European Union

At 9.00 on Wednesday, MEPs will celebrate the reforms that enhanced democracy and expanded people’s rights in the EU, with Presidents Sassoli, von der Leyen and Michel.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

At 9.00 on Wednesday, MEPs will celebrate the reforms that enhanced democracy and expanded people’s rights in the EU, with Presidents Sassoli, von der Leyen and Michel.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The participants of an inter-party dialogue mediated by EU lawmakers have agreed that there are no conditions for a fair and free election in Serbia. EURACTIV Serbia reports.

The Socialists and Democrats group leader said they supported European parliament president David Sassoli to lead the conference on the Future of Europe next year. "There is no better person to lead the conference than president Sassoli," MEP Iratxe Garcia said on Tuesday. The two-year conference would aim at reconnecting the EU with citizens and sorting out institutional issues such as transnational lists and the lead candidate election system.

If you thought Poland and Hungary were a tough nut to crack when it comes to rule of law, brace for more: Malta could become Europe's next biggest headache.

Emily O’Reilly is well placed to secure a second term as European Ombudsman after comfortably topping the first round of voting on Tuesday (17 December).

Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi made a “plea” on Monday (16 December) for launching free trade talks with the EU, in parallel with the ongoing negotiations on an investment deal.

MEPs call on the EU to take the lead in the global fight against tax evasion, tax avoidance and money laundering.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Europeans expect EU action to ensure multinationals pay fair taxes on EU soil, MEPs said during a plenary debate on 16 December.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Europeans expect EU action to ensure multinationals pay fair taxes on EU soil, MEPs said during a plenary debate on 16 December.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Lluis Puig said on Tuesday that "the contempt that [Josep] Borrell showed towards the Belgian judicial authorities is improper of someone who holds a representative position within the European Commission". Borrell had said that "the judicial authorities of Flanders still have not fully understood the compliance with the European Arrest Warrant," after a Brussels court postponed a hearing of the Catalan leaders.

A technical rocket glitch during the final countdown Tuesday  (17 December) pushed back by a day the blastoff of Europe's CHEOPS planet-hunting satellite, launch company Arianespace and Russia's Roscosmos agency said.

New novel tobacco and nicotine products are “harmful” according to a new report released from the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), who represent national medical associations across Europe. The report, which was published on 16 November, says that the...

Written by Rachele Rossi,

© nd3000 / Shutterstock.com

Irrigation is the provision of water to help crops grow when rainfall is not sufficient. While new farming methods and technologies allow some types of crops to be grown without soil, a certain amount of water is needed to grow any kind of crop. In today’s economy, agriculture is one of the sectors that consumes the most water resources. Irrigation is the major cause of water consumption in agriculture. It contributes to increasing crop productivity, but it is also a threat to the preservation of water resources. Therefore, the issue of water scarcity requires careful reflection on the trade-off between higher agricultural productivity and the deterioration of water resources.

A number of elements determine the amount of irrigation water used in agriculture, from the types of crop and cropping method to the characteristics of the soil and the irrigation technique, to name just a few. Therefore, agriculture itself provides opportunities for better water management and water savings, through both traditional farm practices and new farming technologies.

Irrigation has been a feature of European agriculture for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, the majority of irrigated agricultural areas are in the EU’s southern regions, in particular in Spain and Italy. However, there are areas equipped for irrigation elsewhere, especially in the Netherlands. Over 40 % of the EU’s water use is on agriculture, and most of the freshwater abstraction is for agricultural use in countries like Greece, Spain, and Cyprus.

Prolonged periods of drought in many parts of the Union, the effects of climate change and pollution, as well as competition over use add further pressure on EU waters. Ensuring food security in view of climate change requires improvement in water-management capacity, including making users (farmers) more responsible. In recent times, the environmental performance of sectoral policies, such as in the area of agriculture, is increasingly scrutinised by citizens, stakeholders, and policy-makers. Various EU policy initiatives have been launched to address the challenge of sustainable water use in agriculture, including a more integrated approach to water management, water re-use, research and innovation, and more environmental ambition in the agricultural policy. Better policy coordination between EU policies and actions is seen as key to achieving the sustainable safeguarding of EU waters.

Volume of water used for irrigation in the EU in 2010 (% of total cubic metres)

Read the complete briefing on ‘Irrigation in EU agriculture‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Listen to policy podcast ‘Irrigation in EU agriculture’ on YouTube.

Some 34 MEPs on Tuesday asked the EU commissioner for health and food safety, Stella Kyriakides, to remove products containing the food additive E171 as a precautionary measure. The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) recently identified data gaps and uncertainties in relation to safety. This food additive can mainly be found in cakes, desserts, ice-cream, biscuits, chocolate bars or bakery products.

The agreement is the first step to set a framework for sustainable finance, that will help investors and consumers to identify economic activities that can unambiguously be considered environmentally green.

The Von der Leyen Commission begins its mandate at a time when Arctic geopolitics are at their most important since the Cold War. The EU needs to deepen its engagement in its own Arctic backyard, argue André Gattolin and Damien...

MEPs supported measures on Tuesday designed to fight e-commerce VAT evasion that would help cut some of the €137 billion lost each year across the EU to VAT fraud.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

MEPs supported measures on Tuesday designed to fight e-commerce VAT evasion that would help cut some of the €137 billion lost each year across the EU to VAT fraud.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

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