Dimas identifies environmental priorities

The Environmental Committee of the European Parliament invited EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas to discuss the environmental plans of the European Union for the next year.
Addressing the MEP’s on May 19 Dimas described the key environmental priorities of the EU for 2009. It was stressed that the Commission needs to focus on improving the implementation of current EU environment legislation. “Halting biodiversity loss in Europe by 2010 and significantly reducing global biodiversity loss world-wide is the first among the environmental priorities of the EU,” Dimas stressed. The implementation of the Biodiversity Action Plan that the Commission adopted in 2006 is expected to become instrumental in this process. The European Commission will also prioritise the correct enforcement of Natura 2000 legislation.
Speaking about the climate change, Dimas stressed that 2009 is a crucial year for Climate Change policy, as the EU edges towards agreement at the Copenhagen conference at the end of the year. The measures in the Climate Action and Renewable Energy package are crucial for the EU’s credibility. The package contains proposals for an improved and extended EU emissions trading system, for sharing the effort of greenhouse gas reductions in sectors not covered by the EU ETS between Member States, and proposals on carbon capture and storage and on renewable energy sources.
It was said, the European Parliament and the Council should reach an agreement on the package so that the essence of the policy proposals is not watered down during the legislative process. According to the Commissioner, the EU also needs to take further measures to address greenhouse emissions from transport, particularly freight transport and shipping, which accounts for the highest volume of transport greenhouse gas emissions. It was also noted by Dimas that the EU should pay special attention to lowering energy consumption through resource-efficiency measures. Dimas stressed that the EU will launch a Sustainability Package which will propose a systematic approach to improving the energy and environmental performance of products. Minimum requirements will be established and periodically reviewed for the most environmentally damaging products. At the same time, the best performing products should be able to benefit from incentives such as Green Procurement.