Brussels, 08/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - In a joint statement dated 7 May 2013, nine European environment and energy ministers call for the temporary back-loading (freeze) of 900 million quotas on the EU carbon market. They say they support the European Trading System (ETS), but call for it to be reformed in the near future. This unexpected move is connected with the looming examination of the ETS at a committee at the European Parliament (19 July, see EUROPE 10842), which could restore health to the ailing ETS.
Ministers from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Finland and Slovenia issued the statement on Tuesday 7 May, saying that they “remain deeply concerned that the ETS, as currently designed, cannot provide the price signals needed to stimulate the low-carbon investment needed now because the supply of allowances substantially outstrips demand, leading to a very low carbon price”. The nine ministers say that interference in the market should be kept to a minimum, but are in favour of a one-off, targeted intervention and call for a freezing of the quotas as the only way of providing a short-term solution while awaiting structural reform of the ETS. They regret the delays caused by the European Parliament in its rejection of the back-loading plans in first reading in plenary recently. The nine ministers urge the Council of Ministers and European Parliament to “take the urgent steps necessary, working constructively together, to come to a swift resolution of the back-loading proposal”. Back-loading will not be enough in and of itself and the ministers therefore call for “more substantive measures” to boost the ETS. They want the Commission to suggest a root-and-branch reform later this year and say it is time to give investors a clear signal about Europe's low-carbon ambition beyond 2020. (MD/transl.fl)