Letter: Input to the EU Environment Council Meeting, Luxembourg, 28 June 2022

As input into the upcoming EU Environment Council Meeting (Luxembourg, 28 June 2022), the Secretary General of the EEB addresses the Environment Ministers of EU Member States in a letter. The letter shares the EEB’s views on some of the issues on the agenda of the forthcoming EU Environment Council, including on how a range of items on the agenda are ever more important in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – notably the Fit for 55 package given the multiple benefits of exiting from fossil-fuel dependency on Russia.

Furthermore, the letter stresses that some actors are instrumentalising concerns about the war to undermine the European Green Deal – as can be seen with attacks on the ETS, also on the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy using flawed arguments of food security concerns. We call upon Environment Ministers to resist those pressures as they do not provide the needed transformative and progressive answers that we need and solutions that exist, and more often reflect private interests or ideological positions rather than the best way forward.

The letter is structured according to our understanding of the 28 June Council Agenda:

1. ETS Revision: Revision of Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading (ETS)
2. Revision of Decision (EU) 2015/1814 (market stability reserve)
3. Fit for 55 package: Revision of Regulation (EU) 2018/842 on binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States from 2021 to 2030 (ESR)
4. Fit for 55 package: Revision of Regulation (EU) 2018/841 on greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF)
5. Fit for 55 package: Revision of Regulation (EU) 2019/631 setting CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and for new light commercial vehicles
6. Fit for 55 package: Regulation establishing a Social Climate Fund
7. Proposal for a Regulation on minimising the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market
8. Regulation on transboundary transfers of waste
9.a. Revision of the fluorinated greenhouse gas regulations
9.b. Revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) and Industrial Emissions Portal Regulation
9.c. Revision of the regulation on the eco-design of products
9.d. Nature Restoration Objectives Regulation