(The next meeting of Council of the Environment Ministers will take place in Brussels, December 17, 2012. The meeting will be chaired by Sofoclis Aletraris, Minister for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of Cyprus. The European Commission will be represented by Commissioners Connie Hedegaard (Climate) and Janez Potočnik (Environment).)

The environment ministers, as a key point, plan to adopt Council conclusions on the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources. Then there will be a debate on the Greening of the EU Semester followed by an orientation debate related to the 7th EAP.

Under Any Other Business items the Presidency will inform the ministers on the progress made regarding the proposed regulation for the 2020 targets to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans. After that the Presidency will also give information on the dossier of priority substances in water, on the revision of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, on the LIFE negotiation. Last but not least the climate issues will be dealt by the Council, by informing on the developments on the proposed regulation for monitoring and reporting GHG emissions, and on emissions and removals resulting from activities related to land use, land use change and forestry. Then there will be information from the Presidency concerning the outcome of the UN Conference in Doha (26/11/12-06/12/12). Last, the EU Emission Trading System items will be discussed as requested by the Polish delegation.