Eco-innovation and the fight against climate change are the two major environmental priorities of the Estonian Presidency taking over the Council of the EU beginning on 1 July for the next six months. These two priorities will also be on the agenda of the informal Environmental Council meeting on 13 and 14 July next in Tallinn.
Both of them will be guided by the imperative of making progress with EU policies and legislation to help Europe’s transition towards a low carbon circular economy and the priority of achieving sustainable development and implementing the Paris Climate Agreement. At the beginning of the Estonian Presidency, a high-level UN policy forum on sustainable development will take place (10-19 July). At the end of the Presidency the COP 23 will take place in Bonn on 6-7 November – two major events on the International Agenda.
Eco-innovation. This priority is shared by the next forthcoming Presidencies of the Council of the EU (Estonia, Bulgaria and Austria). The informal meeting of the Environment Council will host the Tallinn “Creative Hub” and the first day of the Council on 13 July will focus on this. Informal ministerial discussion should help to facilitate the adoption of Council conclusions in October, a month in which the Estonian Presidency would like to focus on the issue of innovation.
On 6 September, the Presidency will be organising a conference that will bring together representatives from academia, governments and digital technology experts. They will have 48 hours to locate concrete innovative solutions to respond to specific problems arising from the circular economy such as, for example, secondary materials. The objective is to be able to deploy these solutions effectively. Another high-level conference will be organised in Tallinn (24-26 October) on digital technologies used in eco-innovation and eco-innovative solutions for green infrastructure in smart cities.
At a legislative level, the Presidency intends to make progress with inter-institutional negotiations on the “Waste” package, a key legislative section of the EU action plan for the circular economy and on which a third trialogue is planned for 26 September (see other article). Hitherto, the dossier has mainly been tackled at a technical level and this will continue because a work meeting will take place every week until the end of October, explained one source from the new Presidency.
Climate negotiations and legislation: this subject will be on the agenda on 14 July during the informal Environment Council meeting dedicated to the international aspects of this dossier and the implementation of the Paris Agreement for which EU heads of state and government have just repeated their unstinting commitment, including the financial section, by highlighting the importance of innovation (see EUROPE 11814, 11813).
At a legislative level, the Presidency will get down to work in July on the Lulucf project (contribution of agriculture and forestry to the EU’s climate goals) in an effort to reach a compromise by September. One source indicated “bilateral contacts have already taken place in effort to understand how we can move forward”. With regard to long-term reform of the ETS, the Presidency will be taking over after the second trialogue meeting planned for this Tuesday afternoon 27 June (see EUROPE 11815). The Presidency will also do its best to obtain a general approach at the Environment Council in October on a related dossier involving burden sharing in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in non-ETS sectors (transport, construction, agriculture, waste) for the 2021-2030 period, which ministers have already committed to (see EUROPE 11811).
International meetings: As well as the high-level UN forum on sustainable development this July and the COP 23 in November, the Estonian Presidency will get to grips with preparing many different international conferences planned for September: the International Convention to Combat Desertification (6-16 September), a meeting of the parties to the Aarhus Convention (11-15), the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (18-22), Minamata Convention COP on Mercury (24-29 September). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)