Brussels, 18/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU has made considerable progress on the proposal for the long-term reform of the EU's emission trading scheme (ETS) with the creation of a market stability reserve, said the outgoing Italian Council Presidency updating environment ministers on Wednesday 17 December.
Work on this draft decision, presented by the Commission on 22 January 2013, has focused on: - the start of the implementation of the market stability reserve and the treatment of backloaded allowances as part of the short-term reform; - conditions for the removal of allowances into the reserve and their return to the market; - response time of the reserve and the frequency of its review.
Discussion will continue. Latvian Environment Minister Kaspars Gerhards said that setting up the European carbon market stability reserve will be one of the priorities of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which will “seek a mandate to open negotiations with the Parliament”.
Among the delegations which spoke, several (Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom) called for implementation to be brought forward to 2017 and for backloaded allowances to swell the reserve. Denmark indicated that it would have preferred that surplus allowances be quite simply wiped out.
The ministers of Lithuania, Croatia and Romania argued for 2021 to remain the date of entry into force of the reserve. Spain has no definitive position (because of a scrutiny reservation over backloaded allowances being used to augment the reserve).
After its initial debate on 3 December, the Parliament's environment committee will take a decision in February of next year on the framework for action on climate and energy policies till 2030 (see EUROPE 11210). (AN)