Mediaboss Marketing

In February 2015, as Russia-backed separatists waged war in eastern Ukraine, America seemed eager for a fight.

Then-vice president Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside and he absolutely ignores every agreement that his country has signed in the past.

Former US Air Force general Philip Breedlove, then NATOs top commander, told journalists that military support for Ukraine should be part of the package of Western pressure on Russia. There is a large tool bag that we can use, he said.

But among Europes major powers, the tone was different.

At that months annual security conference in Munich, Germanys then-defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed Berlins view that military support was counterproductive. As The New York Times paraphrased her comments at the time, Germany sees Ukraine and Russia as a chance to prove that in the 21st century, developed nations should solve disputes at the negotiating table, not with weapons. Russia, she noted, could match any Western help with an almost infinite supply of weapons it could send in to Ukraine.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories

That was the view of the Merkel government, of Francois Hollandes France, of much of Europe.

No longer.

A Ukrainian tank drives in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

For the first time in history, the EU is financing deliveries of weapons we have so far allocated two billion euros to cover the needs of the Ukrainian defense forces, von der Leyen, now president of the European Commission, the EUs executive branch, told The Times of Israel in an interview by email ahead of her visit to Israel, which begins Monday.

The visit is about many things, some of them standard fare for such trips. Von der Leyen will be meeting Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, tour the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and so on.

But the heart of the trip is, ultimately, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the profound reorientation sparked by that aggression, including Europes sudden need to expand its defense capabilities, energy supply and food security.

The change in tone and outlook that has come over von der Leyen since Putins February invasion is, like her, representative of Europe as a whole.

Von der Leyens biography is an almost risibly impressive apotheosis of the European idea. The descendant of German Hanoverian aristocracy, a physician who raises horses on the family farm, a mother of seven children born within a 13-year span, von der Leyen is almost literally the product of unified Europe. She was born in 1958 in Belgium rather than Germany, as her father began serving that year as the top aide to the first European commissioner for competition, one of the very first civil servants of the new European institutions. She is thus as fluent in French as in German. Her political career began when she won a state parliamentary seat in Lower Saxony in 2003. Two years later she was already a member of the German federal cabinet. From 2013 to 2019, she served as Germanys defense minister, the first woman to hold the position. She was elected president of the European Commission, the European Unions top executive post, in 2019 once again the first woman in the job.

She is, both personally and professionally, Europe incarnate. And she sounds like it. She has called for a federalized united states of Europeand has expressed the hope that a pan-European armywill one day be established. Her support for a stronger and more integrated European defense didnt begin with Putins latest war.

Ahead of her visit to Israel, von der Leyen spoke with The Times of Israel in an email exchange about where Europe stands nearly four months into the Russian invasion. Her tone is uncompromising: Our sanctions aim to drain the Kremlins resources We will keep the pressure on for as long as it takes. And her commitment to a more powerful Europe is explicit: Europe needs to reinforce its ability to deal with security threats and to protect its citizens and interests.

Part of that European pivot is expressing itself in an intensification of its relationship with Israel.

Defense ties have been flourishing in recent months. At the Eurosatory defense show in Paris that opens Monday, as many as 56 Israeli companies are expected to show their wares. With European defense agencies looking to spend as much as 200 billion euros ($210 billion) to quickly upgrade their defense capabilities against further Russian expansionism, many have turned to Israel for solutions.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, drones, precision targeting, smart coordinating systems for ground forces, firearm scopes, and more unusual technologies such as radars carried by infantry that can see through walls, Israel is at the cutting edge.

But it isnt just Israeli technology that interests Europe. It is the Israeli sense of the world as still containing real hard-power dangers.

