03/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Yes to accelerated “backloading”. In Brussels on Thursday 30 January, the committee on the environment of the European Parliament rejected two attempts by the ECR Group to block the short-term reform of the European carbon market (see EUROPE 10993) and voted in favour of shortening the time to be taken by the Parliament and the Council to examine the measure, as proposed by the European Commission. This means that the Commission will be able to carry out a temporary freeze of 400 million quotas this year, the maximum authorised in 2014. “The examination time has been reviewed. We have wasted enough time. We want to get into the home straight. CO2 prices must be set at a reasonable level”, the chair of the parliamentary committee, Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany), told the press. (AN/transl.fl)