For more than 20 years, civil society, farmers, politicians and the food sector have successfully fought for GMO-free fields and the right to choose food without GM ingredients in Europe.
But this could be about to change. On July 25, the EU's top court will rule whether new genetically modified (GM) seeds and foods – so-called 'GMO 2.0' – should be subject to safety checks under EU law.
When we run campaigns at Friends of the Earth, we often call for regulations, policy, legislation, laws – but why bother? What are we doing it for, and for who?
These are big questions worth reflecting on. And so we set out to find the stories of people who could answer them.
The European Parliament's environment committee today voted to strengthen the European Commission's overall plans to cut plastic pollution, under the so-called Plastics Strategy. [1]
Friends of the Earth Europe's new analysis of the EU-Indonesia CEPA trade deal gives it a score of 4.5/20 for sustainability
While public discourse is focussing on tariff fights between US and China, the EU Commission continues to negotiate non-transparent and harmful trade deals.
For the past 7 years, residents of Lancashire in North West England, supported by allies from across the UK and Europe, have led a remarkable campaign to protect their communities from fracking. Local businesses, health groups, trade unions and others have joined them.
As the dust starts to settle after new EU farming rules were proposed, Adrian Bebb, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, looks ahead at their likely impact
A deal struck today on the EU's energy efficiency target for 2030, after a year and a half of negotiations, will let down the climate and Europe's energy-poor, according to Friends of the Earth Europe.
Representatives of EU Governments, the European Parliament and European Commission agreed today to:
But citizens will surpass bleak expectations of new target.
EU decision makers have concluded an inadequate deal to govern Europe’s future renewable energy to 2030, according to Friends of the Earth Europe. However, citizens and communities have won new rights to generate renewable energy that could prove transformative.
The EU Council, Parliament and Climate Commissioner Cañete concluded a year and a half of negotiations on new EU renewable energy rules that include:
The European Commission has today been urged to ensure the safety of one of Eastern Europe’s richest wildlife sites.
Kresna Gorge in Bulgaria – a fragile valley of outstanding importance, with twice the butterfly species of the UK – is threatened by a Bulgarian government decision to build an EU-funded motorway through it. Construction could start soon if the Commission doesn’t act.
The European Commission today set out spending plans that could further lock Europe into a fossil fuel future well into the next decade, in proposals to extend the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
While the EU Commission has reduced the space for gas projects in their new proposals for the future EU budget 2020-2027; it has left loopholes for the EU to continue spending taxpayers’ money on fossil fuel infrastructure, including gas.