As one European official from Finland recently confided to this writer, The Finns are the Israelis of Europe. Our next-door neighbors, the Swedes, havent fought a war in 400 years. But we remember the Winter War [the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland]. We were the last European country to sign the Ottawa Treaty against landmines, and many of us are unhappy that we did that.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (L) and President Sauli Niinist give a press conference to announce that Finland will apply for NATO membership at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, May 15, 2022. (Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva/AFP)

Finland was indeed a lone outlier on the landmine convention, and with good reason: its nigh-indefensible 800-mile border with Russia. Other European nations signed the treaty in 1997-99. Finland only acquiesced in 2011. Since Putins invasion, mainstream Finnish leaders have begun calling for leaving the treaty.

For many Europeans, then, Israel has become a symbol of a very different Western vision of what it means to defend oneself in an increasingly dangerous world.

But the relationship with Israel goes beyond defense. A three-way Israel-Egypt-EU gas deal is being negotiated that will play a role in Europes larger goal of energy independence from Russia. (In a statement announcing the visit, von der Leyens office said its purpose was to take EU-Israeli relations forward, in particular on energy cooperation. She is set to meet Energy Minister Karine Elharrar on Monday evening.)

Culturally and economically, too, Israel is a Western-oriented, economically developed, scientifically advanced and politically stable (relatively speaking) nation lying scarcely 200 kilometers from EU member state Cyprus. That alone has driven major efforts at collaboration between the EU and the Jewish state.

It is hard to exaggerate the scale of Israel-Europe cooperation. Few Israelis realize that their countrys vaunted advances in desalination, which over the past decade have essentially solved what was once an increasingly dire water crisis, were heavily financed by the EUs European Investment Bank since as early as 2007. When the point was raised by The Times of Israel in the exchange with von der Leyen, her response was instructive: Israel has helped Europe in return, as when it cooperated closely on helping the EU improve its COVID-19 vaccination program.

Her office has also said that the global response to the food crisis precipitated by the Russian invasion is on the agenda of her visit, highlighting the potential importance of Israeli agricultural know-how for resolving the food shortages sparked by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Israel has been a member of Europes vast flagship scientific research program, Horizon Europe, since December. (It was previously part of the EUs Horizon 2020 program.)

On Sunday, the day before von der Leyens visit, the Israeli cabinet officially announced its intention to join Creative Europe, the parallel to Horizon Europe in the realm of arts and culture.

The interview began with questions about Russia and European defense, moved on to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iran nuclear deal and Israel-EU cooperation, and concluded with the growing fears expressed by Europes Jewish communities over rising antisemitism on the continent.

The Times of Israel: Whats the endgame of the sanctions? Whats Europes specific demand from Moscow?

Ursula von der Leyen:There is one clear demand not just by Europe, but by the wider international community: Russia must respect the UN Charter. This means stopping the violation of international law, ending the unprovoked aggression against the Ukrainian people and withdrawing the invading Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.

We imposed sanctions as a response to Russias blatant violations of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, and to the atrocities committed by the Kremlins troops on [the] Ukrainian people. Our sanctions aim to drain the Kremlins resources and their ability to finance their illegal and unjustifiable war.

We will keep the pressure on for as long as it takes.

The world was surprised at Chancellor Scholzs sudden announcement just two days after Russias invasion of the immediate addition of 100 billion euros to the military budget, and the subsequent defense commitments across Europe. Given your unique vantage point as a very recent German defense minister and current head of the commission, do you think this is a momentary shift or a long-term pivot? Are we witnessing the birth of a more assertive Europe in the hard-power sense? Is a European army possible? Is it a good idea?

The foundation of our collective defense is and will remain NATO.

But Russias invasion of Ukraine, as well as events elsewhere around us, are showing that Europe needs to reinforce its ability to deal with security threats and to protect its citizens and interests.

This is why, for the first time in history, the EU is financing deliveries of weapons we have so far allocated two billion euros to cover the needs of the Ukrainian defense forces. This is in addition to considerable military support that EU countries are providing bilaterally.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, speaks during a joint press conference with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

So indeed, significant defense investments will be needed in Europe in the future. And it is good news that many EU countries have started increasing their defense spending, with 200 billion euros [$210 billion] in extra military spending announced up to now.

