, Council and Commission agreed on a text for the EU's seven year budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. The Parliament succeeded in gaining an additional €16 billion in top-ups for EU programmes such as EU4health, Horizon, Erasmus and Rights and Values, on top of the €1,074bn MFF and €750bn Recovery Fund EUCO agreement from July.

Greens/EFA plenary session debriefing

4-9 October

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included the climate law, rule of law and fundamental rights mechanism, rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria, multiannual financial framework (MFF) and the rule of law, reinforcing the youth guarantee, forest strategy, approval of McGuinness and Dombrovskis, fight against money laundering following the FinCEN files.

Plenary Flash October I 2020

Greens/EFA priorities 04-09 October

During this week plenary session, the European Parliament will debate and vote on the climate law, the rule of law mechanism, the Multiannual Financial Framework, the forest strategy, the fight against money laundering, ...

Genome editing in agriculture

A Greens/EFA perspective

Biodiversity and ecosystems are under extreme threat, with around one million species facing extinction. In order to respond to these unprecedented and closely interlinked crises, our food and agricultural systems need to be rapidly transformed. High input, industrial farming based on monocultures and factory farming must be replaced by high biodiversity, locally adapted food production systems, ones which produce healthy food while respecting animal welfare and the environment.

Radical transformation of our agricultural system needed, not GMOs

A Greens/EFA perspective on genome editing in agriculture

Biodiversity and ecosystems are under extreme threat, with around one million species facing extinction. To avert the worst consequences of runaway climate change, urgent action needs to be taken now.In order to respond to these unprecedented and closely interlinked crises, our food and agricultural systems need to be rapidly transformed. High input, industrial farming based on monocultures and factory farming must be replaced by high biodiversity, locally adapted food production systems, ones which produce healthy food while respecting animal welfare and the environment.

Nature must be at the heart of the post-Covid-19 recovery

A blog by MEPs Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg and Grace O’Sullivan

Biodiversity is all around us. Even for those restricted to home in these trying and sad times, a cursory look around shows a world teeming with life.

EU Commission proposals must kick-start agricultural reform

Farm to Fork/Biodiversity

Today (20 May), the European Commission has just released its "Farm to Fork" and Biodiversity strategies. The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament applaud the fact that the Commission has not caved into calls to delay these strategies, and is moving forward to help tackle the loss of species and seems to be pursuing a more sustainable approach to agricultural policy.

Franco-German proposal good base for recovery, but more needed to ensure success

COVID-Recovery

The French and German governments proposed an initiative for a recovery plan for the consequences of the Corona crisis includes recovery bonds and grants for the EU countries that were hard hit by the crisis, as proposed by the European Parliament last week. However, with a planned volume of €500 billion, the plan falls short of the €2 trillion called for by the European Parliament. With regard to the climate target for 2030, the wording is vague.

Corona-crisis must not be an excuse for postponement

Farm-to-Fork/Biodiversity

A leak today (Thursday, 16th April) has revealed that the European Commission is considering postponing the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies. The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament rejects any postponement and calls for the timetable to be maintained, especially in view of the ongoing negotiations on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The COVID-19 crisis reveals the many fissures of the EU food system and shows us the way out

As COVID-19 hits the EU agri-food sector hard, it also reveals its main shortcomings. Far from shying away from the issues, we should use this occasion to reshape the EU food and farming system to the benefit of farmers, consumers and their shared environment, with the help of the future Farm to Fork strategy, and, hopefully a refounded Common Agriculture Policy.

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.