On Thursday 25 February, the European Parliament’s ‘Transport’ Committee will vote on an own-initiative report for “more efficient and cleaner maritime transport”. Comprising some 30 recommendations, this document aims to feed into the European Commission’s work on its FuelEU Maritime legislative project, announced for 2021 (see EUROPE 12619/12).
Around 50 compromise amendments, read by EUROPE, will first be put to a vote on Wednesday. These amendments, while generally strengthening the original text, also deprive it of some significant demands.
The initial draft, drawn up by Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France), called in particular for a ban on heavy fuel oil and the establishment of a European blacklist to punish over-polluting ships.
Concerning heavy fuel oil, there is reportedly no longer be any question of banning it, but of “gradually phasing out” its use. “Not only as a fuel, but also as a blending substance for marine fuels”, the compromise amendment states.
The blacklist has completely disappeared. Instead, “possibilities for effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions” are mentioned.
LNG crisis
MEPs are also expected to vote to delete the paragraph calling for EU funds to be used only “for long-term sustainable alternatives” and not for the controversial use of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Although LNG has the advantage of low carbon emissions, its extraction, transport and bunkering generate methane: a gas “30 times more potent, when averaged over 100 years, than CO2”, according to various reports commissioned by the organisation Transport & Environment.
Two options are now on the table to replace the initial paragraph condemning the use of LNG. Both recognise the need to preserve the competitiveness of the sector and to use “all readily deployable options to reduce maritime emissions”.
Therefore, a first proposal, supported by the EPP, Renew Europe, and the ECR, underlines the “need” to invest in these options - including LNG - while a second proposal, from the S&D, Greens/EFA, and The Left, sees LNG as a “short-term alternative to heavy fuel oil”.
“It is a shame that conservative forces are pushing for investment in fossil fuels, such as LNG, whereas the European Green Deal clearly states that we want to end fossil fuel subsidies”, Dutch MEP Vera Tax, rapporteur for the Socialists, told EUROPE.
“We have an energetic and innovative maritime sector in Europe that is taking concrete strides towards zero-emission transport. There is no logic in stifling our shipbuilders, ports and seafarers with stringent rules and restrictions when this results in offshoring our carbon emissions, losing European productivity as well as jobs”, commented Caroline Nagtegaal (Netherlands), rapporteur for Renew Europe.
Detailed recommendations
Apart from this point, Mrs Nagtegaal considered the result to be balanced. Mrs Tax, for her part, welcomed “some important steps to make the maritime sector more sustainable” contained in the report, such as the inclusion of the sector in the emissions trading scheme.
For the most part, the other compromise amendments take up the measures initially proposed by Karima Delli, with more detail.
For example, the proposals for legislation on zero-emission ports, a European label guaranteeing the environmental performance of ships, and the application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle to maritime transport have been fleshed out.
The compromise amendments, finally, contain some additions: MEPs are expected, among other things, to ask the Commission to integrate wind and solar propulsion systems into its FuelEU Maritime initiative, to draw up a strategy on zero-emission ports, and to invest “in a green European maritime industry” in order to take “the lead in the development of new eco-designed ships”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)