In the European Union, 93% of citizens see climate change as a serious problem.

This is why this year the EU Green deal and the way it can help the region’s economy recover from the COVID19 crisis were among the main topics at the European Business summit in Brussels.

The big question: how could recycling and the circular economy help the EU achieve its green targets?

As of last year six in ten European consumers said they would be willing to pay more for products that have a more sustainable packaging.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world in March, even more are ready to put their money where their mouth is.

Vasileois Rizos, Research Fellow and Head of Sustainable Resources and Circular Economy, CEP believes that during the pandemic and lockdowns across Europe, consumers have been increasingly interested in green products.

He says spending more time at home made people “rethink the priorities and sometimes better collect or sort out waste.”

Francoise Bonnet, Secretary General at the Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource management, said consumers needed more information.

And that is what the new Consumer Agenda should help with.

For Joanna Drake, the deputy director-general of the EU Directorate-General for Environment, empowering consumers is a key point on the road to success.

“It is a cornerstone of the success to whether we can make these personal daily changes in our behaviour, ”she said.

“Because it is not only the behaviour of companies, but they do it with the hope also that the consumer will want to change.

“And I just want to say, you know there is a lot of talk about the pandemic, that maybe one doesn’t go with another. During the COVID crisis, and it is still on, the demand for sustainable products has actually grown.”

The agenda lays out a vision for consumer policy until 2025 and tackles five areas: including environmental aspects to help consumers play a more active role.

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Haiti welcomes a contribution of €2 million from the European Union (EU) that will provide emergency cash assistance to 27,000 severely food insecure people over four months and support the coordination of humanitarian actors on food security and cash-based interventions.

This new funding will enable WFP to expand cash assistance in the Nord-Ouest department, where food insecurity has reached one of the highest levels in the country. Currently, at least 4 million Haitians face hunger, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) study – and almost one in four among them is in dire need of food assistance.

“The European Union’s commitment to food security in Haiti is firm and we are grateful for this strong partnership,” said Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director in Haiti. “Partnerships like the one between WFP and the EU are critical to save lives in acute crises such as this pandemic,” he added.

WFP and the EU partnered earlier this year to bring emergency cash assistance to 90,000 people in the Nord-Ouest, Nord, Artibonite and Ouest departments. Thanks to this support, families were able to buy their preferred food on local markets, supporting merchants and farmers in their community.

Haiti’s protracted economic crisis has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing many families deeper into poverty and hunger. High food prices, an economic slowdown and a decrease in remittances from abroad have made it difficult for many Haitians to put food on the table.

This year WFP has reached 365,000 Haitians with emergency food rations and cash assistance.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Follow us on Twitter @wfp_media @wfp_haiti

The EU must consider establishing Brussels as the sole base of the European parliament, breaking its historic links to Strasbourg, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, an internal report has advised.

The decision would involve a treaty change and a major row with the French government but the study’s authors say it is clear the EU needs to “rationalise” despite the symbolic importance of the Alsatian city as a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation.

The parliament sits in Strasbourg for three and a half days 12 times a year, involving a monthly grand déménagement of 2,400 MEPs, assistants, drivers and parliament staff, along with journalists and lobbyists. MEPs and their staff otherwise work in Brussels and their constituencies.

The report, commissioned by the parliament’s environment committee, argues that the Covid-19 pandemic has provided an “image on how working and operational conditions of the European parliament could look like in 2030”.

To the frustration of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the parliament has not sat in Strasbourg since February because of the health crisis. He has recently claimed that if the parliament does not return to Strasbourg, the EU will be “screwed”.

According to the authors of the report, a decision on the future of Strasbourg, which only has a small number of permanent staff working even during normal times, should be taken within six to nine years.

“Instead of its current three sites [Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg], in a carbon neutrality pathway, it is evident that the European parliament needs to consider operation in one site,” the authors from the EU’s directorate general for internal policies write.

“Although the emission difference for the MEPs’ travel from their home to Brussels or Strasbourg is not big, additional emissions are associated for example with the travelling of staff, stakeholders, journalists, lobbyists, etc.”

The reassessment is said to be one of a number of measures necessary to achieve domestic carbon emission neutrality by 2030, a target passed in a resolution of the chamber, the report says.

The parliament claims to be emission-neutral on the basis that it offsets its carbon footprint through financial payments to energy conservation projects in Ghana, Uganda and Malawi.

The report notes that the European parliament has made repeated recommendations in favour of ending the Strasbourg sittings.

Previous economic studies have found that terminating the link with the French city could generate annual savings of €114m plus a one-off saving of €616m if the buildings were sold off.

The seats of the parliament are determined under article 341 of the 1992 treaty on the functioning of the European Union. The formal seat of the European parliament is in Strasbourg, and Brussels and Luxembourg are “working places”. Luxembourg hosts the parliament’s secretariat.

Any modification would require a treaty change, with the consent of all the member states.

In September, Macron told students in Lithuania that he was “fighting tooth and nail for the idea that the European parliament should meet in Strasbourg”.

“If we accept that the European parliament only meets in Brussels, we are screwed – because in 10 years everything will be in Brussels and people will only speak among themselves in Brussels,” he told students at the University of Vilnius. “But Europe does not represent this idea, the idea is for everyone to respect each other, for one to go toward the other”.