And this money must be spent in a strategic, coordinated way. We are a Union of 27 countries and we need to avoid fragmentation of defense industrial and financial resources. This is why we are now organizing common procurement at the EU level. This notably will ensure interoperability between our European Armed Forces. It will strengthen our European defense industrial base in the long-term. And it will reinforce NATO as well.

On the peace process, the Palestinian side is divided, the government of Mahmoud Abbas is deeply unpopular, polls show Hamas winning the next election in the West Bank. Israeli politics have moved steadily rightward in recent years on the question of Palestinian statehood. Practically, is there a Palestinian partner for peace? Is Israel, in Europes view, capable of delivering a two-state solution?

What must be done to get from the current impasse to Europes preferred solution? Whats Europes role in getting there? And if two states are not forthcoming, what would a European peace policy look like in this region?

Only Israelis and Palestinians can agree, achieve and maintain a lasting peace.

The EU supports a two-state solution a secure Israel, living side by side in peace with a Palestinian state. This solution can fulfil the legitimate aspirations of both sides and bring peace and security to all.

We very much welcome all efforts towards peace and the Abraham Accords offer hope towards that goal. We are also ready to explore cooperation with Israel in this regard, including on a regional level in the context of the normalization agenda.

Continued outbreaks of violence, as we have witnessed in [recent] weeks, underline the need to address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, restore a political horizon and open the path towards the relaunching of the peace process as soon as possible.

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces during a protest in the village of Beit Dajan, near the West Bank city of Nablus, June 3, 2022. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Beyond Israels renewed engagement with the Palestinians on various levels and the governments measures on improving Palestinians lives, which we welcome, the region and its people need a real political and economic perspective and the EU is ready to help with that.

We owe it to todays Israelis and Palestinians, as well as to our children and grandchildren.

Not so long ago, Europeans called each other enemies. But we succeeded in bringing peace, stability and prosperity to the whole continent.

Others can achieve that too. Our advice is to keep trying, and not wait.

Do you think some form of the Iran deal can be resuscitated, and if not, whats Europes Iran policy going forward?

The Iran nuclear deal remains a major multilateral security achievement. This is widely recognized and endorsed by the UN Security Council. Without this deal, Iran could have developed nuclear weapons by now, adding another source of instability in the region.

It is therefore more important than ever to bring the JCPOA back on track. That is why the High Representative of the EU [the unions foreign minister, a position currently held by Josep Borrell], as the Coordinator of the deal, continues to engage in intense negotiations with parties of the deal and the US.

We believe that with a restored JCPOA, we can return to a more positive dynamic. An agreement is within reach and the negotiated text is basically ready. However, crucial political decisions are now urgently needed.

Economically and culturally, the Israeli-European relationship is already close and flourishing. The eurozone is our major trading zone. The European Investment Bank has been a major financier for Israeli desalination projects. Europe helped us solve our water crisis. Culturally, Israelis visit Europe, admire Europe and want to feel close to Europe. A simple question, then: How do you see the future of this relationship?

The European Union and Israel share a unique bond. Forged by history, built on our shared values and interests, and rooted in excellent cooperation on topics ranging from energy to health, from culture to research and innovation, to name just a few.

For example, our cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic was simply outstanding. Scientific data shared by Israel helped us make our vaccination campaigns in the EU more effective. And Im very happy that, since December, Israel is participating in Europes massive innovation program, Horizon Europe.

So my visit aims to build on this deep cooperation, to make our partnership even stronger. This is important and urgent in these bleak times, with many challenges affecting the region, and with Russias invasion of Ukraine sending shockwaves around the globe, particularly on food and energy security. We will discuss how to address these shockwaves, together as partners.

The Jewish communities of Europe are telling us they feel increasingly afraid. Synagogues have been under guard for years in many parts of Europe, and for good reason. The simultaneous rise of the far-right and of Islamist ideologies in some places in Europe have left Jews feeling in a vise. According to EU figures, 38% of Europes Jews have considered emigrating because of these concerns.

