Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment (NAT) - Related Opinions

The EU chemicals strategy aims to address the cumulative and combined effects of chemicals, including pesticides, stressing a need to accelerate work on methodologies that ensure existing provisions can be fully implemented.

The strategy is intended as a first step towards a zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment, as announced in the European Green Deal. 

The Commission aims for more ambitious 2030 emissions reduction targets, both in the EU and internationally. President von der Leyen wants the EU to lead international negotiations to raise the ambition of other major emitters by 2021, and has pledged to put forward a comprehensive, responsible plan to increase the European Union's emissions reduction target for 2030, from 40 % towards 55 %. The plan should ensure a level playing field and stimulate innovation, competitiveness and jobs, based on social, economic and environmental impact assessments.

The 2030 climate plan Communication, adopted on 17^th September 2020, sets out the proposed targets, as well as potential implications for the overall regulatory and enabling framework. It describes the overall architecture of policy measures to be put in place to achieve that target.

The revamped Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) is a tool through which the EU supports, coordinates and supplements actions of EU Member States in the field of civil protection in order to prevent, prepare and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the EU. The new proposal aims to strengthen the UCPM to ensure that the EU and its Member States are better prepared to respond to large-scale emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.