Spain and Portugal are revising their legislation on environmental impact assessments, with an eye on easing rules for high footprint investments of questionable development potential. In Spain, Law 21/2013 “on environmental impact assessment”, modifies the National Hydrological Plan allowing for water transfer schemes in the Tajo-Segura water basin and paving the way for other inter-basin water transfers, such as the much-contested plan for...

A clear sign of the increasing energy poverty (see CrisisWatch#20), Greece’s major cities suffocate under a dense cloud of air pollutants, primarily particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), resulting from the increased use of fire wood. The smell of burning wood becomes especially heavy during cold and windless nights and the problem of low visibility can become particularly intense....

Our work for CrisisWatch has allowed us to delve into the dismal reality of the economic crisis and the serious impacts caused on environment and society by Europe’s myopic response. We have also had the privilege to report on promising developments, in the direction of more sustainable pathways for European economies. 2013 was a tough year for environmental laws and policies in Europe....

Intense pressures by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and industry lobbies against specific environmental assessment legislation for shale gas have been crowned with success: the political agreement on the new environmental impact assessment (EIA) directive, a compromise agreement between the Permanent Representatives Committee and the European Parliament, does not include specific requirements for shale gas operations....

1. Council of the European Union: ECOFIN meeting results (10 December 2013) “The Council updated its position on bank recovery and resolution and deposit guarantee schemes in the light of on-going negotiations with the European Parliament.  It adopted a decision deeming action taken by Poland to correct its excessive deficit to be insufficient. It issued a new recommendation, extending the deadline for correction of Poland’s deficit by one...

Greeks line up to unregister their cars to save money | Deutsche Welle (23 December 2013) “Thousands more Greeks have unregistered their cars as the new year draws nearer. They said they could no longer afford to pay a motor vehicle tax with their real earnings having shrunk tangibly amid austerity.  Long lines of people were forming again on Monday in front of local tax offices across Greece as many car owners in the debt-stricken euroz...