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The EU has implemented the world's largest carbon-pricing system, the emissions trading system (ETS). While pricing emissions can encourage industrial decarbonisation, it also risks carbon leakage, whereby EU companies move their production abroad. To date, the EU has mitigated carbon leakage through free allocations to certain industries, but with rising climate ambition and higher carbon prices, the Commission seeks to phase out free allocations. In parallel, a novel carbon border adjustment mechanism ...

On 7 June 2022, the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the legislative proposal to amend the 2014 Radio Equipment Directive. The amended directive, proposed by the European Commission on 23 September 2021, is a first step towards mandating a common charger for mobile phones and other small portable devices, which will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C receptacle and will have to incorporate the USB Power Delivery communication protocol. A separate initiative ...

As part of the 'Fit for 55' package, the Commission is proposing a revision to the EU's emissions trading system (ETS) as regards carbon dioxide emissions from aviation. The proposal seeks to ensure that the sector contributes to the EU's climate targets through increased auctioning of allowances, with an end to free allowances from 2027, and by applying the linear reduction of aviation allowances. The proposal will also integrate, into the revised ETS, the International Civil Aviation Organization's ...

The EU's effort-sharing legislation covers greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in sectors not included in the EU emissions trading system. A wide range of sources account for these emissions, such as petrol and diesel used for road transport, energy used for heating and cooling in buildings, animal digestion and fertilisers used in agriculture, waste treatment, and small industries. To cut the emissions in these sectors, the EU effort-sharing legislation establishes binding targets and sets up annual ...

On 9 December 2020, along with its counter-terrorism agenda, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a regulation to reinforce the mandate of Europol, the EU law enforcement cooperation agency. The proposed regulation aims principally at rendering Europol's cooperation with private parties more effective; responding to the agency's 'big data challenge', by providing a legal basis for processing large and complex datasets, including personal data of data subjects not related to a crime; and ...

As part of the 'Fit for 55' package, the Commission presented a legislative proposal to review the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The aim of the review is to align the EU ETS Directive with the EU target set out in the European Climate Law to reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 55 % by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. To this end, the amount of emission allowances would be reduced, fewer allowances would be allocated for free, and the ETS would be extended to maritime transport. This would ...

On 14 July 2021, as part of the 'fit for 55' package, the Commission presented a legislative proposal for a revision of the Regulation setting CO2 emission performance standards for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (vans). To raise the contribution of the road transport sector to the EU's climate targets, the proposal sets more ambitious 2030 targets for reducing the CO2 emissions of new cars and vans and allows only zero-emission vehicles from 2035. In the European Parliament, the proposal ...

On 21 September 2021, the Commission published its proposal for a new EU scheme of generalised preferences (GSP). Two of the current scheme's three components are due to expire at the end of 2023, which would deprive developing countries of a vital opportunity to trade under preferential terms with the EU. Therefore, renewing the scheme appears to be both a necessity and an opportunity to strengthen its conditionality in the light of lessons learned and the increased urgency for dealing with the ...

Parliament will use its powers of oversight in the revived 'question time' set for the July plenary session to question the Commission on the EU's level of ambition ahead of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the main international instrument on biodiversity protection. On 22 June 2022, the European Commission tabled two core legislative proposals under the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030: an EU nature restoration ...

In December 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector, otherwise referred to as the digital markets act (DMA). During its July 2022 plenary session, Parliament is set to vote on the political agreement reached with the Council by its negotiators.