EU ministers confirm stance on marine law

EU foreign ministers confirmed a governmental agreement on an EU marine strategy directive on Monday, following a political agreementon the law in December (EED 13/07/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/23601). This will launch a second reading by the European parliament, which has proposed a more environmentally ambitious text (EED 18/12/06 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/22284).

Ministers were in Brussels for the last meeting of the council of ministers before its summer break. The council backed a plan to add the pesticide endosulfan to a list of chemicals subject to global phase-out under the UN's Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (EED 02/06/06 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/21093).

But it did not back a European commission recommendation to also include the herbicide trifluralin in the list. Both appear on the EU's priority list of pollutants under the water framework directive (EED 28/06/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/23501).

Ministers backed a European commission policy paper calling for a scaling down of the Environment for Europe process, a pan-European environmental discussion forum stretching across 57 countries (EED 01/06/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/23318). They also called for further global action on desertification.

Follow-up: EU council of ministers http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/index.htm, tel: +32 2 281 6211, plus council minutes http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/gena/95456.pdf and commission recommendations on POPs http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/07/st11/st11777.en07.pdf.