The Council of the EU is ready to open negotiations with Parliament on the European Commission proposal seeking to extend the derogation to the EU emissions trading system (ETS) beyond 2016 and possibly until 2021 to take account of the agreement reached by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to regulate international aviation emissions through a global market-based measure, referred to as CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) (see EUROPE 11718 and 11719).
On 21 June, the member states’ ambassadors to the EU agreed the Council’s negotiating position, which will back the main points of the proposal presented by the Commission on 3 February of this year.
The Council will back the extension of the derogation for flights outside the European Economic Area to allow time to prepare for the introduction of CORSIA from 2021. It supports a review of implementation of CORSIA within the EU, particularly to determine the fate of the ETS directive once all the ICAO decisions have been taken. The result of this evaluation will allow the application of the linear reduction factor (LRF) to aircraft operators from 2021 onwards. The text of the Commission proposal has been amended, in particular to clarify the review process.
The European Parliament environment committee vote is scheduled for 11 July. Parliament, however, will not come to any decision before September. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)