36 Amendments of Eleonora EVI related to 2017/2030(INI)
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that the 7th EAP has a limited positive influence onand has so far only partially succeeded in orienting the development of the EU’s environmental policies at EU andnd guiding Member State levels in the implementation of these policies, with few benefits for citizens, nature and economic stakeholders;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Regrets that the sub-objective of achieving good quality status of surface water bodies by 2020 will not be achieved due to the pressure exerted by pollution, interventions in the morphology of watercourses and excessive consumption due to the large amounts of water drawn off for the generation of hydroelectric power;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Deplores the steady decline in biodiversity in Europe and condemns the ineffectiveness of the actions taken so far to reverse the negative trend of indicators on the conservation of species and habitats of Community interest and on the maintenance of the abundance and distribution levels of common species of bird and butterfly;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes that the 7th EAP has failed to ensure that plant protection products are used in a way which does not adversely impact human health or have unacceptable consequences for the environment. The establishment in the Union of various associations for the victims of pesticides as well as the numerous pieces of scientific evidence on the negative effects they have on biodiversity and on the alarming presence of residues of chemical pesticides such as glyphosate in arable land, water and food products show that the Union has failed to meet to the challenges posed by the 7th EAP;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Is concerned in particular that specialised knowledge is not always fully used in policy-making or transferroften underused and in some cases even sidelined toin the parties responsible for implementationformulation of choices made by institutional players and policy-makers at all levels in making and implementing policies; highlights the examples of bioenergy, endocrine disrupters, pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food production as areas where evidence of risks to human health and the environment has been sidelined; in defiance of the precautionary principle;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
6a. Notes that some of the Commission’s choices, such as in the case of the formulation of the criteria for identifying chemicals that interfere with the endocrine system, make it more difficult to protect citizens from risks to health and well-being and to attain priority objective No 3 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Believing that the Commission and the Member States have not acted in the interests of citizens and the environment, condemns the renewal of the authorisation for glyphosate which will continue to be used until 2022, negatively affecting the achievement of priority objectives Nos. 1 and 3 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Recognises that theDeplores the inability of the present common agricultural policy (CAP) presents challenges to thelp achievement of the EAP’s objectives, particularly as regards resource-intensive production and biodiversity;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Regrets that the measures for greening the CAP, such as agri- environmental measures for climate protection, have so far had limited effects, partly because of the overall imbalances in the distribution of direct transfers to the various agricultural regions in Europe;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Underlines that, in the context of the greening of the CAP , landscape features and land lying fallow constitute ‘areas of environmental interest’ more favourable to the recovery, maintenance and progress of biodiversity in the agricultural sector and that a ban on the use of chemical pesticides in these areas and also on other arable land is essential to maximise their contribution to achieving objective No 1 on the EU’s natural capital, which today is very far from being attained;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Deplores the fact that the Union and the Member States have not yet taken effective measures to reduce the consumption of products of animal origin and to encourage the transition to other protein sources in order to reduce the impact of the food industry on the environment and the climate;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Regrets that the consumption of saturated fats and red meat in the Union remains well above the recommended nutritional values and that the food industry continues to make a substantial contribution to greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions, thereby preventing the attainment of the sub-objective on reducing the consumption of food products of animal origin under objective No 2 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10c. Calls on the Commission to carry out a fitness check on Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for GHG emission allowance trading 1 a to verify whether the implementation thereof genuinely makes an effective contribution to honouring the commitments to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement; __________________ 1a Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (OJ L 275, 25.10.2003, p. 32).
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Regrets that the CAP has failed adequately to promote sustainable agriculture or consistently to provide incentives for the provision of environmental goods and services for the benefit of the community, while continuing to favour the objective of increasing production;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Regrets the persistence of serious shortcomings in the collection and treatment of urban waste water in various regions of Europe and stresses that this situation contributes to uncertainty about the attainment of the sub-objective on waste generation in Europe, and more generally, that it negatively affects the attainment of priority objectives Nos 1 and 2 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Points out that a reduction in noise pollution is one of the quality parameters that will not be achieved by 2020; stresses that, in the EU, at least 10 000 premature deaths are caused by noise-related illnesses and that in 2012 approximately a quarter of the population of the EU was exposed to levels of noise in excess of the limit values; calls on the Member States to prioritise the monitoring of noise levels so as to ensure that the limit values for indoor and outdoor environments are respected;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Deplores the fact that in European cities prolonged exposure to pollutants such as PM2.5, NO2 and O3, which are responsible for the deterioration of ambient air quality, continues to cause serious damage to people’s health; notes with concern the European Environment Agency’s 2017 report on air quality which states that in 2014 alone the above pollutants caused, respectively, 399 000, 75 000 and 13 600 premature deaths in the territory of the EU; regrets that the continuous overshoots of the limit values of atmospheric pollutants prevent the attainment of priority objective No 3 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Believes that the 7th EAP has not been able to offer adequate solutions to address the emissions scandal in the automotive sector, Dieselgate, which has contributed heavily to preventing EU institutions, Member States and citizens from achieving priority objective No 3.
