Brussels, 19/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Attempts at compromise, which have not yet proved conclusive, were made between the Parliament and the Council at the first trialogue session, which was held in Brussels on Tuesday 18 February, regarding the Commission's proposal to apply the ETS directive (2008/101/EC) to the European regional airspace from 1 January 2014 to cover all flights between airports of the European Economic Area, pending the entry into force in 2020 of the agreement on a global market instrument pledged by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to cut the secto's CO2 emissions (see EUROPE 11008).
While the European Parliament wanted an ETS applied to European airspace up to 2016, the Council called for an extension until 2016 of the current “stop the clock” system, which restricts the application of the ETS directive to intra-European flights, by virtue of a temporary derogation granted in 2012 to intercontinental flights, to run until April of this year.
By way of compromise, the Parliament has stated that it is prepared to accept this concession as an element of an overall agreement, which would have to include a strict requirement for the auction revenue to be allocated to climate action.
“We believe that this allocation could resolve the current crisis of confidence in the ETS on the part of third countries”, said Peter Liese (EPP, Germany), the rapporteur who headed up the delegation of the Parliament's negotiators.
“This is an extremely political point. Currently, revenue from the ETS goes into the coffers of the ministers, even though it is supposed to be used to help tackle climate change. This money could be allocated to the green fund for the climate and to R&D. This would show our partners, ahead of the climate negotiations of Paris in 2015 (COP 21), that the EU is taking the issue seriously”, stressed Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany), chair of the parliamentary committee on the environment. The MEPs take the view that the ball is now in the Council's court. The next meeting is scheduled for 4 March. (AN/transl.fl)