April EU parliament plenary round up

This month's plenary session in Strasbourg saw the European Parliament vote through a compromise agreement on setting green design requirements for EU energy using products.

The European Commission welcomed finalisation of the law, which it said would deliver "long-lasting and increasing energy savings". Environmental group EEB warned that current funding levels were insufficient to implement the directive.

Parliament also approved at first reading a European Commission proposal to limit the use of solvents trichlorobenzene (TCB) and toluene.  MEPs introduced just two minor amendments, in the form of exemptions for the use of TCB in chlorination reactions, and the manufacture of TATB (a compound used to improve the safety of explosives).

On Thursday, MEPs voted on car recyclablity to extend by 18 months a deadline proposed by the Commission for car manufacturers to meet the requirements of the 2000 end-of-life vehicles (ELV) directive.

The parliament also approved a resolution on short-sea shipping calling for better promotion of short sea transfers as an environmentally sound link in Europe's transport network.

MEPs rubber stamped an agreement with national governments on the sulphur content of ship fuels, detailed yesterday by Environment Daily.

 It also complained that the Commission had exceeded its mandate to amend the restrictions on hazardous substances (RoHS) directive, as we reported on Tuesday.

Follow-up: European parliament http://www.europarl.eu.int/, April plenary agenda http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PROG=AGENDA&L=EN&REF=2005-04&QUERY=ALL-SIT&NAV=S.