According to an article published on August 5, 2014 by the European news provider EurActiv the European Commission’s (EC) President Manual Barroso, who is to step down in a few weeks, blocked a variety of environmental legislations including the criteria on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). According to EurActiv, the information was leaked by a senior official of the European Commission who contends that Barroso and the EC’s Secretary General Catherine Day interfered with a variety of environment proposals originally part of the Commission’s work program for 2013-14. The deadline for publication of EDC criteria was missed in December 2013 and postponed indefinitely. The unnamed official details that this was a result of lobbying by the cosmetics industry with the Commission. Similarly, sustainability requirements for biomass, draft criteria for bioenergy, and a Europe-wide inspection regime for illegally-imported timber were postponed as a result of interference by the EU executives during the 2013-2014 period, EurActiv reports.
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EurActiv (August 5, 2014). “How the Commission ‘blocked’ key environmental plans.”
