Just a few days to go before the elections on 6 and 9 June, the centre-left electorate has not yet made up its mind, according to Renaissance MEP Pascal Canfin. Designated as the 'green joker' or the 'green deposit' of Macron, Canfin defends his own record. Interview.
In an interview with Euractiv, French Secretary of State for Biodiversity Sarah El Haïry reflected on the EU's progress this year, following the COP28 summit in Dubai, the adoption of France's national biodiversity strategy as well as the EU's pesticides directive and nature restoration law.
The European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen started its mandate on the good foot when it comes to energy efficiency policies. It must now think about its legacy and hold firm on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which is coming under attack from Eurosceptics in Italy and elsewhere, says Monica Frassoni.
The EU must match its climate ambitions with corresponding financial resources or otherwise risks missing its objectives, Jean Pisani-Ferry, a senior advisor to the French government, told EURACTIV France in an interview.
Adaptation is a key part of restoring Europe's forests and improving their resilience to climate change-related risks such as pests and wildfires, forestry expert Bernhard Wolfslehner told EURACTIV in an interview.
In an interview with EURACTIV, French Industry Minister Roland Lescure underlined the role of big industries in reaching the bloc's climate targets, through the key pieces of legislation moving currently being negotiated at the EU level.
For EU lawmaker Eva Maydell, Europe's ambitious green agenda must be supported by a comprehensive industrial plan that shifts the bloc's focus to competitive sustainability and becoming the world's leader in clean technologies.
Creating healthy and sustainable ecosystems in Europe is key to ensuring food security, as heatwaves worsen and Russia blocks grain exports out of Ukraine, the environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told EURACTIV.
Makers of cartonboard, corrugated board, and other wood fibre-based packaging are campaigning to get the renewability and recyclability of their product recognised under EU law. They also warn against EU plans to introduce mandatory recycled content targets for new products, saying this could "disrupt a system that is already working very effectively".
The European Union could "triple" the amount of biomass produced on a sustainable basis over the coming decades while helping restore land degraded by industrial pollution, poor agriculture, erosion and climate change, says André Faaij.
The European Commission's upcoming sustainable product initiative should seek to clean the market for ecolabels and impose an EU-wide standard based on lifecycle assessment, says Professor Finkbeiner. However, "I doubt that the EU Commission will be brave enough to put out a mandatory label," he told EURACTIV in an interview.
The proposed ‘ReFuelEU Aviation’ regulation is a basis to ensure that industry bears the true cost of aviation’s impact on the environment, argues MEP Jutta Paulus.
In an interview with EURACTIV France , Pascal Canfin spoke about the EU Parliament's proposals to improve the battery regulation, and the actions to be taken to accelerate the transition towards full electric mobility in the EU.
The European Commission has proposed wide-ranging legislation aimed at cutting emissions from road transport across the EU. But the various taxes embedded in the proposals run the risk of exacerbating inequality if not implemented properly, warns MEP Petar Vitanov.
Greater standardisation in design "has to be the way forward" in order to make it worthwhile economically to recycle lightweight packaging such as crisp packets. In practice, this also means reducing the variety of packaging available to the food and drink industry, says Joachim Quoden.
The revised Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) must ensure that EU member states take action in the short term and do not delay their efforts until the end of the decade, says the EU lawmaker responsible for drafting the European Parliament’s position on the draft legislation.
Although the recent COP26 conference in Glasgow made progress on climate ambition, there is still a lot of work left to do to limit global warming to 1.5°C and prevent runaway climate change, according to Green MEP Bas Eickhout.
The EU needs to increase its renewable energy capacity, become more self-sufficient in energy production and move away from foreign-controlled fossil fuels, according to Ossian Smyth, Irish minister of state.
There is no such thing as a European forest, and those trying to introduce an EU-wide forest strategy that does not take account of regional differences “live in Fantasyland,” Finnish lawmaker Nils Torvalds told EURACTIV.
Voluntary schemes have not been enough to protect biodiversity in Europe's forests and more coordinated measures are needed to protect nature in the EU, according to Green lawmaker Ville Niinistö.
Sustainable forest management is key to keeping Europe's forests healthy and must be supported by EU legislation in order to help meet the bloc's 2030 climate goals, according to Finnish MEP, Petri Sarvamaa.
European Union member states have agreed to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and increase their level of ambition for 2030. This means Europe needs to amend all its climate policies, including its Emissions Trading Scheme, the EU's climate chief, Frans Timmermans, told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
European trade unions welcome ambitious EU climate policies, but warn that they need to be implemented alongside an equally ambitious social transition plan or risk sowing the seeds of a backlash, says Judith Kirton-Darling.
The hard line defended by France over the inclusion of nuclear power in the green finance taxonomy is a dead end because there is no majority in favour of it at the EU level, warns lawmaker Pascal Canfin. Instead, the French MEP argues for including nuclear energy in the 'transition' category.
