This article is in association withEuropean Parliament.
MEPs approved Thursday the EU environment program until 2030. This aims to accelerate EU’s transition to a climate neutral, clean, circular, and well-being economy.
With 553 votes to 130, and 7 abstentions the Parliament confirmed the December 2021 agreement reached with Council on the eighth General Union Environment Action Programme. This program (EAP) will guide the EU’s environmental policy up to 2030 and align it to the EU’s global strategy. European Green Deal.
Priority objectives for the eighth EAP
The following six thematic priority targets must be met by 2030:
Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and other environmentally harmful subsidies
The EU will establish a binding legislative framework that monitors and reports on the progress of member states towards eliminating fossil fuel subsidies in order to increase positive incentives and gradually end harmful subsidies. It should also establish a deadline for reducing public aid to these environmentally damaging sources of energy. This is in line with the goal of limiting global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Commission shall present a methodology for identifying other environmentally harmful subsidies in 2023. It will also report on the progress of member states towards phasing them off.
Improved governance mechanism
The Commission will annually monitor, assess, and report on progress made by the EU member states and EU in meeting the priority goals. To guide policymaking, the text includes a new summary dashboard with indicators that measure progress beyond GDP. The EU institutions shall discuss both future plans and actions every year. If a midterm review of progress is done by 31 March 2024, and it is determined that more work is needed to reach the priority targets by 2030, the Commission will submit a legislative proposition with additional initiatives.
To reduce the risk of non-compliance, EU, national, regional, and local authorities must also use effective, dissuasive, and proportionate sanctions.
Get a Quote
Grace OSullivan(Greens/EFA IE), raporteur said: The eighth EAP declares a Wellbeing Economy a priority goal for 2030. This is a first in EU Law and a significant step in moving away form the obsessive, unsustainable emphasis on GDP growth to what the pandemic has shown us is most important: the wellbeing and well-being of our people and planet. This is a positive example showing the kind of systemic changes that are necessary to achieve our objective of living well within the limitations of our planet.
Next steps
Once the Council has officially adopted the legal text, it will be published in EUs Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later.
Background
EU EAPs, legally binding frameworks, have been guiding the development of EU environmental policies since the 1970s. The new EAP will be in effect until 31 December 2030, following the expiry the Seventh EAP at 2020.