Beyond her reshaped and prioritised climate aims, the President of the future European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, cast her net wide in her "European Green Deal", revealing a horizontal approach to major environmental issues in the work programme (see EUROPE 12297/1).
It endorses the milestones set by the Juncker Commission with regard to the circular economy, plans to remedy the lack of a strategy for a non-toxic environment, or to provide the EU with a post-2020 biodiversity strategy, without going into much detail.
Circular economy. Mrs von der Leyen announced a new action plan "in resource-intensive sectors with a significant impact on the environment, such as textiles and construction". This was suggested by the Juncker Commission following the review of the 2015 Action Plan (see EUROPE 12206/12) and endorsed by the European Environment Ministers at their informal meeting in Helsinki (see EUROPE 12295/7).
Health and environment. It states that Europe must "move towards the ambition of zero pollution" and announces a cross-sectoral strategy to protect citizens' health from environmental degradation and pollution, particularly from hazardous chemicals, pesticides and endocrine disrupters. A strategy for a non-toxic environment planned for 2015 in the 7th Environmental Action Programme has never been presented and has been repeatedly called for by European Environment Ministers (see EUROPE 12283/10, 12074/6).
Biodiversity. On the agenda are the integration of new biodiversity standards into sectoral policies (trade, industry, agriculture, agriculture, economy) and the adoption of a 2030 strategy to "make the EU an example for the world" at COP 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (China in 2020).
Sustainable food. Ursula von der Leyen announces a new strategy for sustainable food along the value chain.
Fuzzy and feeble. While the Greens/EFA in the Parliament have not been convinced, environmental NGOs have welcomed the place given to the environment in the work programme, but would like clarification and point out weaknesses.
Mrs von der Leyen "has made some important and welcome commitments, including a European Green Deal, a border carbon tax and a pollution-free future, and we are waiting for more details," said Jeremy Wates, Secretary General of the European Environment Bureau (EEB).
He regrets that Mrs von der Leyen did not "unequivocally commit herself to a target of reducing the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030", that she did not "put sustainable development goals at the heart of all the EU does" and that "while mentioning the need for sustainable food and biodiversity standards in agriculture", she did not "mention the need for a radical reform" of the CAP to "reverse its highly damaging impact on nature". (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)