Brussels, 30/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The outgoing Dutch Presidency of the Council of Ministers has been true to its word in managing to get a last-gasp agreement on Thursday 30 June between the European Parliament and the Council on revision of the directive on national emissions ceilings for certain air pollutants (Directive 2003/35/EC, known as the NEC directive).
After the fourth trialogue meeting on this crucial text of the “clean air for Europe” package on 21 June, the permanent representatives of the member states (Coreper) agreed the following day, Wednesday 22 June, to the Presidency compromise covering the whole of the text, other than Annexe II which sets out the reduction figures by member state for each pollutant by 2020 and 2030, with 2025 as an intermediate stage.
This compromise affected principally the degrees of flexibility afforded member states that were having difficulty (see EUROPE 11455) and the status of the 2025 targets. It stipulated that 2025 would serve as an indicative stage for the achievement of the 2030 targets, as the Council wanted. Parliament indicated that it could accept this compromise if, however, the level of ambition could be raised in Annexe II.
In the meantime, the Presidency held bilateral discussions on this point with the delegations and a relatively broad agreement in principle was put to Coreper on a slightly amended Annexe II on Tuesday 28 June. However, one country - Italy - was unable, for reasons quite independent of the content of the text, to give its backing. That approval has now been given, a diplomatic source has revealed to EUROPE. We will return later to the detail of this agreement. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)