Some 116 MEPs have signed a joint declaration obtained by EUROPE on Thursday 5 November, which calls upon EU institutions to adopt a European budget and recovery plan that excludes any new investment in fossil fuels from EU public funding.
“Funding must be channelled towards energy efficiency, renewables and electricity-based solutions that deliver a green recovery and a just transition. It should exclude all support for fossil fuel investments, including fossil gas”, the signatories emphasised.
The latter, mainly from the Greens/EFA, S&D and GUE/NGL groups, but also including 9 members of Renew Europe, 2 members of EPP and non-attached MEPs, all fear that new public investment in fossil fuels will result in the creation of stranded assets. In their opinion, these investments thus risk condemning the EU to another costly and difficult transit over the next 15 years, while investing in a green recovery “will boost the economy and create jobs”.
In addition to the Just Transition Fund and the Cohesion Fund, the declaration particularly mentions the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of the European Recovery Plan, which is due to be voted on, on Monday 9 November in the European Parliament Committee on Budgets (BUDG) and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).
However, according to the compromise amendments obtained by Europe (see EUROPE 12596/3), investments in fossil fuels should not be excluded from the facility, but should nevertheless be subject to a series of conditions.
“An explicit exclusion of fossil investments by Parliament, in whatever form, would be the best solution. Unfortunately, there was not the majority needed to adopt it”, said Pascal Durand (Renew Europe, France), one of the signatories of the declaration.
See the declaration: https://bit.ly/2GyIZME (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)