Wishing to contribute to a post-Covid-19 recovery that is “fair”, “digital”, but also “green”, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, whose term of office officially started on 1 January, has made the adoption of the ‘Climate Law’ one of the priorities of its work programme.
“The Presidency will pursue the negotiation on the European Climate Law with a view to securing a joint commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels”, says the Portuguese document.
In concrete terms, Lisbon aims to conclude an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU within the inter-institutional negotiation box (‘trilogues’) that began under the German Presidency (see EUROPE 12627/26). A task which could nevertheless prove difficult, given the respective positions of the co-legislators (see EUROPE 12614/15).
The Presidency also wishes to focus on adaptation to climate change.
While the European Commission will present a new strategy in this area at the beginning of 2021 (see EUROPE 12625/14), Lisbon intends to encourage a debate on the links between policies, in particular by highlighting the synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Energy
With regard to the energy sector, the Presidency will be responsible in particular for steering the discussions in the EU Council on the proposal for the revision of the EU Regulation (347/2013) on trans-European energy networks (TEN-E) - presented on 15 December (see EUROPE 12623/3) - with the aim of reaching a political agreement between the Member States (‘general approach’).
The Portuguese authorities also wish to focus on green hydrogen, in particular by organising a dedicated conference to be held in Lisbon in April, and on the promotion of energy efficiency, with particular emphasis on the fight against energy poverty.
Finally, the Portuguese Presidency is expected to launch trilogues on the revision of the MRV Regulation (2015/757) on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport (see EUROPE 12561/13, 12357/1).
See the work programme of the Portuguese Presidency: https://bit.ly/38Xm0oS (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)