Horsens, 19/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - For all of the environment ministers of the EU, the ETS is the cornerstone of the EU's climate policy, and the EU27 expressed their “firm” support for it on 19 April at the informal Council of Horsens, where discussions focused on ways of ensuring its increased effectiveness for the future. “We must guarantee that it helps to reduce CO2 emissions and boosts investment in low-carbon technologies”, Martin Lidegaard, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy, and Building, who chaired the meeting, told the press. The options to remedy excessively low carbon prices, which are sapping this effectiveness, are all on the table - stepping up the level of ambition of reduction targets beyond 2020 and freezing quotas - although none of them has the blessing of Poland (see EUROPE 10597). The EU27 called on the Commission to work towards a solution to resolve the problem in the short term and look into ways of setting the bar a bit higher in the longer run. Describing the exchange of views as “extremely constructive”, Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, announced that the Commission would present the annual report on the ETS this year (rather than in 2013 as provided for by the ETS directive) and, by the end of the year, a proposed revision of the regulation on auctioning quotas. (AN/transl.fl)