Therese Coffey – 2019 Statement on the EU Environment Council
Below is the text of the statement made by Therese Coffey, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 24 June 2019.
The next EU Environment Council will take place on 26 June, in Luxembourg. I will be attending to represent the UK.
On environment items, the main legislative focus will be a general approach on the regulation on water-reuse. In addition, there will also be an exchange of views on the environment implementation review (EIR), as well as the adoption of Council conclusions on a sustainable EU chemicals policy.
Any other business (AOB) will include information from the Commission and the presidency on four items:
Clean Planet for all: Strategic long-term vision for a climate neutral economy (information from the presidency);
A discussion on current legislative proposals (information from the presidency):
A discussion on regulation on LIFE; and
A discussion on shipping monitoring, reporting and verification.
Reports on main recent international meetings (information from the presidency and the Commission):
Triple conference of the parties to the Basel (COP 14), Rotterdam (COP 9) and Stockholm (COP 9) conventions (Geneva, 29 April-10 May 2019); and
Fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) (Nairobi, 11-15 March 2019).
Communication on the draft integrated national energy and climate plans (presentation by the Commission).
There are currently five member state led AOBs:
Workshop on the “Future environment action programme” (information from the Austrian delegation);
Possible European measures to support clean mobility and in particular, electromobility (information from the Bulgarian delegation);
Conference on carbon pricing and aviation taxes (information from the Netherlands delegation);
G7 Environment Ministers’ meeting (information from the French delegation); and
Work programme of the incoming presidency (information from the Finnish delegation).
