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The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Mr.Petros Xenophontos, participated in the EU Environment Council meeting, which took place today in Brussels.
In the framework of the Council, the Ministers adopted a General Approach on the Regulation on packaging and packaging waste. Mr Xenophontos supported the compromise text, expressing satisfaction that Cyprus' main concerns had been taken into account. In particular, he welcomed the correction factor for tourism, the reduction of the targets for exemption from return deposit schemes and the new review clause for reuse targets. It welcomed the flexibility that has been added to achieve the waste reduction targets.
The '27' also exchanged views on the new legislative proposal for a Directive, concerning a legal framework for soil monitoring. The Minister welcomed this proposal, noting that the new framework, together with the existing legal framework, would give new impetus to the protection of the Union's soils from the multiple threats they face. He noted that it is important to maintain flexibility for member states in handling historically contaminated sites based on risk assessment, and that member states should be given time for harmonisation but also an increased timeframe to start monitoring the indicators included in the proposal.
Further, the Council held a political debate on the proposal for a Regulation on a monitoring framework for resilient European forests. The Minister welcomed the new proposal for a directive, stating that he supported and shared the objective of a single and harmonised monitoring framework for forests in the EU. He noted that the new proposal covers the necessary aspects to create an effective forest monitoring system, which will provide comparable, standardised and harmonised data between member states. It noted, however, that the additional costs that Member States will have to bear in order to introduce new monitoring methods in accordance with the requirements of the new proposal are not easy to estimate precisely.
Finally, over lunch, Ministers exchanged views in view of the Commission's proposal for the EU's 2040 emission reduction target.
(BAT/EP/AF)
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