Brussels, 16/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Though the European Parliament failed on Thursday 15 January to adopt a united position on the European Commission's 2015 work programme (see EUROPE 11231), several political groups nonetheless, through their voting on individual resolutions, sent a clear signal to the Commission that they want the legislative process that is in train on the circular economy and clean air for Europe packages to continue.
MEPs and the largest environmental NGOs (Green 10), well aware that Frans Timmermans, Commission vice-president with responsibility for better legislation is due to address the College of Commissioners on this issue on Wednesday of next week, stressed after the vote that the Commission would do well to heed this message.
Five of the seven political groups, representing over 60% of MEPs made clear that they were against the proposed withdrawal of key environmental legislation. The S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA, ELDD and GUE/NGL Groups were critical of Commission intentions. Several groups pressed the Commission to make sustainability a pillar of its agenda and the S&D Group even called for trust to be rebuilt between the Commission and Parliament, suggesting that the preparations for this work programme had suffered from a lack of transparency.
“The clear majority vote on the clean air and circular economy legislative proposals is a clear message. I expect the European Commission vice-president not to proceed with the proposed withdrawal” (our translation), said Rebecca Harms (Germany), deputy leader of the Greens/EFA Group.
S&D deputy leader Enrique Guerrero Salom said: “We have made it clear that there are urgent legislative proposals which should not be withdrawn by the Commission. These relate to air-quality legislation, the waste package [proposal to review the directives on waste management with increased recycling targets, the cornerstone of the circular economy package] and the maternity leave directive, for which our group has fought for so hard over recent years”.
The environmental NGOs, operating under the Green 10 banner which have continuously argued for the legislation to be retained, believe that the Commission has no choice but to listen to the political message it has been sent, particularly as EU environment ministers are of the same mind as the majority of MEPs (see EUROPE 11220). “The erosion of political support for the Juncker Commission over plans to withdraw draft legislation to clean up air and reduce waste should trigger a radical rethink. Most groups in the Parliament effectively told the Commission this week that it cannot backtrack on the environment and the Commission would be well advised to heed this advice. The EU cannot walk away from its responsibility to protect the environment and the health of its citizens.”
Circular economy: fresh proposal by 2016. When invited on Friday by the press to set out the next steps in the process, the European Commission denied ever having wanted to withdraw these two pieces of legislation - which nevertheless featured on the list of proposals to go through the “better legislation” shredder.
“When we presented the work programme for 2015, we re-affirmed our commitment towards the air quality objectives and the circular economy proposals. We never said that we wanted to withdraw the air quality proposals. We said that we wanted to amend the current proposal. As for the circular economy package, we proposed to withdraw it and replace it with a more ambitious plan by 2016”, said the Commission spokesperson. She added: “We consulted the Parliament and the Council before adopting the work programme, and afterwards, too. There is no formal deadline for these consultations to take place” (our translation). (AN)