A busy agenda, dominated by the fight against climate change, awaits EU Environment Ministers on Thursday 5 March. The Environment Council will start with a speech by Greta Thunberg, as guest of the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12437/20). The morning and lunch of this session will be devoted to climate change and the circular economy, while the afternoon will be devoted to other environmental topics.
Frans Timmermans, Elisa Ferreira and Virginijus Sinkevičius will represent the Commission.
Climate. The EU Council is expected to adopt the decision enabling the EU to submit rapidly to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) its long-term climate strategy (see EUROPE 12434/10), as requested by the December European Council to comply with the Paris Agreement. The main aim will be to transmit a short text, setting out the EU’s commitment to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
The Commission will present the proposal for a ‘climate law’ and the proposal for a Just Transition Mechanism to Ministers (see EUROPE 12439/2).
Greta Thunberg’s speech on ‘Fridays for the Future’ and these two presentations may lead to speeches by Ministers in the subsequent debate on the European Green Deal.
“The idea is to have a single debate and we should not wait for detailed statements on the recent proposed climate law”, said a senior European official on Wednesday 4 March.
The public debate on the European Green Deal will focus on the next steps towards a climate-neutral EU by 2050 (see EUROPE 12436/9). Guided by a Presidency questionnaire, Ministers will be invited to answer the following questions: 1) In light of the guidance provided by the European Council, and taking account of the EU’s role in the international climate change negotiations, which actions set out in the European Green Deal are essential next steps towards the EU’s climate neutrality objective? 2) Which actions need to be put forward in the new Circular Economy Action Plan to allow the development of the circular economy to become beneficial to all economic players across value chains and to support consumers in making sustainable choices?
Over lunch, ministers will have an exchange of views on climate diplomacy with Marc Vanheukelen, the European External Action Service (EEAS) climate ambassador, ahead of COP26.
Air quality. The Ministers will hold a public debate on the ‘fitness check’ of EU legislation on ambient air quality, published in November 2019, of which the Ministers were informed in December. A Commission working document stressed that, despite the progress they have made in improving air quality, Directives 2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC have been only partially effective in achieving the objective of reducing air pollution and mitigating harmful effects on health and the environment.
Conclusions on improving air quality are expected to be adopted. The EU Council should stress the importance of maintaining limit values to protect the health of citizens and welcome the Commission’s proposal to revise air quality standards to bring them more closely into line with WHO recommendations.
Ministers should stress the importance of striving to adhere to these guidelines, but the language on this point still needs to be agreed upon, as some delegations wish to strengthen it. They should also welcome the Commission’s intention to further tackle pollution through immediate preventive measures, within the framework of the European Green Deal.
Fitness check on water legislation. Ministers will hold a public debate on the evaluation of water legislation (see EUROPE 12389/14), to discuss how to better integrate the objectives of this legislation into other sectoral policies (agriculture, energy, transport, industrial production) and how to improve the implementation of the legislation.
Greening of the ‘European Semester’. Ministers will have a public debate on the greening of the ‘European Semester’ budget process, which the Commission is seeking to align with the European Green Deal and the annual sustainable growth strategy.
They will be invited to answer the following questions: – How can the enhanced sustainability dimension of the ‘European Semester’ contribute to the achievement of the SDGs while remaining focused on macroeconomic policies? – In order to ensure the coherence of policy instruments in the context of the Green Deal and to avoid duplication, how should the monitoring of SDGs be horizontally integrated into all policies? (see EUROPE 12430/10) (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)