Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union left without any real progress on Tuesday 2 February, at the end of the third session of interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on the proposal for an EU climate regulation, known as the ‘Climate Law’.
According to information gathered by EUROPE, at this stage, the EU Council has refused to address the most emblematic and divisive points of the ‘Climate Law’, namely the EU’s climate objectives for 2030 and 2050.
While the Parliament proposes to raise the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target to 60% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels), the EU Council and the Commission advocate a ‘net reduction of at least 55%’.
Regarding the climate neutrality target for 2050, MEPs believe it should apply not only to the EU as a whole, but also to each Member State. An idea that is opposed by the majority of Member States.
The lack of progress on key points was in fact expected. In a document aimed at preparing this meeting, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council had in fact indicated that the third trilogue would be limited to an exchange of views on “politically sensitive” topics (see EUROPE 12643/13).
Little room for compromise
During the discussion, EU Council negotiators also reportedly expressed their opposition to the Parliament’s amendment to phase out all direct and indirect subsidies to fossil fuels in each Member State as soon as possible and no later than 2025.
They reportedly also rejected the idea of including a paragraph on improving access to justice to enable citizens to sue their governments for non-compliance with their climate commitments.
“The list of what they do not want to talk about and what they are rejecting is way longer than the list of what they agree to talk about!”, an internal source in the European Parliament confided to us, regretting the slowness of the discussions in view of the will displayed at the beginning of the trilogues.
The two institutions had expressed their wish to move forward quickly in order to reach an agreement by June, before the European Commission presents its package of initiatives to put the EU on track to achieve a net reduction of GHG emissions of at least 55% by 2030.
On the other hand, this third trilogue reportedly enabled the negotiators to see possibilities for convergence on the Parliament’s amendment on adaptation to climate change, as well as on the revision clause, as already indicated in the Portuguese Presidency’s document (see EUROPE 12643/13).
Finally, the EU Council is reported to have asked for further details on four other Parliament proposals: - the establishment of a GHG budget for the EU; - the definition of sectoral roadmaps to lead the different sectors to climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest; - the creation of a ‘European Climate Change Council’ (ECCC - see EUROPE 12568/6); - the path towards the 2040 objective (see EUROPE 12576/1). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)