In 2019, the world saw a loss of 11.9 million hectares of tree cover, including 3.8 million hectares (the size of Belgium) of primary tropical forest. That is an increase of almost 3% compared to the previous year. In the Brazilian Amazon area alone, last summer deforestation rose by 88% compared to the year before. Currently forests and other valuable eco-systems and their inhabitants are not only threatened by temporary fires but face complete destruction.

Ahead of the European Council that will convene this afternoon, the president of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Iratxe García, met with the PES president Sergei Stanishev, with the S&D heads of government as well as S&D Commissioners.

 From the PES leaders’ pre-summit meeting, Iratxe García said:

Mit der Verabschiedung ihres Binnenmarktgesetzes geht die britische Regierung auf Konfrontationskurs mit der Europäischen Union. Die EU-Kommission kündigt nun rechtliche Schritte gegen London an und leitet ein Vertragsverletzungsverfahren ein.

Socialists and Democrats welcomed the publication today from the European Commission of the first EU wide report on the rule of law, as an additional tool to detect deficiencies at the earliest possible stage across all EU member states. Nevertheless, we reiterate our call for an efficient tool to defend democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights in Europe, given that despite the article 7 procedure that was launched against Poland and Hungary, the Polish and Hungarian governments are ruthlessly continuing their anti-democratic ways.