The draft ‘climate law’, which provides for the possibility for the European Commission to modify the EU’s climate targets by delegated acts after 2030, may be undermined by a legal opinion from the European Parliament’s services made public on Thursday 2 April (see EUROPE 12460/25), but this opinion does not affect the European Commission’s determination.
Invited to comment on this opinion, a spokesman for the institution told EUROPE: “We are aware of the non-paper of the Parliament’s legal service. The Commission’s proposal for the climate law provides predictability and confidence in the irreversibility of the transition towards climate neutrality. The Commission will engage in the discussions on our proposal making sure that these conditions are preserved.”
While it does not call into question the collective objective of climate neutrality by 2050 pursued by the EU and already communicated to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, this opinion concludes that the setting of the trajectory by the European Commission alone is incompatible with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU). Poland, for example, which has always opposed the unilateral raising of the EU’s climate ambition, could hinder any upward revision of post-2030 targets.
To consult the legal opinion: https://bit.ly/3aHU1sP (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)