On Friday 23 October, Hungary sent the other Member States a statement setting out its conditions for the conclusion of a political agreement (general approach) in the Council of the European Union on the entire ‘Climate Law’.
Following the recent decision of the 27 Heads of State or Government to discuss the EU’s climate target for 2030 for a second time at the European Council on 10 and 11 December, the Environment Ministers of the Member States were only able to conclude last Friday on a partial general approach on the ‘Climate Law’ (see EUROPE 12588/1).
Leaving the 2030 target in brackets, the EU Council now hopes to receive the green light from the EU-27 at the December summit to adopt a general approach on the whole text.
However, according to Budapest, the conclusion of such an agreement should be subject to certain conditions.
In particular, the Hungarian authorities consider that the conclusions of the December European Council “should not only decide on the value of the 2030 target, but should also provide guidance on how this target will be reached (enabling framework)”.
Such guidelines represent a “sine qua non condition” for an agreement on raising the 2030 target, the statement insists.
Hungary further requests that this enabling framework should follow certain principles such as the right of Member States to determine which low-carbon technologies will be part of their national energy mix (principle of technological neutrality), without excluding nuclear power.
The statement also upholds the convergence principle that all EU countries should participate in the Union’s climate efforts. To this end, Hungary considers that each Member State should achieve a reduction in gross emissions of at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
Budapest also stresses the importance of solidarity between countries and equity, proposing in particular to extend the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) mechanisms to help Member States with low GDP per capita (an idea also put forward by Poland - see EUROPE 12588/2).
Finally, Hungary calls for the enabling framework to ensure a secure and affordable energy supply and also to address the issue of carbon leakage in order to ensure that EU climate policy does not undermine its industrial competitiveness.
At last Friday’s meeting of Environment Ministers, Poland had expressed its support for the elements included in the Hungarian document.
See the statement: https://bit.ly/2J6X7xI (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)