Rapporteur lashes out at Council's 'weak' conclusions

摘要

The conclusions adopted by member states at the 19 December 2011 Council are "weak" on biodiversity. Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE, Netherlands), rapporteur for the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment (ENVI) - and its new deputy chair - opened the presentation of his draft report on the new EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 with this denunciation of member states' lack of political will. He set the tone for the ensuing debate. His own-initiative report stresses the need for the European Union to adopt a clear and practical approach, and an action plan rather than guidelines, while inviting member states to show more political commitment, ambition and courage. The idea is to keep from having to reach the same conclusion in 2020 as in 2010, namely that the Union failed by a long shot to achieve its objectives.