Brussels: President Elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker announced that after examination of European Parliament’s request the Health Commissioner also in the new Commission will have the responsibility for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. This was announced by Manfred Weber, chairman of the biggest political group in the European Parliament (EPP- Christian Democrats) in the group meeting on Wednesday.
In his initial concept Juncker suggested to entrust the polish candidate Elzbieta Bienkowska with the task who will be responsible for internal market and industry. This raised a lot of opposition from experts, in and outside European Parliament. Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety has asked three times for leaving the responsibility with the Health-Commissioner.
“I am very pleased that our good arguments convinced Jean-Claude Juncker”, said Peter Liese, (CDU), medical doctor by profession and spokesman on health of the EPP- Group.
"The European Union needs an ambitious and effective strategy for energy efficiency until 2030", said the spokesman on environment of the biggest political group in the European Parliament (EPP- Christian Democrats), Dr. Peter Liese. "To reduce CO2 and the consumption of fossil fuels, like gas and oil, no other way is more cost-efficient. The construction of new nuclear power plants, renewable energies, and CSS are much more expensive", said Liese who was also the rapporteur of the ENVI committee on the energy efficiency directive.
Today, the European Commission presented its strategy on energy efficiency until 2030. With this communication the Commission completes a paper from spring where it already laid down targets on CO2 reduction (40 %) and renewable energies (27 %). With modern technologies like efficient boilers and electricity saving household products the European Union shall reach 30 % energy savings compared to a base year until 2030. So, the agreed target lies above the 25 % preferred by outgoing Commission-President Barroso and is significantly higher than the renewables target. European Parliament had adopted a resolution prepared by its Environmental and Industry Committees demanding a target of 40 %.
The European Parliament has voted in the second round for the strengthening of the European emissions trading. To stabilize the system certificates are to be withdrawn temporally from the market. Initially, a price of about 30 Euros was calculated but in the last months it was constantly below 5 Euros
With such a low price there is only little incentive for investments in low-carbon technologies and there are no revenues for important projects financed through climate programs.