Sustainable development

Time to hammer out historic deal

Council 'negotiation box' on recovery package/MFF

Now is the time to hammer out a historic deal. Angela Merkel's U-turn on grants needs to be reflected in the recovery package and EU budget, in that the rule of law and climate protection are the main focal points.

A new European energy infrastructure policy in line with the climate emergency

A blog by Marie Toussaint

During this week’s plenary session, Members of the European Parliament will adopt a resolution setting out the Parliament’s views on the upcoming revision of the trans-European energy infrastructure Regulation (TEN-E Regulation). The current law sets out the process and criteria to select cross-border electricity, gas and oil infrastructure projects of European interest. For the upcoming revision due in December this year, the Greens/EFA group is asking to end EU support for fossil fuel projects, such as gas pipelines. In addition, this year the European Commission should adopt transitional guidance on how to spend EU funds until the revised law enters into force. This is to ensure that only projects in line with the Paris Agreement are supported.

Green hydrogen & renewables

The EU should take the lead now!

On Wednesday 8 July 2020, the European Commission presented its so-called “Hydrogen Strategy”. Our MEPs Henrike Hahn and Damien Carême, co-chairs of Greens/EFA's Green Industrial Policy Campaign look at why hydrogen will be a key energy source to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. But not any type of hydrogen: green hydrogen only!

No community left behind

30.06.2020

Webinar

The transition away from fossil-fuel-based economies is starting, and it has the potential to create new jobs and new resources for Europe. Join our MEPs Mounir Satouri and Henrike Hahn for this chat to discuss how to safeguard social and economic justice in the transition.

No community left behind / La population au coeur de la transition

30.06.2020

Putting people at the centre of the just transition

Join Greens/EFA MEPs Mounir Satouri, Henrike Hahn and Green Mayor of Loos-en-Gohelle, Jean-Francois Caron to discuss how to safeguard social and economic justice in the transition, the infrastructure and initiatives that will put people at the centre, and how to support green investment in local industry and start-ups.

The EU recovery plan

In our previous blog, “Financing the green deal,” we have already briefly discussed the EU Recovery Plan. This plan was proposed by the European Commission to define the procedure of recovery in Europe after the COVID crisis. While it is mainly focused on rebuilding the economy, a lot of voices in and outside of the European institutions have expressed that this could be a very important moment for climate. While the world was in lockdown and our economy collapsed, huge amounts of CO2 emissions were continuously released.

A Greens/EFA take on the plenary week

Plenary week, 17-19 June 2020

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd, Hong Kong, sustainable investment/taxonomy, tax sub-committee, the Disability Strategy, the animal transport inquiry committee, investigation against the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic on the misuse of EU funds and potential conflicts of interest, the Future of Europe, recovery/MFF, land grabbing and deforestation in the Amazonas, Brexit, Eastern Partnership and European Council.

Discrimination has to stop: European Parliament to vote on resolution for strong Disability Strategy

Disability Strategy

Today, (Thursday 18 June) on the initiative of Katrin Langensiepen, Greens/EFA MEP, the European Parliament will vote on a resolution that calls on the Commission to put forward a comprehensive, ambitious and long-term post-2020 European Disability Strategy.

European Parliament approval paves way for sustainable investments

Taxonomy

The European Parliament has approved a law on sustainable investments known as 'taxonomy', designed to make the financial sector more sustainable.

Commission agrees to additional protections for frontline workers

COVID-19

Member States will be required to include written instructions for workers in order to protect them in the workplace. The Commission will report back to the European Parliament on this revision by the end of 2020. This follows the demands of the Greens/EFA group to improve protections for frontline workers potentially exposed to the virus through their roles.

EU Funding for Cities

10.06.2020

Webinar

Cities and local governments can take the lead in climate action and realize ambitious action plans for a sustainable future. This recognition leads us to raise the question, how the EU can back cities’ efforts in the most effective way?V4 capital cities are advocating a proposal to strengthen EU financing for cities in the next MFF, the Green Deal and the Recovery Plan. It is already backed by almost 20 European municipalities. How to move forward?

Financing the green deal

As you know the commission proposed a pact called the European Green Deal, that will be the roadmap for Europe to tackle climate change and become carbon neutral in 2050. In our previous blogs we have explained what this pact is, and what it is not. In this blog, we would like to address an important aspect that is missing: MONEY. In the world we live in today, to achieve the goals that the EU has set, we need a good budget.