The Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Mr.Andreas Gregoriou, represented Cyprus at the EU Environment Council, which took place today in Brussels.
The main focus of the Council's work was the exchange of views on the proposal for a Regulation on nature restoration. The proposal aims to contribute to the restoration of European habitats, 80% of which are in poor condition.
In his intervention, Mr Gregoriou pointed out the need for the proposal to be, on the one hand, sufficiently ambitious, but at the same time realistic. In this context, he stressed that the individual targets and the non-downgrading provision should retain the necessary degree of flexibility to allow Member States, especially small ones like Cyprus, with limited resources, to comply with the obligations of the Regulation. Data gaps and the proportion of unknown areas, particularly with regard to marine areas, must be taken into account, he continued.
The Czech Presidency also briefed ministers on the progress of work on the proposal to revise the Industrial Emissions Directive. Gregoriou indicated that there are provisions that will be difficult to implement in our country. In particular, he expressed Cyprus' reservation regarding the proposed admission threshold for livestock units, which, as he pointed out, is low, which significantly increases the total number of units that will be covered by the Directive, with negative consequences for the sector, due to the disproportionate costs they are expected to bear.
Finally, the European Commission presented the new package of legislative proposals on the circular economy and the zero pollution package. Commenting specifically on the revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, Mr. Gregoriou expressed Cyprus' reservation regarding the large number of new obligations that will be required, the increased implementation costs, the tight timetables, as well as the reduction of the population threshold of the agglomerations that will be covered by the revised Directive.
(MF/MX)
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