Brussels, 24/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The inability of the experts from the EU's “fuel quality” committee to reach a decision on Thursday 23 February in favour or against the proposal to implement the directive on fuel quality, whilst taking into account greenhouse gas emissions linked to their production (see EUROPE 10560), has delighted the Canadian authorities. The Canadian authorities refuted the scientific justification underpinning this proposal and reiterated their determination to defend their interests against a measure that they consider discriminates against oil from tar sands. Canada is one of the biggest exporters of this fuel in the world.
Speaking on Thursday, Joe Oliver, the Canadian minister responsible for natural resources, stated that they were happy to note that many EU countries had opposed this discriminatory measure. He explained that they were now working out what the next steps would be and said that the Canadian government's position had not changed on this subject. Oliver said that they were not opposed to the directive's objective on fuel quality but could absolutely not accept that Canadian crude oil from tar sands be subject to unfair discrimination without any scientific justification. He also stated that independent studies have demonstrated that the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions during the lifecycle of the crude oil extracted from tar sands was similar to and sometimes less than those from several other sources of crude oil currently imported into EU countries and used on a daily basis. The same arguments were used by the Canadian minister in a letter he sent last October to Günther Oettinger, the EU commissioner for energy (see EUROPE 10489). It will now be up to the EU Environment Council to give its opinion on this text next June. (AN/transl.fl)