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During its meeting on 5 March, the ENVI committee members had an exchange with the Commission on the EU’s response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and in particular on the tasks of the new Corona response team, consisting of Commissioners Stella Kyriakides (Health and Food Safety), Janez Lenarčič (Crisis management), Ylva Johansson (border-related issues), Adina Vălean (mobility) and Paolo Gentiloni (macroeconomic aspects).

During its meeting on 5 March, members voted in favour of the report on the Union Civil Protection Mechanism programme post-2020. Saving lives of peoples in the midst of earthquakes, hurricanes and floods; fighting deadly and destructive forest fires; evacuating EU nationals in crisis situation - including health crisis: these are just some of the tasks the Union Civil Protection Mechanism has been tasked with in its support of Member States.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg was in ENVI on Wednesday 4 March in an extraordinary ENVI committee meeting that was open to all Members.

Please note that the European Parliament has taken some precautionary measures regarding the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. The ENVI secretariat has been asked to share the message hereunder with all guests and external participants of the forthcoming committee meetings. As you are surely aware, the novel coronavirus COVID 19 has now also reached Europe. Some countries and regions not yet affected have started to report community transmission of the virus.

The co-legislators agreed on the update of the more than 20-year old and the introduction of new rules to further improve the quality of and access to drinking water for everyone increasing therefore consumer confidence in tap drinking water. The revision of the rules follows-up, inter alia, on the successful citizens’ initiative Right2Water, which gathered more than 1.8 million signatures.

Members of the ENVI Committee on Tuesday 18 February 2020 voted by acclamation their second and third Vice-Chairs: Mr César LUENA (S&D) and Mr Dan-Ştefan MOTREANU (EPP) respectively. The vote was needed to replace former MEP Seb Dance following Brexit and to replace third Vice-Chair Cristian Bușoi after his election as Chair of the ITRE committee.

Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides was in ENVI on Tuesday 18 February for her first exchange with ENVI Members in this legislature. The exchange was an opportunity to hear from the Commissioner about her priorities in the key health and food safety portfolio. The Commissioner will present to MEPs how the Commission is confronting, together with Member States, the deadly coronavirus Covid-19.

The Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee remained the biggest committee in the European Parliament after the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU. Despite the overall reduction in the number of MEPs for the whole Parliament (from 751 to 705), ENVI increased the number of full members from 76 to 81, reflecting the saliency of ENVI issues among MEPs.