Preparation Environment Council, 20 December 2007 - Montesquieu Institute

The last Environment Council under the Portuguese presidency will take place in Brussels on 20 December 2007. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas will represent the Commission. The Council intends to reach political agreement on the Soil Directive and on the proposed directive on including aviation in the Emissions Trading Scheme. The Council is also expected to adopt conclusions on environment and health. Other business points include information from the Presidency on the special United Nations meeting on climate change in Bali in December this year and the results of the high-level Conference on Business and Biodiversity in November.

Soil Directive

The Council hopes to reach a political agreement ( IP/06/1241 ) on the proposed directive to protect Europe's soils. While the extent of soil degradation varies throughout the European Union, the draft text requires Member States to adopt a systematic approach to identifying and combating soil degradation, putting in place precautionary measures and integrating soil protection into other policies. Several issues remain to be discussed in Council. One concerns the amount of flexibility Member States are given in tackling soil degradation and the targets and measures necessary to achieve its objectives. Another issue to be discussed is the extent to which the identification of areas affected by erosion, landslides, compaction, salinisation and similar soil degradation processes should be binding. Council will also discuss the degree to which identifying contaminated sites should be systematic.

Aviation in the Emissions Trading Scheme

The Council aims to reach a political agreement on the proposed directive to include aviation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). This agreement follows the European Parliament's first reading vote on 13 November 2007. The text adopted by the Council is expected to be close to the Parliament's text and the proposed document presented by the Commission in December 2006 ( IP/06/1862 ). Several issues remain to be discussed in Council. One of these concerns the starting year for including the aviation sector in the EU ETS, and the need for a testing phase before its official entry into the trading scheme. Another matter to be discussed is whether allowances should be allocated to aircraft operators on a tonne-kilometres basis or according to traffic per inhabitant. Debates are also expected on the auctioning of allowances and the use of auctioning revenues.  

Environment and health

The Portuguese Presidency aims to adopt Council Conclusions on environment and health following the June 2007 Communication on the progress of the EU Environment and Health Action Plan (2004-2010). The draft conclusions include a reference to the need for adequate funding for a pilot project on human biomonitoring. The conclusions also contain a number of additional tasks which will be expected by the Commission such as developing tools to assess, manage and communicate on environment and health risks.

Any other business points include information from the Presidency on a number of issues, including the special United Nations meeting on climate change in Bali in December this year, the results of the high-level Conference on Business and Biodiversity, the directive on the environment and criminal law following a European Court of Justice ruling on the issue, the outcome of the last International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB) meeting in November 2007 in Montpellier, the proposed regulation on CO 2 emissions from cars, pesticides, and whaling.

A press conference is tentatively scheduled to take place at 15.00.

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