Brussels, 25 April The European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) have backed the Commission’s Resource Efficient Roadmap, but are pushing for more ambitious measures.
ENVI supported a proposal by Danish MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy for EU national and sectoral resource efficiency targets. Elsewhere, the call for an EU landfill ban was made more specific, and requests for revision of the EU’s 2020 recycling targets were also put forward.
A proposal for a ‘Schengen area for waste’ was dropped amidst fears that it could lead to the illegal dumping of waste in countries still converging to high waste management standards.
Although the suggestion that 10% of public revenues should come from environmental taxes by 2020 was dropped in favour of looser language, Mr Gerbrandy’s proposals were warmly received by environmental groups, with Friends of the Earth noting that, “today’s vote sends a clear message to the European Commission that the political will to put Europe on a truly resource efficient path is there.”
Click to read press releases from ENVI, the ALDE Group and Friends of the Earth.