Tomorrow the European Parliament will vote on the final report of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer. Since 2020, the fight against cancer has been a priority for the European Union. The Christian Democratic EPP group had convinced Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and successfully demanded a mandate for this Special Committee. "We want to make life easier for all those who are fighting cancer, especially patients and researchers," says MEP and health policy spokesperson of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats) Dr med. Peter Liese. "Cross-border research is essential to fight cancer. This is true for all cancer types, but especially for the rare ones as well as those impacting children." According to Prof Angelika Eggert, Director of the Clinic for Paediatrics with a focus on oncology and haematology at the Charité in Berlin it is only through European cooperation that sufficient patients, for example for clinical trials, can be gathered quickly enough to introduce innovation in the market in a timely manner. However, researchers suffer from excessive bureaucracy and different regulations across the member states. "Change is needed urgently" says Liese. "We need a uniform implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation and a structure in the European Commission to which researchers can turn when they encounter obstacles, in order to then remove them together”. Both points are included in the text of the Special Committee. We want to facilitate cross-border research, rolling out the red carpet for researchers, rather than putting obstacles in their way" says Liese. In addition, MEPs call for tailor-made incentives to promote the development of medical drugs treating paediatric cancer as well as incentives to facilitate access to cross-border clinical trials," says Liese, who himself worked as a doctor in a paediatric clinic.
Read more: European Parliament to vote on the final report of Special Committee on Beating Cancer
“The main cause of the high-energy prices are our dependence on fossil fuels and the behaviour of Russia.” This was clearly expressed by two key MEPs in a video conference for journalists on Wednesday. Peter Liese and Andrius Kubilius explained that the current increase in the energy price including electricity prices is driven by scarcity of gas, and mainly caused because of Russia’s dominating position on the market and EU’s high dependence on Russian gas. Andrius Kubilius presented clear evidence that activities of Russia in European gas markets result in an unprecedented surge of natural gas prices in the EU.
Mr Kubilius says that the current increase in the energy price, including electricity prices, is driven by the artificial crisis in European gas market. The EPP MEP explained that evidence, collected by International Energy Agency, is showing very clearly that Gazprom in the last quarter of 2021 cut the supply of gas to European markets by 24% if to compare with data of 2020. That resulted in a huge increase of gas prices on European markets. According to Andrius Kubilius, the goal of Gazprom is to fight the implementation of the Green Deal, because it would diminish the consumption of gas in Europe by 60-70% in 2035. For the Kremlin that is a very dangerous perspective and they started the war against Green Deal. The increase of prices is not influenced by the implementation of the Green Deal, but by Gazprom fighting against the Green Deal1.
"It is high time for carbon pricing in the maritime sector,” said Peter Liese, rapporteur for the EU ETS revision in advance of the presentation of his Draft report in the ENVI committee on Thursday. “The European parliament has continuously asked for including the maritime sector in the ETS, and it is good that the Commission included in its proposal. I would prefer a global solution, but we clearly have to state that IMO failed to address the problem. This is also shared by companies in this sector.”
Dr. Reinhard Lüken, Managing Director of the Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Association (VSM) agreed: “IMO member states have so far missed every opportunity to collectively send credible positive signals for determined climate action. Therefore, although we prefer global provisions as a global industry, we are now convinced that the EU must lead the way for the maritime industry if we are to achieve results in time. If the EU succeeds in combining ambitious climate protection with economic success, the European model will quickly find imitators and thus promote comprehensive global progress.”
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The ETS reform is the biggest piece of environmental legislation that European Union ever discussed. It not only covers the existing sectors such as electricity and energy intensive industries, also emissions from the shipping sector will be included and the Commission in my view rightly proposed a new ETS for heating and road transport.
Please find here my draft report: draft report.
The deadline to make changes to the proposal and submit amendments is February 16. To give everybody the opportunity to contribute with good ideas and possible compromise proposals, I invite you for a public consultation on my report. Priority will be given to stakeholders, which means to NGOs and industry representatives, that have a direct expertise and interest but didn’t have a chance to make their point elsewhere. However, everybody is invited of course. I am looking forward to an enriching debate.
The Webex web conference will take place on:
Monday, February 07, 2022
13h30 to 16 h
Please sign up via a response to this e-mail address indicating your name and organisation: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The dial-in-data will be sent to you on Monday morning.
Best regards,
Peter Liese