Unsurprisingly, MEPs meeting in plenary in Strasbourg on Wednesday 12 February approved the EU's fourth controversial list of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs). With this vote, the 149 energy infrastructure projects included in the list become eligible for EU funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Despite the many criticisms levelled at the list, mainly concerning the presence of fossil fuel projects on it (see EUROPE 12417/7), the European Parliament thus voted overwhelmingly against the motion to reject the list, initiated by the Greens/EFA Group (443 votes against, 169 in favour and 36 abstentions).
Distribution of votes. As regards the distribution of votes by political groups, there are no surprises compared to what EUROPE had announced the day before the vote (see EUROPE 12423/7).
The EPP, Renew Europe, ECR and ID groups thus broadly supported the list of PCIs, while the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups were largely opposed to it.
As expected, the Social Democratic Group appeared the most divided, with 75 members in favour of the list, 48 against and 19 abstentions.
With regard to geographical distribution, it is interesting to note that a near-majority of voters from the Eastern European Member States (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary) supported the list.
This is no doubt due to the fact that these countries remain highly dependent on fossil fuels and rely on gas to enable them to gradually move away from coal.
Are the Commission's commitments a real guarantee or a smokescreen?
While the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups lamented the outcome of the vote, the Renew Europe group welcomed the European Commission's commitment to re-evaluate the projects included in the list in the light of the European Green Deal before funding them.
"To receive EU funding, projects on the PCI list will have to support our EU Green Deal ambitions", Commission Vice-President in charge of the Green Deal Frans Timmermans said on Twitter the previous evening. Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson made a similar commitment, orally, on Monday 10 February, during a debate with parliamentarians.
But these commitments are not convincing in the ranks of environmentalists. "Promises of case-by-case analyses, after the list has been validated, means that we run the risk of seeing the projects materialise anyway, with the support of gas sector lobbies", judged the French MEP Marie Toussaint, who instigated the motion of rejection. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)