29/06/2022 (Agence Europe) – The EU27 ambassadors to the EU (Coreper), meeting on 29 June in Brussels, validated the provisional agreement reached on 21 June between the European Parliament negotiators and the French Presidency of the EU Council to tighten the concentration limits in waste of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as PBDEs, dioxins and furans, short-chain chlorinated paraffins and PFHxS (see EUROPE 12976/1). The aim is to protect human health and the environment from these highly toxic chemical substances known as ‘eternal pollutants’ and to encourage a non-toxic circular economy. The validated text, resulting from interinstitutional negotiations, concerns the updating of Annexes IV and V of Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on POPs, to adapt it to the requirements of the Stockholm Convention, which it transposes. (AN)