Brussels, 27/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 March, Coreper (Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States of the EU) unanimously approved the pre-agreement on the European strategy to establish a network of recharging stations for fuels used in place of petrol.
This informal agreement was reached on Thursday 20 March at an inter-institutional trialogue session. It provides that the member states will submit to the Commission their national recharging station plans for electricity, natural and liquefied gas and hydrogen between 2020 and 2030 (for details, see EUROPE 11043). The agreement between the Council and the Parliament did not include the quantified, ambitious and binding objectives proposed by the Commission. The Parliament went along with the Council's wishes, having been in favour of keeping these quotas, but halved.
The organisation Transport & Environment described it as a missed opportunity. It laments the fact that no binding obligation appears in the text, meaning that fossil energy will continue to be used for longer and transport will continue to be responsible for high levels of carbon emissions for longer.
Parliament will adopt the agreement at its April plenary session in Strasbourg, but will have to vote again on the text after the summer break, once it has been revised and corrected by the legal and linguistic services. The Council has still formally to adopt the text, which will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, therefore at some point this year. (MD)