Brussels, 10/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Presidency of the Council of Ministers will do all in its power to break the deadlock at the Council on the issue of CO2 from new cars, which has even been the subject of an agreement in trialogue, Valentinas Mazuronis, the Lithuanian Minister for the Environment and president-in-exercise of the Environment Council, pledged on Wednesday 10 July. Presenting the environmental priorities of the Lithuanian Presidency to the MEPs of the ENVI committee of the European Parliament (see other article), and bombarded with questions from MEPs furious that Coreper's approval vote has been postponed, he announced that consultations with the member states would start on 17 July to try to get things moving again.
“One member state has managed to get the vote postponed. I have never before seen that in eight years at the Parliament. We have to get all of this sorted out at first reading before March/April, otherwise it will take forever”, was the opening gambit of the German MEP Matthias Groote (S&D), the chair of the parliamentary committee. Linda McAvan (S&D, United Kingdom), criticising the “pressure brought to bear by the member states, such as Germany”, asked if the vote would be held at the Coreper meeting on 17 July, the last before the summer break. “We want the dossier to be closed and its results presented to the UN climate conference in Warsaw (COP 19, November)”, she said. “The 'CO2 from cars' dossier is almost closed, I do not see why it cannot be finalised”, added Salvatore Tatarella (EPP, Italy).
“We are going to launch consultations with other member states to see whether a majority is possible, or whether we are going to be faced with a blocking minority. Then we will be able to decide on our next steps. Discussions are tabled for the Coreper meeting of 17 July to clarify the respective positions”, Mazuronis announced. “The Presidency will be unstinting in its efforts, but we need an agreement from the member states”, he added.
A potential dangerous precedent. “It isn't your fault, we had a mandate, the rules have changed partway through. This is extremely serious for forthcoming trialogues. When there is an agreement, it should be possible to stick to it”, Matthias Groote concluded, not hiding the fact that he is concerned that a precedent has been created, which is likely to bring about “lasting disturbances which could shake the citizens' confidence” in the European decision-making process.
Readers may recall that an appeal from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Taoisach Enda Kenny, on 26 June, led the Irish Presidency to agree to postpone until further notice the vote scheduled to take place that same day at Coreper on the details for the reduction in CO2 emissions from new cars by 2020, which was the subject of a political agreement in trialogue two days earlier, confirming the target of 95 grams of CO2/km. Environmental NGOs suspected Berlin of hoping to build a blocking minority now that the EU has 28 member states, following the accession of Croatia (see EUROPE 10877, 10876 and 10874). (AN/transl.fl)