The EU Council is seeking longer approvals for pesticide active substances, alongside extended phase-out periods for banned substances, under an agreed negotiating stance on the proposed food and feed...

The energy commissioner has hinted at a one-year delay to the implementation of the EU Methane Regulation, as a coalition of member states call for faster transition away from fossil fuels with a dedi...

Officials are working on a legislative proposal to delay the implementation of the EU’s Methane Regulation, the European Commission has said, backtracking on previous assertions that recent recommenda...

The EU executive has formally warned national capitals over failures to confirm domestic transposition of recent updates to the industrial emissions directive, as well as implementation of the bloc’s ...

A broad industry coalition has called on the European Commission to maintain predictable rules for renewable hydrogen production, amid mooted plans to scrap current requirements as part of an upcoming...

The Irish presidency has backtracked on tentative plans to adopt a negotiating stance on the pesticides ‘omnibus’ proposal, after it became clear that the text would be unlikely to find a qualified ma...

The French president has urged the European Commission to relax EU legislation on methane emissions and sulphur content in fossil fuels, as petroleum companies face “increasing difficulties” to meet d...

A new rating scheme for energy and water use in data centres would categorise those using nuclear or renewable power as equally sustainable, including when using dedicated small modular reactors.

The Irish presidency intends to come back to discussions on imposing a windfall tax on fossil fuel profits in October, while expecting member states to raise the issue at an informal meeting of financ...

EU leaders are set to refrain from any formal talks on the heatwaves and wildfires that raged across Europe this summer at their next summit, leaving the climate crisis as part of discussions on safeg...

The European Commission president’s key priorities for the coming year include plans to ensure that EU businesses are better positioned to reap the benefits of adapting to a rapidly changing climate.

Irish officials have made slight tweaks to draft EU Council conclusions for this year’s climate conference, including to embrace a set of implementation targets put forward by the COP31 presidency.

Several members of the European Parliament’s lead committee for the revision of the EU carbon market have called for steeper cuts to available emission allowances post-2030, in view of this summer’s e...

The EU’s rulebook on public procurement is set to move beyond mere price considerations to also require qualitative assessments of factors such as environmental impacts.

Berlin has backed calls to exempt small businesses from registration requirements under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, as part of discussions on simplifying a raft of EU green legislati...

Madrid has called for a more comprehensive assessment of potential climate impacts, including of projects funded through the EU budget, alongside a renewed push to impose a climate levy on fossil fuel...

Left-wing MEPs have pushed back against a proposal to cut red tape for environmental releases of genetically modified bacteria, fungi and viruses, warning of the potential for the organisms to cause “...

An advocate-general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said that a requirement for cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies to pay for upgrading sewage treatment plants is contrary to EU law.

Just seven member states have submitted draft national plans by the deadline set under the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), with diplomats pointing to the European Commission’s failure to publish a legally required report on funding gaps.

Member states have discussed removing a requirement under the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) for each country to set up at least one ‘acceleration zone’ with streamlined permitting rules.

The EU has launched a call for tenders for up to seven super-sized data centres for training AI models, despite growing fears around energy and water use from environmentalists.

The European Commission has launched an investigation into multi-million euro compensation payments by Bucharest over changes to support for renewables, following a ruling under a controversial invest...

Possible misappropriation of EU agricultural subsidies soared last year after the adoption of “simplifications” that limited checks for compliance with green conditionality rules, the European Commiss...

The European Commission’s environment chief has urged member states to adhere to a looming end of summer deadline for putting forward draft National Restoration Plans.

Faced with lengthy delays to a planned EU-wide ban on ‘forever chemicals’, the Swedish government has said it aims to impose a national ban for several product classes by 2028.

The EU executive has put forward broad proposals charting the course for the bloc’s cornerstone emissions trading system over the next decade, counting on international credits to compensate a signifi...

National capitals have pushed for extending the circulation of emission allowances under the EU cap and trade scheme to "closer” to 2050, as the European Commission prepares to come forward with a pro...

The European Parliament’s decision to block new rules stripping soybean-based biofuels of their renewable status has come under criticism from Malaysia’s palm oil industry, which has accused the EU of...

The European Commission is set to outline measures to incentivise a shift to electric products and domestic power generation that it estimates would halve the EU’s fossil oil consumption by 2040.

Two researchers behind the sole study relied on by the European Commission to conclude that leather has a limited deforestation footprint have supported a call to maintain the product category within ...

The European Commission has repeated warnings about the “load” on the IT system for complying with the EU’s anti-deforestation law if the current scope is maintained, according to a leaked draft, desp...

Negotiators have reached an agreement on a new legal framework for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which will allow the European Parliament and member states to directly request scientific opini...

Environment ministers have warned that absorbing the LIFE programme into a broader fund could undermine environmental projects and the EU’s green objectives.

The European Commission’s latest ‘omnibus’ package includes a proposal to drop obligations for white goods and other energy-consuming products sold in the EU to come with the bloc’s ubiquitous printed...

The European Commission is mulling support for agricultural innovation to make livestock rearing more sustainable, as campaigners criticise the plan for seeking “technofixes” rather than tackling inte...

The European Parliament has endorsed plans to deregulate genetically modified crops derived through new genomic techniques, after MEPs cast aside a series of amendments that sought to reinsert provisi...

Environmental campaigners have criticised the European Parliament’s decision to formally back the EU-US trade agreement, cautioning that it risks perpetuating the EU’s dependence on “dodgy” suppliers ...

The environment commissioner has outlined plans to accelerate work on secondary legislation and guidance for implementing extended producer responsibility schemes for micropollutant treatment, as memb...

The European Commission has put forward a proposal that would class resource-hungry data centres set up in environmental permitting acceleration zones as being in the overriding public interest.

The EU executive is planning to recommend that member states refrain from imposing penalties for imports breaching the Methane Regulation, in a move criticised by a leading lawmaker as a “confession o...

The European Parliament’s lead negotiator for a proposed regulation aimed at accelerating the EU’s environmental permitting processes has put forward draft amendments seeking to remove provisions gran...

National envoys in Brussels have agreed to seek to reduce the administrative requirements for conventional aerial spraying of pesticides, through potentially far-reaching amendments to a proposal to e...

A leading S&D lawmaker has criticised the European Commission over apparent efforts to embellish the numbers underpinning a draft proposal to remove leather from the scope of the EU’s anti-deforestati...

The environment commissioner has indicated that she is open to put forward far-reaching tweaks to the EU’s nature directives, as the Commission moves ahead with a review of the long-standing legislati...

Chemical safety rules for products used by babies and children under the REACH Regulation are set to be tightened under a proposal set out by the European Commission this week.

Leather and retreaded tyres will be removed from the scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), but the primary legal text will remain unchanged, the European Commission has confirmed.

Four member states have been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over energy and environment breaches and Hungary faces further action over its solo interpretation of the Energy Charter Tr...

The EU executive will seek regulatory “deep cleaning” of climate and environmental laws under a new cross-cutting simplification plan, as promised tweaks to the Better Regulation guidelines remain on ...

Several national capitals have urged the European Commission to postpone looming requirements under the EU Methane Regulation as part of efforts to safeguard supplies of fossil gas to the EU.

The European Commission president has outlined a series of imminent measures to reduce the EU’s “over-dependency” on fossil fuels, including a renewed push for energy efficiency and greater electrific...