On Monday 16 December, the Member States' ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) supported an amended compromise text on the Regulation laying the foundations for the future taxonomy on sustainable finance.
The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU can therefore resume negotiations with the European Parliament on the basis of this revised mandate, the European Parliament is expected to discuss the text Monday evening.
The initial compromise reached between the Finnish Presidency and Parliament representatives (see EUROPE 12026/4) did not obtain the required majority last week at Coreper and the Finnish Presidency had indeed been asked to review its copy (see EUROPE 12388/16).
The United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had expressed concerns about the way in which the text regulates technological neutrality. These countries considered that the text was too focused on the risk of environmental damage and not on the actual damage. In addition, adjustments had been requested to further open the door to the inclusion of nuclear energy and gas.
The amended compromise text, obtained by EUROPE, thus clarifies that nuclear energy and gas can be recognised as activities contributing to the climate transition.
The Finnish Presidency proposed three amendments to the text, which focus on the objective of climate change mitigation (Article 6) and the principle of “do no significant harm” (Article 12), introduced by Parliament to complicate the inclusion of nuclear energy in the categories provided for “transition” and “enabling” activities.
In Article 12, on the effects of long-term management of waste generated by an activity, the text no longer refers to “posing material significant and long-term risks of causing significant and long-term harm to the environment”, but to “cause significant and long-term harm to the environment”.
These are only “cosmetic adjustments”, according to a European source. The EU Council's offer is also “take it or leave it”, the source commented, since the Finnish Presidency has very limited room for manoeuvre.
At the time of going to press, the meeting of Parliament negotiators to evaluate the text had not yet started. In case of agreement between the co-legislators, Coreper is expected to approve the final text on Wednesday 18 December. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)