Last October, your commission announced an EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life. You said at the time, We want to see Jewish life thriving again in the heart of our communities. Can you tell us about that? What specifically can European institutions do? Whats your message to Europes Jews?

Attacks against European Jews are attacks against our fundamental European values. They are attacks against Europe itself. We will never tolerate that. Rest assured that Jewish life has always been and will always be an integral part of our European life.

We have an EU law on racist hate speech and hate crimes, including the criminalization of Holocaust denial, trivialization and condoning.

Illustrative: Men wearing kippas are seen at the synagogue in Halle, eastern Germany, on October 10, 2019, one day after the antisemitic attack where two people were shot dead. (Ronny Hartmann/AFP)

And last year we adopted the first-ever EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life. It includes very practical measures, from fighting anti-Semitic propaganda online and offline to protecting Jewish communities and places of worship around Europe and fostering Jewish life.

I want to see Jewish life thriving in the heart of our communities. So, for example, it is essential that Europeans learn about Jewish life and Judaism, which are an essential part of our European culture. The Strategy puts a premium on teaching Jewish history to our children, and on promoting Jewish heritage in our cities. Because Jewish history is our history, Jewish culture is our culture.

See the article here:
EU president tells ToI: Well pressure Putin for as long as it takes - The Times of Israel

The European Union aims to make multiple chargers a thing of the past for the bloc. Kenzo Tribouillard /AFP via Getty Images hide caption

The European Union aims to make multiple chargers a thing of the past for the bloc.

Those in the European Union won't have to spend much more time rummaging around for a charger.

Cellphones and handheld electronic devices in the European Union will now be required to have a USB-C charging port, according to an agreement reached Tuesday by the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

As of 2024, tablets, digital cameras, video game consoles, headphones, portable speakers, e-readers, portable navigation systems, keyboards, mice and earbuds will need to be equipped with the port.

Laptop manufacturers have until 2026 to implement the universal charging port in their products.

"No more bundles of different chargers in our drawers," Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said in a statement.

"One common charger is a real benefit to us as consumers."

The EU hopes a universal charger will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and prevent waste, while also eliminating the costs of buying multiple chargers for different devices.

"The deal we struck this morning will bring around 250 million euros of savings to consumers annually," Thierry Breton, an EU commissioner for the bloc's Internal Market, said in a statement.

Chargers that were either unused or disposed contribute to roughly 11,000 tons of e-waste each year, according to the commission.

The universal charging requirement could impact major tech companies such as Apple, which has a unique "Lightning" connector for iPhones, iPads and other mobile products.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company has previously spoken against the move.

"We remain concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world," a company spokesperson said in a statement last September.

Continued here:
The EU will soon require all cellphones to have the same type of charging port - NPR

Iraq, Nineveh, 13 June 2022 - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture-Ninewa Agriculture Directorate, and through the European Union (EU) funded project support to agricultural livelihoods of rural and peri-urban returnees and communities in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq, held a four-day intensive training on improving manufacture and marketing of traditional dairy products. 75 dairy producers participated including 50 women from Zummar district, Telkaif district, and the city of Mosul.

This training provided an opportunity for the participants to learn about good practices for handling and processing dairy products with practical samples to make these products. During this training, the health aspects to process traditional dairy products were emphasized with the introduction of new techniques on how to process different types of cheese that the Iraqi consumer wants and which have been imported from neighboring countries and they can be manufactured locally. This aims to obtain healthy and safe dairy products and to promote simple ideas to produce distinctive products that can be competitive in the market. The women dairy producers also received training on the use of pasteurizer, how to follow the good milk hygiene standards and to ensure the hygiene of the device under the supervision of FAO Iraqs International Livestock Value Chain Expert, Dr. Chedly Kayouli.

Dr. Kayouli stressed during the training on the importance of examining milk before use to obtain the highest quality products. The female extension officers carried out the laboratory examination in the presence of all participants to consolidate the examination process through practical practice.

