The European Parliament has put aside scientific evidence and asked the European Commission to stop any recycling of PVC in Europe that might contain a plasticiser known as DEHP, despite evidence from EU experts that the substance poses minimal risk to public health.

The substance has been banned in new PVC under the EU’s Regulation for chemical authorisation known as REACH, but the parliament wants all recycled PVC containing DEHP to go to landfill, rather than be used for recycling plastic products, at a significant environmental cost.

Shutting down the recycling of PVC not only undermines the EU’s commitments to recycling, but it will also significantly drive up the environmental costs of PVC, with the environmental cost of virgin PVC being around 28 times higher that of recycled PVC.

Responding to the vote, Julie Girling, European Conservatives and Reformists Group environment spokesman, said:

“We should follow real facts and science here, and all the scientific evidence said that there is minimal risk to consumers in recycling PVC containing DEHP. We are supposed to be promoting a culture of recycling in Europe and yet we start trying to ban the recycling of everyday plastics based on poor science. We set up a chemicals authorisation procedure so that chemicals would be authorised by facts and evidence, not by politicians making populist assertions.”

A European parliament vote confirming the immediate repayment of £630 million to the UK has been welcomed by Conservative MEPs.

The technical adjustment under the Draft Amending Budget process will be followed next year by a separate rebate payment to the UK.

However, UKIP today abstained in a vote to expedite the adoption of the parliamentary report, which will allow the £630 million to be returned to the Treasury by December 1.

Conservative Budgets Spokesman Richard Ashworth, MEP for the South East, said UKIP’s stance was not unexpected, given its poor past record in scrutinising parliamentary business.

“I’m not surprised at all,” he said. “Too often UKIP votes against or abstains on proposals without actually looking at the content. They just see EU and oppose.”

Simpler and more effective European rules covering the safety of workers were demanded today by Conservative MEP’s as they voted against moves to impose further legislation on businesses.

Employment and Social Affairs spokesman Anthea McIntyre said that while the European Parliament’s new strategic framework on health and safety at work broadly addressed the right issues, Conservatives could not support proposals for new laws covering harassment and violence in the workplace and musco-skeletal conditions.

“We have to simplify European health and safety legislation and we have to find a way to remove administrative burdens while maintaining protection for workers,” she said. “By removing complexity I believe we will increase compliance.

“Action taken at EU level must be based on clearly identified risk and be proportionate to that risk. We cannot eliminate risk altogether but we can manage it.

“If we wanted to eliminate all risks we would never cross the road. Instead we manage that risk. We educate people to take care when crossing the road, we look both ways, we have traffic signals.”

The UK already has one of the best records in the world for workplace health and safety. For example, 48,000 people were involved in building the Olympic Stadium in London without any fatalities during the course of the project.

The Health and Safety Executive believes that the simplification of current EU rules could ease the burden on 220,000 small and medium-sized businesses with no impact on health and safety protection.

Miss McIntyre, MEP for the West Midlands, added: “We want to see simplification, increased compliance and the management of risk with the engagement of workers.”

Conservative MEPs have welcomed recognition from the European Commission that stronger anti-dumping policies are needed to deal with the situation in the steel industry.

The comments came in a debate in the European Parliament on the steel industry which was added to the week’s agenda following pressure from Conservative MEPs

The debate was an opportunity for the Commission to make a statement on measures being taken to ensure that British steel is able to compete on an equal footing on the global market.

The Commissioner for the Internal Market, Elzbieta Bienkowska, said she recognised that stronger policies were needed to deal with the allegations of “dumping”, where the EU is flooded with cheap imports of Chinese steel, threatening domestically produced steel.

She also confirmed that various trade defence instruments were being used, such as anti-subsidy measures and registration of imports.

Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, and Industry Spokesman Ashley Fox said : “Conservative MEPs have led calls for the European Commission to take action against abuses of the laws of the market place, and I am pleased that we were able to secure this vital debate.

“This month’s meeting of EU ministers, called for by UK Business Secretary Sajid Javid, showed strong agreement on the need to take concrete actions, including speeding up investigations into unfair trade practices.

“The current situation in the steel industry is threatening jobs and livelihoods, and we will continue to press for EU action to ensure that anti-competitive behaviour is stopped, and that our steel industry is able to compete fairly in the global market”.

International Trade Spokesman, Emma McClarkin added: “This debate was much needed, but we now urgently need the European Commission to take action, by making sure we are using all the anti-dumping measures that that the EU has at its disposal.

“I have been pressing the Commission to investigate whether there is scope to add to anti-dumping duties on steel that are already in place.

