Representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission are meeting on Tuesday 3 December for new negotiations on the Regulation laying the foundations for the future taxonomy on sustainable finance (see EUROPE 12026/4).
The last meeting, held on 27 November, ended without agreement on governance and the role of Member States and the European Parliament in the implementation of the taxonomy (see EUROPE 12374/21).
The European Parliament and the EU Council will firmly maintain their positions, according to a European source. The European Parliament is still not able to accept the system proposed by the EU Council, namely that the Commission should establish by means of delegated acts the technical criteria on the basis of which it will be possible to determine whether and to what extent an economic activity is ecologically sustainable, and would establish by implementing acts the quantitative and/or qualitative thresholds that must be met by the economic activity to be considered 'sustainable' (see EUROPE 12333/8). However, for the EU Council, this system of implementing acts continues to be a red line.
The European Commission should propose new compromise options on this point at the next trilogue.
Negotiators will also continue their discussions on the creation of categories of "transition" and "enabling" activities. According to the same source, the European Parliament continues to want to make them separate categories from the one defining the economic sectors considered sustainable, as well as having a regular assessment of their alignment with the taxonomy criteria. If no solution has yet been reached, the EU Council may to be ready to show some flexibility.
France is suspected of wanting to use these categories to keep nuclear power in the taxonomy (see EUROPE 12349/27) and the same for Germany with regard to gas, while the European Parliament, in its text, has expressly excluded them.
Negotiators will also discuss once again the link between the future taxonomy and the regulation that specifies how institutional investors should integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into their investment decision-making (see EUROPE 11977/2). There is no agreement on this point yet either, but the EU Council is prepared to explore an obligation to disclose information for certain products listed in Article 8 of the Regulation, in order to avoid the risks of 'greenwashing'.
Several other points are still open, such as the scope, the definition of environmental objectives or the date of implementation.
Nevertheless, there is a real political will for the 'trilogue' of 3 December to be the last and for a global agreement to be reached. If this is not the case, a new meeting could be organised on 16 December. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)