Brussels, 06/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has argued that, for the 2015-2020 period, high-energy consuming industrial sectors exposed to strong international competition and thus running a significant risk of relocation to non-EU countries that do not proactively tackle climate change, should be able to benefit from more free quotas on the European Trading Scheme (ETS) than other sectors. This constitutes the thrust of its proposal submitted on Tuesday 6 May to the EU's climate change regulatory committee. This proposal contains a revised list of the sectors and subsectors involved, which was drawn up on the basis of a quantitative assessment (criteria related to the level of international trade intensity and additional direct and indirect costs).
Member state representatives on the committee will hold a first discussion on this matter on Wednesday 7 May and will hold a vote before the summer recess. Once approved, the draft decision will be submitted to examination procedure by the Parliament and Council, which will have three months to formulate any objections. The list could be adopted by the Commission before the end of the year.
In presenting its draft integrated framework action for climate and energy policies up to 2030, the Commission stated that “it is prudent (…) to maintain the existing policy framework for those industrial sectors most at risk of carbon leakage until the end of trading in phase 3” of the ETS over the 2013-2020 period. (AN)