“The EU is often slow to react in these situations, but the UK steel sector simply doesn’t have time to wait”.

Internal Market Spokesman, Vicky Ford commented: “Some member states want to give more support to energy intensive industries, but they need to have state aid clearance.

“I am not asking the Commission to bend or break competition rules, but a decision needs to be made urgently.

“Competitiveness in this industry is key, but we need to use all the tools in our toolbox and act together, quickly”.

“Decisions in this sector have long-lasting consequences, moth-balling is not an option as one can’t just switch a blast furnace back on. We need to make key decisions and they need to be made fast.”

Conservative MEPs have backed new rules designed to ensure clearer information and greater choice for consumers when buying insurance products.

The so-called Insurance Distribution Directive covers general insurance products, including car insurance and life insurance policies.

The directive takes a “minimum harmonisation” approach, meaning that existing practices in individual EU countries will be allowed to continue.

Consumers and retailers will be given enhanced information about the price and costs of products, and whether the insurance seller has an economic incentive or receives commission, so that an informed decision can be made.

The directive also brings in a new standardised product information document for non-life insurance documents. This was originally overly detailed and burdensome, however Conservative MEPs have succeeded in ensuring that the information required will be much less prescriptive than proposed.

Conservative Spokesman on Economic Affairs, Dr Kay Swinburne MEP commented: “This is yet another example of Conservative MEPs working to ensure that EU legislation is used to bring advantages to consumers, rather than simply create new burdens.”

Conservative MEPs have voted against a European Parliament report which calls for a seat for the EU at the UN Security Council.

The report makes a series of proposals for an enhanced EU role within the UN, including a permanent seat on an enlarged Security Council. It also calls for a World Parliament through the auspices of the UN and the creation of other new UN Institutions such as a Sustainable Development Council.

Labour, the SNP and Plaid Cymru all voted in favour of the report, but the Conservatives believe that, while reform of the UN is necessary,  the UK has a key role to play at the UN and retaining its own Security Council seat is vital.

Foreign Affairs and Human Rights spokesman, London MEP Charles Tannock, said: “This report was supposed to be about establishing areas where Member States could willingly co-operate together at the UN in instances where common positions exist.

“Unfortunately the report has been hijacked by those seeking to push the agenda for a single EU seat at the UN, which has no support in our group.”

Brussels, 10 November 2015

Members of the European Platform for the Responsible Use of Medicines in Animals (EPRUMA) celebrate today 10 years of collective action to ensure best practice in animal health. EPRUMA reinforces its commitment to work together with policy and decision makers and all parties concerned at European and national levels, to promote responsible use as part of a holistic approach to disease prevention and control, and to support animal health and welfare.
EPRUMA met representatives from European Commission DG SANTE, European Parliament, representatives from 8 EU Member States, and a wide range of stakeholders from animal health and the food supply chain. The event was hosted by MEP Julie Girling.
Ms. Girling acknowledged, ‘Responsible use, as promoted by EPRUMA, is based on a holistic approach of minimising disease, and it encompasses enhancing knowledge on disease prevention, animal health and welfare, and husbandry practices’. ‘EPRUMA’s work crystallises a firm commitment from key stakeholders, which I very much welcome, and hope may continue for at least another decade.’ she said.
EPRUMA also presented a new brochure: the ‘Best-practice framework for the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals – Reaching for the next level’. The document combines both a holistic and a specific approach to facilitate optimisation of animal health at farm level. It gives guidance on indoor and free-range production, housing, biosecurity, etc. and it includes a decision tree on the use of veterinary antibiotics in food-producing animals.
EPRUMA Chairman Gwyn Jones emphasised, ‘Veterinary medicines, including antibiotics, need to be used responsibly to maintain their efficacy. All animal health stakeholders are committed to responsible use’. He concluded that antibiotics should be used ‘As little as possible, and as much as necessary’.
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Notes for editors:
EPRUMA is a multi-stakeholder platform linking best practice with animal health and public health. It aims to ensure best practice through responsible use of medicines in the prevention and control of animal diseases.

For the 21st year the EU Court of Auditors has given the EU’s accounts only a qualified statement of assurance, with the rate of error slightly down on last year’s report.

Conservative budgetary control spokesman in the European Parliament, Richard Ashworth MEP, said that after twenty years of inertia in tackling the problem, wholesale reform of the management of EU spending is long overdue.

Despite giving a clear opinion on the reliability of the accounts themselves, the auditors’ report found that the error level for the 2014 accounts was 4.4 percent, slightly down on last year’s 4.5 percent.

