Brussels, 16/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU has had its work cut out for it with the changes to the national upper limits on the emission of certain air pollutants that lead to 400,000 premature deaths in the EU each year.
It took all the Luxembourg Presidency's talents of stubbornness and flexibility to manage to reconcile the viewpoints of most ministers in Brussels on Wednesday 16 December on the review of EU Directive 2003/35/EC on national emissions caps (the NEC directive) - part of the 'clean air in Europe' package.
The Commission's proposal of December 2013 aimed to intensify reductions in annual national emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX), decomposed volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), including methane, ammonia (NH3) and particulates (PM 2.5) for 2020 and 2030, with2025 as an intermediate stage.
Based on a compromise and after a few adjustments to the figures granted to a number of delegations, the environment ministers finally managed to come up with general guidelines on the draft review of the directive, which had been on the table for more than two years.
The general guidelines were adopted by qualified majority after a lengthy discussion - the third of its type (see EUROPE 11335). The guidelines take account of the ministers' call in June for ambitious but realistic targets, flexibility and taking account of the special situation of some member states.
The emissions reduction values are aligned with the Council of Ministers' position and the Gothenburg Protocol on long-distance pollution for 2020-2029, with new targets for 2030. Methane will not be included in the scope of application and values for 2025 will only be indicative.
Further flexibility will make it possible for member states facing problems not to comply with the figures for a particular pollutant, as long as they compensate for this by doing more to reduce the levels of another pollutant over a limited period of time. Moreover, if as a result of a particularly cold winter and a particularly hot simmer, or unpredictable variations in the economy, a member state does not comply with the commitments, it will be allowed to meet its targets by achieving an average of its annual emissions for the year in question as long as the average is not higher than its commitments.
The agreement does not cover emissions in the Canary Islands, French overseas departments, Madeira and the Azores. The member states will have to update their pollution control programmes at least every four years.
Four delegations voted against the guidelines - Germany, Austria, Poland and Denmark, the latter having the target of reducing its very high ammonia emissions by 2030 and achieving an above-average emissions reduction between 1992 and 2013. It is reduction in emissions from agriculture that is preventing Germany, Denmark and Poland from agreeing with the text. Germany says that some figures it said it had supplied were ignored, but the Presidency disputes this.
After the success of COP 21 in Paris, Carole Dieschbourg, the outgoing chair of the Council, kept mentioning the 'spirit of Paris' in the interest of human health, but to no avail. She said at a press conference that if time is wasted, then so are lives, and she is unhappy at the lack of ambition. She points out that it was generally the most ambitious delegations that could not go along with the agreement.
Sweden said that the text had abandoned the principle of common shared ambition, which is why it attached a statement to the minutes of the meeting, a statement that Belgium also signed.
Negotiations can now be launched with the European Parliament with a view to reaching agreement in first reading, but this is likely to be very tricky because a number of delegations have made it clear that they will not be able to go further than required of them in the watered down compromise. The European Parliament has a very ambitious position (see EUROPE 11420). The Dutch minister, whose country will be taking over the rotating presidency of the Council from Luxembourg, said that she wouldn't have wanted more ambitious targets.
EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella said he was disappointed with the agreement, which is miles apart from the Commission's initial proposal, and now can only count on a 48% reduction in the number of deaths caused by air pollution each year, although the target in June was for a 50% reduction and the initial proposal was for a 52% reduction. He said he would continue to provide any aid required to achieve agreement in first reading. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)