Joke Schauvliege on the presidency of Environment Council
Joke Schauvliege will be the President of the EU’s Environment Council for the coming six months. Which themes does she want to have on the agenda and how does she see the future for the European Union?
What role will you have during the European Presidency?
From 1 July I shall be President of the EU’s Environment Council. Our Presidency has four focal points.
With sustainable materials management, we are placing a new theme on the agenda. We must deal with our energy, and with our materials, more efficiently. At the end of their life we must be able to reuse materials as new raw materials. This is called completing the cycle. The second theme is climate. Within the EU we want to hold discussions about a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For the third theme, biodiversity, we want to come up with a biodiversity action plan after the international conference in Japan with the EU in December. A final subject, less sexy but very important, is the improvement of environmental regulations. Better laws mean better policy.
What influence does the European Union have on your policy area?
Its influence is very decisive in the case of the environment and nature. More than half our environmental legislation originates from the EU. From this perspective it is important that we have been successful in making Environment a central theme of the Belgian programme for our Presidency.
What breakthroughs in your policy area would you like to see achieved at European level?
We know that raw materials are not inexhaustible. We must therefore use them more efficiently and more sustainably.
That is why in Flanders we are already busy with the switch from waste policy to sustainable materials policy. We are working on a new waste and materials decree that will replace the Decree on Waste within the framework of the transposition of the European framework directive.
We must start to think cyclically: using waste as a raw material for new products. At the informal Council meeting on Sustainable Materials Management held in Ghent on 12–13 July, we also want to convince Europe about this cradle-to-cradle approach to materials.
How do you see the future for the European Union?
The only way is to find a workable balance between more integration and respect for the autonomy of the Member States.
Sometimes crises, such as the latest economic and financial shock, are an excellent motive to join forces even more, make the Union even more manifest to its inhabitants, as the euro did at the time. We must also convert these crises into opportunities for more Europe, or what Jean Monnet called at the time ‘a fusion of the interests of the European peoples’.
Make no mistake, however, this route to more cooperation will always be coupled with growing pains.
What is your favourite travel destination in Europe?
A difficult question, because I have not visited all the other 26 Member States. I do not want to be unsporting, though. From my travelling experiences so far I would choose France, which has pretty much everything to offer a tourist.