It noted that the level of error had been reduced due to corrective measures taken by both the European Commission and EU Member States, but it particularly identified higher error rates with so-called cost reimbursement schemes (5.5 percent), which see the EU reimbursing costs on the basis of declarations made by beneficiaries, rather than so-called entitlement programmes where payments are made on meeting conditions rather than reimbursing costs.

The European Court of Auditors checks whether the EU and the Member States have spent European money in line with a number of different European laws. Whilst the EU is often criticised for failing to spend its money correctly it is largely the Member States who fail to spend the money correctly and this is due to the complexity of European rules. In order to overcome this, Europe must reduce complexity of its rules.

Speaking after the President of the Court of Auditors presented his report to the parliament’s Budgetary Control committee, Richard Ashworth said: “The error rate is clearly unacceptably high and by 2014 there was clearly a sense of inertia in both EU governments and the European Commission to bring it down.

“The new European Commissioner is determined to bring this error rate down so that we can end this, incorrect, perception that the EU does not have its accounts ‘signed off’, which damages the EU’s credibility so badly.

“The Commissioner also recognises that to bring the error rate down we need to change how we work: we need to cut red tape and make it simpler for local governments, small and medium-sized enterprises and farmers to claim money that they need by legislating appropriately; or, we need to just cut this spending all together.

“The EU will shortly begin a review of its seven year budget framework for which the overriding priority must be delivering value for money by spending money in areas where the evidence tells us to spend it.

“The Court of Auditors can help us in that regard by delivering more performance reports and not just focus on compliance.”

There are clear health impacts regarding air quality and evidence-based policy making very important. We need to be ambitious but realistic and unrealistic targets are not helpful. This issue has come up the public agenda in the last year or two and, has been an even bigger issue recently with the exposure of VW.

In the European Parliament, I am the lead MEP on this issue and will work to keep Air Quality high on the agenda.

29th October 2015

MEPs have voted for an ambitious set of clean air targets today by backing proposals put forward by the Conservative MEP leading on the targets for the European Parliament, Julie Girling.

The parliament in Strasbourg was voting on a proposal for a revised National Emission Ceilings Directive (NECD), which forms part of the EU Clean Air Package. It puts in place new annual caps on the emissions of air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) and ammonia (NH3) until 2020.

The new directive will also set new national emission reduction commitments for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and methane (CH4).

Mrs Girling has maintained that the levels proposed by the European Commission were rightly ambitious, but could realistically be delivered by 2020, 2025 and 2030 target dates.

Efforts by Labour, Socialist and green MEPs to pass unrealistic targets were defeated by MEPs who feared the unobtainable targets would prevent any targets from reaching the negotiating table with EU governments, which must jointly agree with the parliament before any targets can become law.

The adoption of these realistic targets now paves the way for Mrs Girling to negotiate with EU governments in seeking an early agreement that will bring tangible benefits of cleaner air; for example, the package put forward by Mrs Girling will deliver a 52% improvement in health outcomes.

EU governments have yet to adopt their position on the proposal, which the European Commission had even considered withdrawing entirely last year but reversed their position after intense lobbying by Mrs Girling.

Speaking after today’s vote, she said: “Europe needs to take action to clean up its air. We need to set ambitious targets on key pollutants. But they have to be deliverable.

“Air pollution is the number one environmental cause of death in the EU. Over 400,000 of our citizens die prematurely each year and millions more suffer debilitating illness, medication and hospitalisation. This has an enormous human and economic cost, tens of billions of euros in days lost at work and even more spent on healthcare bills.

“Air pollution also hits the natural environment through eutrophication and acid deposition.”

Conservative MEPs have backed proposals that would allow new foods – such as the latest health food craze chia seeds – to be placed on the market with far less delay and bureaucracy.
The so-called Novel Foods Regulation updates legislation from 1997 and focuses on measures that will streamline the processes for approving new foods, particularly by having one single authorisation procedure for the EU, with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) taking overall responsibility for the process.
The current average approval time is 35 months but the new, centralised, approach will significantly reduce this time to 18-24 months.
To ensure smooth passage of the new rules, all matters relating to cloned animals have been separated out into another legislative proposal.
Conservative spokesman on the Environment and Public Health, Julie Girling said: “This proposal is welcome news both for the food industry and for food lovers.
“It is particularly encouraging for boosting innovation in the UK, which has Europe’s highest number of pending authorisations for new food products.
“Current laws are so cumbersome that they discourage food companies from investing in new products and technologies, hampering prospects for growth.
“This new law will give more incentives to boost the food industry, create jobs, and bring a whole wealth of new food products into our shops”.