25-26 June Environment Council

Date: 04/07/1996

A COMMON position on the marketing of the biocidal products proposal was unanimously reached by ministers after a working group held talks alongside the Council. The proposals foresee that products authorised by one national authority should be authorised automatically by other national authorities within 60 days. Biocides - products which kill living things - include disinfectants, insecticides and household cleaners. The measure now goes back to the Parliament for a second reading.

COUNCIL accepted planned fuel efficiency measures for passenger cars, but ministers were less specific about the target dates for their implementation. They agreed that from 2005, fuel efficiency should be “roughly equivalent to an average consumption of 5 litres/100km for petrol cars and 4.5 litres/100km for diesel cars”. After a debate between car-producing nations and other member states, the text said that the deadline could be delayed until 2010. Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard must now begin talks with car-makers on how to reach the targets.

A COMMON position was reached on the draft directive on emission limits for off-road vehicles such as bulldozers, excavators and harvesters, but not tractors, for which proposals are being prepared. Final adoption, which will depend on MEPs' second reading, would open the door for a system of mutual recognition between the EU and the US. The Council suggested that it should decide on a possible third stage by the end of 2000, and extend the range of machinery covered by the legislation.

A STATEMENT agreed ahead of July's UN's climate change meeting declared that global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were progressing too slowly. Ministers said that stabilising atmospheric CO2 levels would “eventually require global emissions to be less than 50&percent; of current levels of emissions”. After hours of talks, ministers backed the idea of “significant overall reductions of greenhouse gas emissions after 2000 below 1990 levels”, but did not set targets.

WITH only France voting in favour, there was no decision on the proposal to approve a genetically-modified maize seed developed by Ciba-Geigy for commercial use. Bjerregaard said she would report back to the Commission on what action to take next. Council also held an orientation debate on the Commission's proposals to modify the directive on the contained use of GMOs.

MINISTERS also held a debate on the recommendation on keeping animals in zoos, and reached agreement on a mandate for negotiating a convention on environmental impact assessments in a transboundary context and on the conservation of cetaceans in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As part of the pre-accession 'structured dialogue', ministers met environment ministers from Malta and Cyprus.

AMONG the A-points agreed by the Council, ministers gave the Commission a mandate to negotiate an agreement with the US, Canada and Russia on humane trapping standards for animals caught for their fur in an effort to clear up the controversy over the EU's proposed ban on imports of furs caught using leghold traps.