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EU clean air, waste laws at risk

EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker faces a clash with lawmakers after leaked documents Friday revealed his plans to drop laws on clean air and waste recycling.

The new Commission has proposed dropping the laws from its five-year programme, which goes for approval before the European Parliament next week, as part of a drive to cut red tape.

But Green groups and 11 EU member states have called for the environmental measures to be restored.

"Decisions will not be taken until next Tuesday," Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud told a daily news briefing.

The Commission was looking at withdrawing "a number of proposals that do not match the Commission's political priorities, or which are out of date."

The clean air and waste recycling laws are part of a package that could be dropped or modified in the Commission's draft five-year work programme seen by AFP.

The new European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, took office in November aiming to reconnect with increasingly eurosceptic European voters.

Juncker tasked Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans as a priority with cutting through the bureaucratic deadwood in an effort to restore confidence in Brussels.

EU states agreed earlier this week on a package on air quality which would limit medium-scale emissions such as by collective urban heating systems, and which was due to be confirmed by environment ministers on Wednesday in Brussels, a diplomatic source said.

Member states had meanwhile told the Commission that its planned target of recycling a minimum of 70 percent of domestic waste by 2030 was "unrealistic" but had not called for the planned law to be withdrawn, officials said.

The EU in October agreed on tough climate change targets for 2030.

Juncker meanwhile is reinforcing the offices of the seven new vice presidents led by Timmermans, dubbed "super commissioners", whom he appointed to oversee large areas of policy but about whose role there has been some confusion.

The Commission is recruiting 80 officials to beef up their back-up teams, Juncker's spokesman Margaritis Schinas told AFP.

"This will facilitate the role of the vice presidents at the heart of the Juncker team," he said.

Previously each Commissioner—every EU nation appoints one—had a single area of responsiblity. But the lines have been blurred by Juncker's plan to get them to work together on overlapping policy issues.