Parliament wraps up its work before elections

Publication date: 22 April 2009

MEPs meeting in Strasbourg this week will vote on a raft of environmental proposals as they wrap up their work before June's European parliament elections. The parliament will then only gather one more time in early May.

Few environmental proposals are scheduled for May's final plenary session, according to a parliamentary source. The first plenary after the elections will be in mid-July, during which MEPs will elect a new parliament president. Environment committee members will be elected either then or at the end of July.

Over the next three days, MEPs are set to approve compromise agreements reached with EU governments on the liberalisation of the European energy market, extending an existing eco-design directive to energy-related products, a road transport package and a regulation to improve the pesticide statistics.

MEPs will also approve a deal reached with governments in mid-April on proposals to revise the bloc's Marco Polo funding scheme for green freight transport. The text agreed is close to that adopted by the parliament’s transport committee at the end of March, an aide to rapporteur Ulrich Stockmann told ENDS.

The full parliament will adopt a first-reading position on proposals to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, a new green tyre label , and plans to combat illegal timber. And MEPs will vote on a non-legislative report calling on the commission to propose sustainability requirements for all timber products.

In addition, MEPs will vote on plans to criminalise elements of ship source pollution. Non-legislative transport plans to be voted on are intelligent transport systems for roads, a call for EU action on urban mobility problems like congestion and pollution, and reaction to a green paper on the future of TEN-T policy.

MEPs will also adopt a resolution saying current EU legislation is inadequate to deal with the risks of nanomaterials and a report from the commission and council calling for an EU-wide nuclear safety framework.

Source: ENDS