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Union and the Member States quickly and definitively to abandon environmentally harmful subsidies and any form of direct or indirect public support for the exploitation of traditional energy sources, such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy, as such exploitation is clearly at odds with the cardinal principles of the circular economy and sustainability and hinders the realisation of various priority objectives of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Calls on the Union and the Member States to abandon subsidies and any other form of public funding, whether direct or indirect, for waste incineration; urges regional and local authorities not to compromise the waste hierarchy by discouraging management options with greater potential in terms of the circular economy; calls for a significant reduction in the quantity of mixed waste and for a parallel and uniform increase in separate collection, recovery and recycling rates across the EU; believes that greater efforts should be made at all levels to prevent and reduce the generation of waste upstream, also in the light of the uncertainties surrounding the implementation by 2020 of the sub- objective included in this regard in the 7th EAP;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 c (new)
Paragraph 15 c (new)
15c. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to increase and coordinate efforts to promote the development and validation of alternative methods to animal testing so that they contribute to the achievement of priority objective No 5 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 d (new)
Paragraph 15 d (new)
15d. Urges the Commission and the Member States to do more to improve the cognitive and scientific bases of the EU’s environmental policies, increasing the accessibility of data for citizens and fostering public involvement in scientific research;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls for the EU institutions, as well as national and regional governments where appropriate,Member States and the competent national and regional authorities to make full use of available specialist knowledge about risks to the environment and human health when making and monitoring policies and making choices in these sectors, in compliance with the precautionary principle;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the Commission to reform the pesticide authorisation system in the Union, by increasing its transparency, i.e. using scientific studies that are published and undergo peer reviews and removing any confidentiality clause on tests relating to the degree of human and environmental exposure and the health risks involved, thereby contributing to the achievement of objective No 3 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Urges the Commission not to delay in the presentation of a legislative proposal aimed at setting more stringent standards for pesticide monitoring and binding targets for reducing them in order to reduce the gap in the implementation of priority objectives Nos 1 and 3 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls for infrastructure projects, particularly those related to TEN-T, to fully consider environmental impacts at regional level as well as project level; notes that coherence between different environmental policies is also relevant; highlights the possible effects of hydropower on freshwater supplies and soils, and of sea-based renewable energy infrastructure on marine biodiversityon the European institutions and the Member States not to endorse TEN-T infrastructure projects that contribute to the impoverishment of the Union’s natural capital and to the deterioration of air quality, do not meet the needs expressed by citizens and by local communities, are not sustainable from an economic and financial point of view and increase the uncertainty surrounding the achievement of the objectives of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Urges the Member States to make greater efforts to preserve the use and integrity of fresh water reserves due to the uncertainties surrounding the possibility of achieving the sub-objective set out in this regard in the 7th EAP; calls on the Member States to remedy as a matter of priority the poor state of surface waters as the objectives in this area are unlikely to be met by 2020; calls on the competent authorities in the Member States to tackle the pressures on water bodies, by eliminating the causes of water pollution at source, establishing areas where it is forbidden to draw off water for hydroelectric purposes and ensuring the maintenance of ecological flows along rivers; calls on the Commission not to delay in drawing up the conformity assessment for the second cycle of river basin management plans adopted by the Member States under the Water Framework Directive;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18b. Calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to commit themselves to agreeing to the need to set ambitious rules against the use and degradation of soil, thereby filling a gap in EU environmental legislation which, together with the lack of common standards regarding the operations to be undertaken to decontaminate polluted environmental compartments, hinders the realisation of several priority objectives of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Urges further reform of the CAP to incentivise a food production system which is better aligned with environmental needs and which safeguards food security now anthe Commission to propose a new CAP reform to achieve a sustainable agri-food system which is fully compatible with the need to preserve a healthy environment, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions due to intensive farming and the processing and production activities of the food industry and to maintain and increase food safety levels in the Union; Believes that a reformed CAP should favour