Brussels, 13/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The environmental priorities of the British Presidency pf the Council of the EU will be combatting global warming, REACH chemical legislation, sustainable development and simplifying legislation, explained Margaret Beckett, British environment, food and rural development minister, at the European Parliament's Environment Committee on Tuesday, to the great pleasure of Karl-Heinz Florenz, German Christian Democrat who chairs the Committee. An outline of the British Presidency's aims:
Climate change. Describing the declaration by the G8 Summit outlining a broad range of action to promote clean energy and energy efficiency and establishing a new dialogue with developing countries, Margaret Beckett said she wanted to pursue collaboration to achieve progress in dialogue and concrete action, and wanted to coordinate the EU's position for the Montreal COP 11 environment summit in December. We will be focussing on combatting climate change at EU summits with China, India, Russia and Canada, she said, highlighting the importance of ensuring the EU was credible. The British Presidency also wants to launch negotiations to cut the huge emissions from aviation.
Responding to comments by Adamos Adamou (GUE/NGL/Greece) about the weak outcome of the G8, criticising Europe for giving way to the United States, Margaret Beckett said there had been a misunderstanding. We didn't have the slightest intention at Gleneagles of putting pressure on the United States to get them to ratify the Kyoto Protocol since agreement of the Senate and the Congress is required, and neither did we have the slightest intention of setting definite targets or a timetable - that has to be done within the United Nations. We wanted to launch informal dialogue to facilitate a more open dialogue in Montreal and beyond, she said, adding that there was a concrete action plan in the G8's final press release.
Chemicals. Wanting to make progress on the draft REACH regulation, the British Presidency hopes to see political agreement at November's Competitiveness Council, encouraged by the fact the Austrian Presidency would prefer not to inherit the issue. The British Presidency wants REACH to ensure the protection of human health, the environment and preserve the competitiveness of EU industry, said Beckett.
Better regulation. Better regulation is a priority not to reduce environmental laws but to ensure legislation is proportionate to risk, Beckett explained. The British Presidency want to make progress in the thematic strategies of the 6th environment action programme, seeing them as an excellent tool for ensuring better regulation. Answering a question by John Bowies, she said she was surprised the thematic strategies had been postponed. She said she had not seen the strategies, but thought they were compatible with the Lisbon Strategy and the aim of ensuring better regulation since rather than moving forward on a step by step basis, they provided a holistic approach. The President of the Council said she had explained this to Jose Manuel Barroso at the Commission meeting in London.
Sustainable development strategy. Margaret Beckett said she wanted to be pro-active when the revised sustainable development strategy is presented, and would work with the next Presidency (the Austrian Presidency). Wanting better and more integrated global governance, the British Presidency wants to see an international environment organisation set up to integrate environmentalism in development programmes and projects. She said the New York Summit revising the Millennium Development Targets would provide a unique opportunity to integrate development and the environment by considering progress achieved since the Millennium Declaration of the year 2000 and implementation of the pledges made at the Johannesburg World Sustainable Development Summit in 2002.