The European Parliament is set to demand faster and stronger EU action to integrate environmental considerations into other policy fields following adoption of a draft resolution by the assembly's environment committee yesterday. The resolution, which responds to a communication on environmental integration released by the European Commission in May, is due to be voted on by the plenary next week. It describes the Commission's recommendations as welcome, but says they are insufficiently ambitious. They should be supplemented by a "much more detailed action plan, including specific measures to be taken by individual institutions and timetables...to achieve the desired result," the resolution states. Joint meetings between EU environment ministers and ministers representing industry and tourism should be instituted, the resolution says, in addition to joint environment and agriculture, transport and energy Councils, which have already started or are planned. In meetings not held jointly with environment ministers, all five sectoral Councils should also hold their own discussions on "integration, implementation and enforcement," the resolution states. The resolution also repeats a request it first made in response to the Cardiff summit in June for the Commission to propose a framework directive to enforce the integration of environment, sustainability and consumer protection issues into sectoral EU policies.
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