News

EU countries that wish to extend the deadline for farmers to submit their applications for direct payments and certain payment claims under rural development will be allowed to do so, Commissioner Phil Hogan has confirmed. Read more

Today, representatives of EU governments meeting in Brussels will vote on a European Commission plan to ban three neonicotinoid insecticides: Bayer’s imidacloprid and clothianidin, and Syngenta’s thiamethoxam. The Commission has based its plan on an assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which concluded that the neonicotinoids pose a risk to bees.

The ecology and environment ministers of seven European countries (FR, DE, SE, NL, FI, PT, LU) met in Paris on 25 April and called for a more ambitious climate strategy for the EU. Read more

MEPs gave the go-ahead to the new EU law on organic production and labelling, as agreed by Parliament’s negotiators and EU ministers on 28 June 2017, by 466 votes in favour to 124 against, with 50 abstentions. The agreed text still needs to be formally approved by the Council of EU ministers before it can enter into force. It shall apply from 1 January 2021. Read more

European households and businesses will have to recycle at least 55% of their municipal waste by 2025, according to stricter new rules passed by the European Parliament today (18 April). The legislation is part of a review of a series of directives agreed with the member states to improve the European economy’s ‘green credentials’. After the Parliament’s plenary vote, the Council will have to give its final consent. Read more