Environment & Natural Resources in the 21st Century

Jo Leinen, a German member of the European Parliament (EP), has been elected chair of the EP's Environment Committee for the 2009-2014 session.

Mr. Leinen, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, was Minister of the Environment in the German state of Saarland from 1985-1994. He is a lawyer.

Historically the Environment Committee has been one of the most active and most powerful committees in the EP. For instance in the just completed term, 2004-2009, the Environment Committee was active in two major groups of legislation involving climate change and regulation of chemicals. In my opinion, the EP is the "greenest" of all EU institutions and has aggressively pushed the EU in a "greener" direction.

One of the many reasons the EP has tended green is the fact that it includes elected members of the Green Party. In fact, the Greens increased their number of members from 43 to 53 in the last election, which was not at all an insignificant increase bearing in mind that the total number of MEPs was reduced from 785 to 736. Anyone checked recently how many members of the Green Party are in the U.S. Congress?

Meanwhile, the Environment Committee has published its 2004-2009 Activity Report, which summarizes its work in the last parliament.