the agro- environmental transition, by supporting the recovery, use and dissemination of traditional and innovative practices that can overcome the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, supporting cruelty-free breeding methods based ion the future; calls forll recognition of animals as sentient beings, rewarding farming systems and agricultural produce with low environmental impact and/or which provide environmentalcosystem services not currently supplied by the market (e.g. protection of freshwater supplies and soil, natural flood defences and natural pollination) to be rewarded under a reformed CAP; ;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to put animal welfare at the centre of the reform of the CAP; hopes that solutions will be proposed and implemented to overcome the use of cages, which are an instrument of suffering and constraint which is no longer tolerable: each year about 700 million animals are kept in cages in Europe, depriving them of any opportunities for natural behaviour;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Calls onUrges the Commission and the Member States to support improved proposal-writing for regional and city level projects so that EU funds are more accessible, particularly as regards green infrastructure, biodiversity, and the Birds and Habitats Directivesmake greater efforts to safeguard the integrity of the Natura 2000 environmental network and to implement the EU biodiversity strategy by 2020 in view of the far from encouraging prospects of achieving priority objective No 1 of the 7th EAP; Calls on the competent national and regional authorities to draw up management plans including conservation measures to effectively protect environmental values both in SCIs, SACs and SPAs and in natural parks and marine protected areas established under regional, national and transnational rules; rejects any attempt to dismantle the Birds and Habitats Directives, or to weaken the implementation thereof;
Amendment 201 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls for the EU funds under the cohesion and regional development policy to be used rationally in order to meet the priority objectives of the 7th EAP across the board; particular attention should be given to measures and projects aimed at increasing the sustainability of cities in Europe, as required by priority objective No 8 of the 7th EAP; urges the EU and Member States to boost the resilience of urban areas by investing in advanced urban waste water treatment systems, green infrastructure and electromobility and improving the energy performance of public and private buildings; calls for the costs incurred to implement measures and projects aimed at increasing energy efficiency and the share of energy produced from renewable sources as a proportion of the total energy consumed in the EU to be separated from the Stability Pact;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the Member States to redouble their efforts to implement air quality legislation; cCalls on regional authorities to provide a supporting framework, particularly with regard to urban planning and local policy-making,the Commission and the competent national authorities to exercise their control powers to prevent the placing on the market of pollutant, diesel-powered cars that contribute significantly to the release of NO2 into the atmosphere over the limit values set by Directive 2008/50/EC and that do not comply with EU rules on type approvals and emissions of passenger and light commercial vehicles; believes that it is imperative to improve health outcomes in some of the worst affected areastect citizens from the possible recurrence in future of scandals such as Dieselgate, which negatively affected the implementation of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Urges the competent national and regional authorities to adopt plans comprising credible measures to put an end to the problem of exceeding the daily and annual limit values set by EU legislation on fine and ultra-fine particles in agglomerations where air quality is poor; calls on the administrators of the major European cities suffering from poor air quality to follow the example of some mayors who are proposing plans gradually to ban the circulation of pollutant diesel vehicles, to expand the restricted traffic areas and to promote the spread of zero-emissions vehicles; highlights that this is essential to achieve priority objectives Nos 2, 3 and 8 of the 7th EAP;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls on regional and local authorities to adapt city planning and infrastructure for electric vehicles as soon as possiblebase urban planning on compliance with long-term environmental sustainability criteria and to limit the uncontrolled expansion of cities in the EU; calls for the encouragement of the recovery of abandoned or degraded industrial areas and their transformation into spaces aimed at promoting social inclusion and the collaborative economy; calls for the expansion of infrastructure to allow the movement of hybrid and electric vehicles in cities in the EU;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Urges regional and local authorities to make a greater contribution to attaining various objectives and sub- objectives of the 7th EAP by adopting mobility and transport plans based solely on environmental sustainability and economic and financial rationality; believes that these plans should as a matter of priority meet the actual needs of commuters and avoid soil consumption, the degradation of water sources and irrigation networks in agriculture, as well as the destruction of the landscape; cities and regions have to develop and implement policies to encourage the inter- modality and decarbonisation of transport, to discourage the use of private cars, to encourage walking and the expansion of networks of cycle paths and to promote integrated, low-emission systems of collective public mobility, preferably on rails;