Brussels, 27/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 30 January, the committee on the environment of the European Parliament, chaired by Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany), will vote on the partial exemptions to the application of the EU emissions quota trading system (ETS) for inter-continental flights as proposed by the European Commission to take account of the agreement reached at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on 4 October. Ahead of this vote, the NGO Transport & Environment and the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) have issued a joint appeal to the MEPs to support the Commission's proposal and to resist any pressure aiming to water the scope down.
The proposal made by the Commission on 16 October 2013 to modify the ETS directive (2003/87/EC) in order to apply the ETS only to the European regional airspace (the 28 member states of the EU plus Norway and Iceland) from 1 January 2014 until 2020, the scheduled date for the application of the global market instrument to be finalised in 2016 to reduce CO2 emissions from international aviation, would cover all emissions created in the European airspace, but a general exemption would apply to emissions generated outside the airspace of the European Economic Area.
However, T&E and ELFAA accused the French, German and British governments of pushing for the “stop the clock” system, which currently restricts the application of the ETS directive to intra-European flights, to be extended until 2016, even though the measure for inter-continental flights (made by EU and third-country airlines) taking off from and landing at EU airports was adopted on a temporary basis in order to give ICAO time to negotiate a global agreement based on a market instrument.
John Hanlon, ELFAA Secretary General stressed that “to prolong eh one-year-only 'stop the clock' as the basis of the ETS is not only discriminatory but environmentally ineffective, capturing only 20% of EU aviation emissions of CO2, while letting long-haul flights off the hook. Failure to review the original benchmark, which was designed for a radically different scope, compounds the discriminatory effect on intra-Europe operators”.
In the meantime, EU regulators are still failing to enforce breaches of the original 2012 legislation by Chinese, Indian and Saudi airlines. ELFAA and T&E agree with Peter Liese that Parliament should not seek to amend the directive that member states have failed, and will probably continue to fail, to enforce.
Bill Hemmings, aviation manager at T&E added that “pursuing anything less than coverage of emissions in EU airspace is environmentally unacceptable. At the same tiome , not enforcing the existing ETS sends a clear signal to third countries that EU sovereignty doesn't matter and it won't advance efforts to secure an agreement on global measures either”.
Peter Liese MEP (EPP, Germany), rapporteur on this dossier is in favour of keeping up the pressure on the ICAO. Not only does he support the Commission's proposal but is also calling on the European Union to prepare for any eventuality, including ICAO's not finalising agreement on this global market mechanism in 2016, and should immediately prepare to apply its initial legislation in full, including all flights flying to and from EU airports after 2016 (see EUROPE 10972). The European Parliament will vote on this question at the April plenary session.
In September 2013, low-cost airlines appealed to the High Court in United Kingdom against the “stop the clock” measure because they claimed temporary exemption from the ETS would have had a discriminatory impact on European airlines and that it did not comply with EU legislation and was not subject to appropriate procedures (see EUROPE 10914). (AN/transl.fl)