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In a passionate speech delivered recently at Columbia University in New York, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, described the fight against climate change as the top priority for the 21st century. Furthermore, the election of Joe Biden as the next President of the United States raises hopes that climate action will now be more coordinated and ambitious. Meanwhile, the European Union is determined to push ahead with its Green Deal in a package of measures that aims to radically cut emissions ...

The European Union (EU) has been protecting the environment since the early 1970s, under the premise that economic prosperity and environmental protection are interdependent. Successive environment action programmes have set the framework for EU environmental policy. The seventh environment action programme, a binding decision adopted by the European Parliament and Council in 2013, covers the period from 2014 to 2020. Bearing the title 'Living well, within the limits of our planet', it seeks to achieve ...

As a contracting party to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), the European Union must transpose the binding conservation and management measures adopted by this organisation into EU law, so that they become applicable to EU fishing vessels. A provisional agreement of the Parliament and the Council on the first transposition of SPRFMO measures is scheduled for a plenary vote during the May II session.

Unlike the Arctic states, China has no territorial sovereignty and related sovereign rights to resource extraction and fishing in the Arctic. Faced with very limited rights as a non-Arctic state, China has been eager to design strategies to bridge the widening gap between the legal and institutional constraints in the Arctic and its growing Arctic interests. It has developed a self-defined Arctic identity as a 'near-Arctic state' and sought – and in 2013 gained – observer status in the Arctic Council ...

European environment policy rests on the principles of precaution, prevention and rectifying pollution at source, and on the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Multiannual environmental action programmes set the framework for future action in all areas of environment policy. They are embedded in horizontal strategies and taken into account in international environmental negotiations. Last but not least, implementation is crucial.

Past and current patterns of resource use have led to high pollution levels, environmental degradation and the depletion of natural resources. The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe and the Circular Economy Package should change this trend, by transforming the EU’s economy into a sustainable one by 2050. EU waste policy has a long history and has traditionally focused on more environmentally sustainable waste management. The four legislative proposals on waste in the new Circular Economy Package ...

European aquaculture is stagnating by contrast with increasing rates of aquaculture production at world level. To try to dampen this trend, the Commission published two communications with strategies for developing European aquaculture, one in 2002 and another in 2009. The 2002 strategy failed to increase European production, while the global economic crisis has hit the aquaculture market and industry. This led to the publication in 2013 of a third Commission communication, aimed at achieving the ...

Sustainable growth is one of the main objectives of the European Union. Faced with a global scarcity of natural resources, ‘doing more with less’ has become the main challenge for producers and consumers. To address this challenge, the EU has introduced a whole range of policies and initiatives aimed at sustainable consumption and production. These should improve the overall environmental performance of products throughout their life cycle, stimulate demand for better products and production technologies ...

The workshop aimed to address topics concerning fully and partially self-financed agencies related to both BUDG and CONT committees’ competences. With regards of the agencies' resources, the workshop looked into the principles of fee setting, and 5% cut and the redeployment pool vs. the need to provide timely services to industry, which is paying for them. From the point of oversight, items for discussion included the question of discharge procedure for fully self-financed agencies, provisions ...

Parliament’s vote on a Commission proposal for a revised system of issuing and managing fishing authorisations is scheduled for the first February plenary session. The revision aims to improve monitoring and transparency of the EU external fishing fleet, regardless of the area and the framework in which it operates.