Today Socialists and Democrats welcomed the ruling of the General Court according to which the European Commission exceeded its powers by allowing much higher NOX emissions. It weakened emission limits through the back door by granting the car industry very large deviation margins to emit the legal limits established the new Real Driving Emissions tests regulation. With this ruling, the General Court upholds the actions brought by the cities of Paris, Brussels and Madrid against the Commission.

 

 

The Socialists and Democrats led today a vote in the economic and monetary affairs committee to facilitate private investment in low-carbon technologies, such as renewable energies, across the EU and thereby meeting the Paris Agreement objectives. The new harmonised rules on benchmarks will help enhance transparency in sustainable financing by establishing clear criteria on sustainability and by fighting ‘greenwashing’.

S&D MEPs have urged national ministers to swiftly adopt proposals to protect whistleblowers in the EU. The European Parliament last month backed a series of measures that will ensure those who expose unethical or illegal behaviour do not face repercussions.

 

Socialists and Democrats want the next seven-year financial framework to give the impulse to the European Union to change its current course of growing inequalities and lay the foundations of a socially and environmentally sustainable society.

 

Today the plenary voted on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which supports the development of high-performing, sustainable and interconnected Trans-European Networks in the areas of transport, energy and telecommunications.