Environmental NEWS

At Belgian level

02/06/18: The Brussels Government has adopted the Energy Climate Air Plan which notably aims to meet EU requirements in air quality matters.

30/05/18: Brussels launches a Climate Plan aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% compared to 1990 and to increase the share of renewable energies to 27%.

25/05/18: The Council of Ministers has approved the ruling which prohibits the marketing, sale and use by private individuals of glyphosate-based herbicides.

23/05/18: The Wallonia-Brussels Federation government has approved the launch of a single public contract for the supply of green electricity and natural gas to a large number of its buildings during the period 2019-2022.

16/05/18: The Federal Minister of Agriculture, Denis Ducarme (MR), has decided to ask for an exemption for the use of neonicotinoids by beet farmers in accordance with Article 53 of the EU Regulation on the placing of plant protection products on the market.

30/03/18: The Belgian Federal Government and the three regional governments have reached an agreement on an Energy Pact for 2030-2050, which confirms the willingness to phase out the need for nuclear energy by 2025.

04/03/2018: Entry into force of the Ordinance of 25/01/2018 amending the Law of 14/08/1986 on the protection and wellbeing of animals prohibiting the slaughtering of sheep, goats, pigs and reared game outside of a slaughterhouse, for private consumption, in the Region of Brussels-Capital. Slaughtering for private consumption will therefore have to be carried out in an approved slaughterhouse.

At international and EU level

14/06/18: The four directives comprising the "circular economy" package have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Europe is therefore renewing its recycling targets. But they have been revised downwards in relation to the initial ambition of 2014.

14/06/2018: The EU sets itself a binding target on renewable energies increased to 32% for 2030 compared to the 27% initially proposed by the Commission.

11/06/18: No unanimous declaration of the G7 on climate change and oceans. Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the EU have reaffirmed in a separate paragraph their strong commitment to "implementing the Paris Agreement through ambitious climate action (…)"

05/06/18: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has finalised its special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C.

31/05/18: The Court of Justice of the EU has ordered Italy to pay a fine of €25 million and a penalty payment of €30 million for each six-month period of delay for its misapplication of EU legislation on the collection and treatment of urban waste water.

30/05/18: The European Commission’s regulations prohibiting the placing on the EU market and the use of seeds treated with imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam have been published in the Official Journal of 30 May, following an agreement by representatives of the Member States on 27 April on a proposal by the EU executive.

28/05/18: The European Commission has asked Germany to recover "illegal aid from certain large electricity users exempted from network charges" for the period 2012-2013. It considers that this aid goes against EU State aid rules and that nothing justified the exemption.

28/05/18: The EU executive has presented a draft directive providing for a ban on five categories of single-use products that cause plastic ocean pollution.

24/05/18: Ten families in Europe, Africa and the Pacific attack the European Parliament and Council for insufficient EU climate policy before the General Court.

17/05/18: The European Commission has decided on Thursday to refer six Member States to the Court of Justice of the European Union for having breached their obligations in air quality matters.

17/05/18: The General Court has annulled several provisions of the Commission's Regulation of 14 August 2013 which imposed restrictions on the use of fipronil. This substance, marketed by BASF, is causing the decline of bee populations.

10/05/18: The United Nations paves the way for a Global Pact for the Environment. Such a resolution has been adopted by a large majority.

04/05/18: The General Court has rejected on Friday 4 May the appeal lodged by nearly 1,500 people against the Regulation of 20 April 2016 on vehicle emissions. This regulation defines the nitrogen oxide emission limits not to be exceeded at the time of the new Real Driving Emissions (RDE) tests.

20/04/18: The Commission’s regulation defines the criteria allowing for a substance to be identified as an endocrine disruptor.

17/04/18: The Court of Justice of the European Union has punished Poland for having carried out works resulting in the loss of part of the Bialowieska primeval forest (Bialowieska Forest).

05/04/18: The Supreme Court of Colombia orders the government to put an end to deforestation and requires provinces and municipalities to prepare a plan of action in order to protect the Amazonian rainforest. In order to protect this vital ecosystem, the Supreme Court has recognised the Colombian Amazon as a "legal subject entity".

22/03/18: The European Commission has given the go-ahead for the merger of two agrochemical giants: the American Monsanto and the German Bayer on the condition that Bayer sells a large share of its existing business activities to a third party in order to "address the parties’ overlaps in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture".