European / International news

 

  • The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol opened on Monday, 26 November and continued until Saturday, 8 December 2012 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, Qatar.
    Decisions adopted by COP18 and CMP8
  • Ministerial Conference approves Russia’s WTO membership. More information
  • Draft Commission Guidelines for State aid in the context of the amended EU Emissions Trading Scheme post 2012.
    The purpose of this consultation is to invite Member States and stakeholders to express their views on the draft Commission Communication (State aid Guidelines) that defines the compatibility criteria of 4 new state aid measures with the internal market. Click here 
  • Press release of the main results of the Council of the European Union (19thDecember)
  • Towards a global green economy and better governance – the Commission presents policy orientations for the Rio+20 Conference. Click here
  • A huge majority of EU citizens care deeply about the environment. click here
  • An interagency report published the 10th of June develops “options for G20 consideration on how to better mitigate and manage the risks associated with the price volatility of food and other agriculture commodities, without distorting market behaviour, ultimately to protect the most vulnerable”. The report was requested by G20 leaders at their summit meeting in November 2010 and submitted to the French Presidency of the G20 on 2 June 2011.
  • The OECD launched the 24th of  May a new interactive index called "Your better life index" that will let people measure and compare their lives in a way that goes beyond traditional GDP numbers. More information
  • Click here to read the last book "Paying by Biodiversity, enhancing the cost-effectiveness of payments for ecosystem services" publied on March 2011 by the OECD.
  • Download here the last Eurobarometer's surveys about "Attitudes of Europeans towards resource efficiency" and "Attitudes of European entrepreneurs towards eco-innovation" publied on March 2011.
  • Click here to see the commission staff working document "A roadmap for moving to a low carbon economy in 2050"
  • Click here to see the Green Paper on the modernisation of EU public procurement policy - Towards a more efficient European Procurement Market 
  • New guide to help public authorities to provide high quality and efficient services of general interest

This new Guide aims at clarifying the European rules applicable to the organisation and financing of services of general interest. This Guide thus helps public authorities, especially at local level, to provide high quality and efficient services in line with the EU rules.

More information

  • The 9th session of the UN Forum on Forests will be held in New York, USA from the 24 January to the 4 February 2011. More information.
     
  • SOER 2010 "The European environment – state and outlook 2010"  provides a set of assessments of the current state of Europe's environment, its likely future state, what is being done and what could be done to improve it, how global megatrends might affect future trends. Click here
  • Newsletter n°12 EU Environment Policy Brief. Click here

  • The European Commission wants to introduce stricter inspection standards for installations covered by the Seveso II directive on major accident hazards. This is one of several proposals in a draft law to revise the 1996 directive.

  • The Industrial Emissions Directive has been aaproved. Click here
  • On 3 November 2010, the European Commission has proposed a Directive which sets safety standards for disposing spent fuel and radioactive waste from nuclear power plants as well as from medicine or research. Click here
  • Clickhere  to see the Commission staff working document "Buying Social, a guide to taking account of social considerations in public procurement"
  • Assessing biodiversity in Europe — the 2010 report. Click here
     
  • Commission asks for views on revamping environmental impact assessments. The European Commission has launched a wide public consultation in relation to the review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation . The consultation covers issues, such as the screening of projects for EIA, the quality of the EIA process, the harmonisation of assessment requirements among Member States, cross-border difficulties when projects affect more than one Member State, the role of the environmental authorities, and development of synergies with other EU policies, such as climate change and biodiversity. The findings of the consultation will feed into a Commission review next year. More information.
  • On July 13 2010, the Commission adopted a comprehensive proposal that provides this freedom to the Member States. The EU's existing science-based authorisation system remains unaffected. The proposal also provides for non-binding guidelines that better reflect the possibilities already available to the Member States to adopt measures in order to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops. In a nutshell, the comprehensive proposal represent the Commission's new flexible approach on GMO cultivation, which takes into consideration Member States desires, but also retains the basis of solid science for any GMO authorisation. More information
  • Bulgaria suspended from CO2 emissions trading
  • The Court of Justice of European Union has condamned France for a defective transposition of the Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles.
    More information