News

On 30/11/2022, the European Commission should present a proposal for a new regulation governing the rules for the certification of carbon removal. The proposal will be part of the second part of the package of legislative proposals falling under the circular economy action plan within the framework of the European Green Deal. Although the official proposal is not yet known, according to unofficial information, the European Commission should plan to supplement the legislative proposal with several delegated acts after its submission. The aim of the new regulation should be to ensure a high quality of carbon removal in the EU and to create an EU management system that would correctly apply and enforce the EU quality framework in a reliable and harmonized way throughout the Union.

Russia renewed from 03/11/2020 the agreement on the export of grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports based on the negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and after further negotiations between the defence ministers of the two countries. The United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine agreed to suspend grain shipments via the Black Sea Corridor after the Russian Ministry of Defence announced on 01/11/2022 that it was withdrawing from the UN-Turkey-brokered deal over claims (without evidence) that Ukraine was using the grain routes to attacks against his fleet in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea. According to the UN, a key element in Russia's decision to renew the agreement was likely the fact that the three remaining parties to the initiative - Turkey, the UN and Ukraine - continued to transport ships along the route and kept Moscow informed of vessel movements. Putin is probably not sure whether he can attack the humanitarian corridor militarily.
More information is available here and here.

On 24/10/2022, the European Parliament's Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development again discussed the European Commission's proposal for the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive from April 2022. The European Commission presented the proposal to the Committee already at the end of August, and in both cases the members of the Committee did not spare the Commission's proposal with sharp criticism. Relatively rarely, all political factions, including the Greens, stand against the Commission's proposal (except for some individuals, but the coordinators for agriculture are united). The MEPs reject the perception of agriculture as an industry, they demand the removal of beef cattle from the extended scope of the directive, they reject the penalization of agricultural enterprises and the increase of the administrative burden, they warn of the effects of the directive on small and medium-sized enterprises, which could be doomed by the new rules, they also criticize very low thresholds values for livestock units.

At the Environment Council meeting on 24/10/2022 in Luxembourg, Environment Ministers endorsed an ambitious and transformative global framework for biodiversity to effectively address the direct and indirect causes of biodiversity loss. Ministers aim to incorporate long-term targets for 2050, interim targets for 2030 and action targets for 2030, including reducing the levels and risks of pollution from all sources. The Council's conclusions will serve as the EU's general negotiating position for the 15th session of the UN Conference on Biological Diversity (COP 15) in Montreal in December. The Environment Council also approved conclusions on the proposal to revise the Industrial Emissions Directive and the Landfill Directive, which will serve as the EU's general negotiating position for the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27).
More information is available here, here and here.

The European Commission approved during the meeting of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF) through the representatives of the Member States on 27/09/2022 the introduction of the first mirror clauses - namely the ban on the import of food containing traces of the neonicotinoids thiamethoxam and clothianidin, the use of which is banned in the European Union since 2018. However, according to available information, the Commission's plan has met with a ‘flurry’ of criticism from third countries, representatives of the European Commission expect that criticism will continue to escalate - according to them, it is also not possible to rule out that after the adoption of the regulation, the European Union will face a formal complaint at the World Trade Organization.