Brussels, 16/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Industrial and maritime transport pollution of the atmosphere, pollution of the seas by plastic bags and the Doha amendment ratification package for the Kyoto protocol second commitment period will exercise the minds of EU environment ministers at the last Environment Council to be chaired by Gian Luca Galletti, in Brussels on Wednesday 17 December. The bulk of the work of this transition session will consist of approving agreements or agreeing guidance to facilitate legislative progress under the incoming Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Air pollution by industry. The Council is expected to confirm a general approach on a draft directive on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from medium combustion plants. This proposal, part of the clean air package, was presented by the Commission in December 2013. The Commission hopes that this will remove part of the package from its 2015 work programme. The general approach will provide a basis for the negotiations with the European Parliament.
CO2 emissions from maritime transport. The Council is expected to confirm the political agreement reached on the regulation setting out new EU-wide rules for monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2 emissions from ships of more than 5,000 gross registered tonnes entering EU ports (amendment of Regulation 525/2013). This is a simple formality. The informal agreement reached in trialogue on 18 November has already been confirmed by the Parliament's environment committee and by the member states' ambassadors to the EU (see EUROPE 11211). Formal adoption of a Council common position will follow verification of the text by legal linguists' in the months ahead.
Doha amendment. Ministers will examine the Doha amendment ratification package, proposed by the Commission in November 2013. The Doha amendment establishes that the EU, its member states and Iceland jointly implement a quantified greenhouse gas reduction commitment for the second commitment period (from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020) and sets a deadline of 2015 for the development of a successor document to be implemented from 2020. The Italian Presidency hopes that the Council will adopt the ratification decision unanimously.
Lightweight plastic bags. The Council will confirm a political agreement on a draft directive to reduce the consumption of single-use lightweight plastic bags, giving the member states the choice of either introducing a charge of such bags by 2018 or reducing the annual use of lightweight plastic bags to an average of 90 per person by the end of 2019 and to 40 bags per person by the end of 2025 (compared with a current average of 176 bags per person). (see EUROPE 11204 and 11202). A formal common position will be adopted at a later stage, after the legal linguists have checked the text.
Global sustainable development programme post-2015. Over lunch, ministers will hold an exchange of views on the overarching and transformative post-2015 agenda. This debate follows on from the one held by development ministers on Friday 12 December on the EU's negotiating position (see EUROPE 11217), prior to adoption by the General Affairs Council of conclusions on Tuesday 16 December. International Cooperation and Development Commissioner Neven Mimica will take part in the discussion, just as Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella took part in the discussion at the Development formation of the Foreign Affairs Council. (AN)