FAO is striving to establish a real partnership with the dairy producers and to empower them, which is a priority for the organization. This will help them to support their families income. It is necessary to activate the role of women milk producers in particular. These trainings seek to improve the capacity of the sector and to contribute to the national development in preserving local products and improving their quality, says FAO Representative in Iraq, Dr. Salah ElHajj Hassan.

On the trainings practical side, focusing on cheese making, FAO Iraqs expert Dr. Kayouli, highlights that: "a participatory and interactive approach was followed to reflect the spirit of teamwork and self-development, which contributed to the development of new types of cheese for the first time in Iraq and Nineveh in particular."

The women participants liked the new produced varieties of cheese and their wonderful taste, and they emphasized that they are learning this to supply the local market. At the beginning, we used the traditional methods. Nowadays, with thanks to FAOs practical training, we have been able to use modern techniques, starting with the process of examining the milk and learning to use the equipment. In addition, we learned modern methods of processing cheese and new types that are popular in the local market, says dairy producer Houda Khalid Jamil from Al-Hamdania, who participated in the training held in Zummar district.

"We look forward to the continued support of FAO and the European Union to improve the manufacture of these products and the development of the household industry to meet the growing market needs," Houda adds.

This EU funded projects contributions formed advanced and successful models of partnership with dairy producers and enabled thousands of families in Nineveh, especially returnees, to improve their income, to develop their businesses and to create new job opportunities.

For more information:

Zeineb MarzoukCommunications SpecialistFood and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsErbil, IraqTel: +9647719966953Email: zeineb.marzouk@fao.org

More:
FAO and the European Union: a real partnership with diary producers and empowering rural women [EN/AR] - Iraq - ReliefWeb

BRUSSELS -- European Union auditors said Monday that the bloc's executive arm should have checked more carefully the restrictions on free movement imposed by EU nations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

EU nations struggled to coordinate travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic which has killed at least 6.3 million people around the world as they tried to maintain a smooth circulation of people and goods.

But the European Court of Auditors, or ECA, said the supervision of the bloc's internal border controls since March 2020 did not fully safeguard the Schengen rules."

In March 2020, several EU nations hastily closed their borders in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, even though the EUs Schengen agreement allows all EU residents to move freely in the area without border checks.

Under the Schengen Code, nations can introduce border checks at their internal borders on grounds of a serious threat to internal security. The ECA said it reviewed all 150 notifications of internal border controls submitted to the European Commission between March 2020 and June 2021, of which 135 related exclusively to COVID-19.

Their review clearly shows that notifications did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the border controls were indeed a measure of last resort, or that they were proportionate and limited in duration," auditors said. Moreover, the Commission has not launched infringement procedures in respect of long-term border controls that were introduced before the pandemic."

The Schengen Area includes most EU countries, except for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania. Non-EU nations Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are also part of the Schengen agreement.

Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

See original here:
EU: Schengen travel restrictions badly checked amid pandemic - ABC News

London, United Kingdom The European Unions forthcoming environmental legislation is threatening to transfer environmental regulations to financial markets, critics warn.

The proposal is framed as protecting the EUs biodiversity with legally binding nature restoration targets.

As the EUs entire biodiversity strategy is based on a net gain principle offsetting critics of the proposal say it is a thinly veiled attempt to bolster the biodiversity offsetting the EU has been trying to push for the past decade.

Theyre transferring environmental regulations to market-based solutions, said Frederic Hache, co-founder of Green Finance Observatory, an NGO examining sustainable finance at the heart of Brussels.

The biodiversity offset market uses the same principles as its better-known carbon credit market cousin to justify environmental destruction by putting a price on natural resources and claiming substitutability one ecosystem of the same financial value can be substituted for another.

Proponents of such models say it will incentivise and mandate the private sector to take responsibility for nature protection, but civil society groups warn such financialisation poses a grave threat to biodiversity by reducing complex ecosystems and the species which depend on them to a monetary value.

These groups say putting a price on biodiversity, and creating an offset market, facilitates and justifies environmental destruction, not protection.

