Cuardaigh

On 15 March 2024, the Commission put forward a regulation that would amend two regulations concerning the common agricultural policy (CAP) – the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation and the CAP Horizontal Regulation. The proposal is part of the Commission's response to widespread protests by farmers, opposing the CAP's administrative burden and environmental requirements. It was put forward without a formal public consultation and without an impact assessment. The proposal aims to reduce several environmental ...

In October 2022, under the European Green Deal, the European Commission tabled a proposal for a recast of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. Dating back to 1991, and instrumental to the achievement of European Union water policy objectives, the directive needs to be updated and adapted to new challenges and realities. The recast proposal would introduce new obligations to do more to control pollution due to rainwater, impose stricter standards for nutrient removal and require advanced treatment ...

Highly diverse, soils host more than 25 % of all biodiversity and are the second largest carbon pool on the planet. During its first April 2024 session, the European Parliament is expected to adopt its position at first reading on a European Commission proposal aimed at establishing the first-ever EU-wide common framework on soils.

In February 2023, the European Commission proposed a revision to Regulation (EU) 2019/1242 on CO2 emission standards for new heavy-duty vehicles in the EU. The proposed changes would broaden the scope of the regulation to include urban buses, coaches, trailers and additional types of lorries. The goal is to reduce, by 2040, the average CO2 emissions of new heavy-duty vehicles by 90 % compared to 2019 levels. Council adopted its position in October 2023 and Parliament at its November II 2023 session ...

Delivering climate neutrality by 2050 will require carbon removals to cover remaining hard-to-abate emissions and to deliver, from 2050, negative emissions as per the EU Climate Law. The proposed certification framework seeks to ensure a transparent and credible governance framework for building trust in EU-certified carbon removals and to incentivise further deployment. The co-legislators reached a provisional agreement in February 2024. The European Parliament is expected to vote on the final text ...

During the April I plenary session, the European Parliament is expected to vote on two provisional agreements reached with the Council on the hydrogen and decarbonised gas markets package, which would recast the 2009 EU Gas Directive and the 2009 EU Gas Regulation. These agreements resulting from interinstitutional negotiations, endorsed by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) in January 2024, substantially amend the texts originally proposed by the European Commission.

The impact assessment (IA) defines the problems, their drivers, the objectives and the options of the initiative in a robust intervention logic. It is based on several sources, including the 'fitness check' of current EU animal welfare legislation, an external supporting study and stakeholder feedback. The IA presents a range of policy options; however, for some options, it does not provide alternatives. The assessment of the options' impacts (economic, social, environmental, animal welfare) is qualitative ...

Drawing on a wide array of sources and literature, this study examines the role of the European Parliament in the establishment of the European Community's environmental policy. It argues that Parliament played a key role in placing this nascent policy issue on the agenda. It influenced the definition of what the policy should include, what it should focus on, and which instruments should be used to address environmental problems. In this process, Parliament filtered ideas, issues and political objectives ...

On 30 November 2022, as part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission presented the legislative proposal for a Union certification framework for carbon removals. The initiative was first announced in the March 2020 new circular economy action plan and again highlighted in the climate target plan, as well as in the 'fit for 55' revision of the Regulation on land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), as an essential tool to drive progress towards the 2050 climate neutrality target. ...

On 15 December 2021, the Commission presented a proposal to regulate methane emissions reductions in the energy sector. The proposal is part of the second batch of proposals in the 'fit for 55' package, seeking to align EU climate and energy laws with the EU Climate Law's 2030 target. The proposal addresses gaps in the current legislation: those relating to methane emissions from upstream exploration and the production of oil and fossil gas, but also those from the gathering and processing of fossil ...