The Week ahead

For as long as Russia's war in Ukraine continues to put economic pressure on Europe, the EPP Group wants to postpone new laws that make food more expensive or endanger much-needed projects to build houses or renewable energy sites. On Monday, European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans will come to Parliament’s Environment and Agriculture Committees respectively to try to prove the EPP Group wrong. The EPP Group wants to protect biodiversity, but the current proposals on nature restoration and pesticides are not fit for purpose. We will not support any laws that could endanger the roll out of renewable energy and food security. "We cannot sign a blank cheque on those laws only to then find out that this approach does not work on the ground", said Esther de Lange MEP, EPP Group Vice-Chairwoman in charge of Economy and Environment. “The EPP Group is committed to the Green Deal and to the green economy, but we want this to happen with the farmers, not against the farmers”, underlined Siegfried Mureşan MEP, EPP Group Vice-Chairman in charge of Budget and Structural Policies.

Disrupting the financial gains of crime is a priority for the EPP Group, as currently only about 2% of proceeds of crime are recovered in Europe. On Tuesday, Parliament’s committee on Civil Liberties and Home Affairs will vote on a new instrument to recover and confiscate assets in the fight against crime. “We want to make it easier to identify, freeze, confiscate and manage assets resulting from crime, including in cross-border cases”, said Loránt Vincze, Parliament’s responsible MEP on the issue. “We will also make it easier for property to be restituted to victims and for confiscated property to be used for public interest or social purposes”, concluded Vincze.

The EPP Group wants the European Green Deal to be both 'green' and a 'deal'. On Wednesday, the European Parliament's Environment Committee will vote on the so-called Industrial Emissions Directive, the new rules to reduce harmful emissions in industry. "If we want the Green Deal to work in practice, we must turn it into an opportunity for citizens and industry. This must go hand-in-hand. Only through creating opportunities will we make Europe a technological pioneer", stressed the EPP Group’s Radan Kanev MEP, the European Parliament's chief negotiator of the file.