There are multiple offsetting models, with the best being like for like: if a private company wants to destroy a natural habitat for flamingos to build an airport, for example, they have to recreate that habitat elsewhere. But that is not the framework the EU pushed for.

The preferred model is like for like or better meaning the destruction of a natural habitat can be compensated by creating an ecosystem service of equivalent monetary value elsewhere.

Essentially, you can kill the flamingos in Spain if you are saving bats in Greece. This model creates a market: If the compensation is no longer specific you can restore in advance and build a coffer of biodiversity credits.

Worryingly, the European Commission pushed for the like for like or better model.

Concerned MEPs at the European Union wrote to the commission asking for clarification as to the whether the EUs nature-based solutions, the term rolled out in all recent environmental legislation, included biodiversity offsetting.

The commission confirmed the like for like or better biodiversity offsetting is indeed part of its nature-based solutions framework, within the geography of the EU.

However, when asked for comment, the commission denied this.

There is no EU biodiversity offset framework and there is no intention for the nature restoration law to benefit any biodiversity offset market, said Stefan Leiner, the head of European Commissions unit of Natural Capital and Ecosystem Health (ENV.D2).

Its intention is rather to contribute to the continuous, long-term and sustained recovery of biodiverse and resilient nature across the unions land and sea areas through the restoration of ecosystems and hereby also to contribute to achieving the unions climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives and to contribute to meeting the unions international commitments, he said.

Green Finance Observatory claims the EU has been working on its biodiversity offset market for 10 years, establishing frameworks and models for how to put a price on complex ecosystems.

It is not yet clear if companies themselves will be allowed to establish those prices using those models, or if the EU will involve third-party regulatory bodies.

The unregulated nature of the carbon market has created a fleet of carbon cowboys, the colloquial term for opportunistic financiers exploiting the lack of regulations to line their pockets with billions of dollars.

But the biodiversity market has largely gone under the radar because of the lack of legislation mandating offsetting until now.

Hache claims these forthcoming mandatory restoration targets combined with net gain objectives would create demand for biodiversity offsetting.

The devil is in the details and we look forward to reading the proposal. To be clear, restoration is a good thing but only if it comes in addition to curbing destruction and is neither financed by market schemes nor considered an offset, he said.

At the root of offset markets and nature-based solutions is the concept of natural capital understanding nature as a series of services which benefit human wellbeing.

By this definition, biodiversity which does not improve human wellbeing is discounted. The EU recently valued the natural capital of its ecosystems services at 234 billion euros ($365bn).

Does the fact that we know this figure incentivise us to protect nature? Or, on the contrary, will it facilitate its destruction, if we consider that it represents about one months revenue of the oil and gas industry? said Hache.

This natural capital approach is only the first type. Once you have established that, then the idea is to establish markets based on biodiversity destruction-financial markets on the alleged compensation of biodiversity destruction.

While environmental regulations have a long history of effectively mitigating environmental destruction the ban of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)gases linked to the Montreal protocol, bans on asbestos the underlying assumption peddled in offset markets is that these regulations have failed.

Yet, proof on the success of offset markets is hard to find, with recent evidence pointing to human rights abuses and land grabbing from Indigenous populations in order to put forests on the carbon market.

Hache and his colleagues are concerned the biodiversity offset market could reproduce these same abuses.

Their concerns are not unfounded when considering there are currently more offset commitments than there is land to satisfy those commitments.

Despite warnings from academics and experts, governments and institutions are increasingly promoting market-based solutions and net gain principles to successfully navigate the ecological and climate crisis.

Its bizarre to imagine that the loss of biodiversity in one sphere can be offset by increasing it elsewhere, Steve Keen, an Australian economist, told Al Jazeera.

The problem is that there is no it: biodiversity is a simple word for the highly interconnected web of life. We barely understand that web, so to think that we can let the market poke a hole in it somewhere, and then compensate by making the web denser somewhere else, is just delusional, he said.

Read more:
Proposed EU legislation feared to pose threat to biodiversity - Al Jazeera English