European Union

More than 5,500 scientists and academics on Friday called on the EU Commission to enforce the European Water Framework Directive, ensuring Europe has "healthy and resilient freshwater bodies to support people and nature, today and in the future". About 60 percent of surface water in the EU is currently not in a good state. "There cannot be an effective European Green Deal without healthy water ecosystems," the statement concludes.

Whether €5 billion or €35 billion, the EU’s upcoming Just Transition Fund alone is unlikely to be enough to pay for the energy transition of Europe’s remaining coal countries. Nor is it necessary, argue Pieter de Pous and Rebekka Popp.

Plenary, committee and political groups meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

With thousands of fans travelling to matches and giant stadiums being built, football has a considerable climate impact. Some clubs are increasingly aware of this and try to limit their carbon emissions. A club from the small city of Mainz has been leading the movement for a decade.

Alternative fuels are the long-term solution to reduce emissions from aviation, but incentives are needed to scale them up, an official from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) told EURACTIV.com.

Letter of the President of the Eurogroup to the President of the Euro Summit on the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union, following the Eurogroup meeting of 4 December 2019.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

The Council adopted conclusions on the deepening of the capital markets union.

The Council adopted conclusions on strategic priorities on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

The Council and the Commission adopted a joint statement on "stablecoins".

The Council adopted conclusions on the European financial architecture for development.

The Council adopted conclusions on energy taxation, calling for an updated framework contributing to a climate neutral EU.

Remarks by Mário Centeno following the Eurogroup meeting on Greece, draft budgetary plans, ESM Treaty and Banking Union.

Mr Wojciech Wiewiórowski was appointed today by the Council as the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) for a mandate of 5 years.

President Michel met with Presidents Von der Leyen, Lagarde and Centeno in preparations for the upcoming Euro Summit.

A trend has emerged over the past few months where desperate people are paying to get locked up in Libyan detention centres to escape the conflict and with the hope they stand a better chance of getting resettled to Europe.

Iran was "determined to resolutely continue its activities related to ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles" in violation of a UN resolution related to a 2015 nuclear non-proliferation deal, its UN envoy, Majid Takhte Ravanchi, has said in an open letter. Its foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said the EU had shown "incompetence in fulfilling [the] bare minimum" of its side of the nuclear pact after the US abandoned it.

The European Committee of the Regions has approved a resolution that supports a bigger budget for a far-reaching Green Deal. Karl-Heinz Lambertz, president of the committee, said: "The Finnish EU Presidency budget proposal is not enough to respond to the climate emergency – we need 1.3 percent of the EU-27's GNI and a clear plan on where the new funds for the Green Deal will come from."

Bosnia has finalised the three-year overhaul of a heavily-polluting power plant, the Ugljevik coal facility, which used to emit 60 times more the amount of suffer dioxide, a poisonous gas, than is normally allowed in the EU. The €80m renovation was financed by a Japanese investor and designed to meet EU demands, but a recent French veto on further enlargement has rocked confidence in Europe's commitment to the region.

EU finance ministers said on Thursday aviation could be a sector which needed to "update provisions" on taxation to fall in line with climate goals. Airlines currently pay no fuel taxes in Europe in a move which saves the industry €27bn a year, according to one NGO, and which has helped to boost cheap air travel and related emissions. Sea transport has a similar tax waiver in the EU.