MEPs adopted the own-initiative report by Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA, France) on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) by 444 votes in favour, 70 against and 180 abstentions on Wednesday 10 March.
The day before, the text had been amended on a key point of the mechanism: the end of free quotas allocated to companies. The EPP amendment to remove from the text the “parallel, phasing out” of free quotas was adopted by 344 votes in favour, 329 against and 23 abstentions. In addition to MEPs from the EPP, ECR and ID, a handful of Renew Europe and S&D MEPs supported the amendment. Within the EPP, only the French MEPs of the group did not support the amendment in question.
Abstention of the Greens. The MEPs of the Greens/EFA group, of which the rapporteur is a member, abstained from the final vote on the text. They considered that the initial compromise should have been adopted and not the formula amended by the right. “By cutting this essential element out of the report, these MEPs are hampering the fight against climate change and weakening our industry, which risks not seizing the opportunity to convert to a low-carbon economy in time”.
The CAN Europe federation was disappointed by the vote on this amendment. “Yesterdays vote would mean that the EU could continue to use taxpayer’s money to finance industries’ polluting practices”, said CAN Europe’s coordinator for industrial transformation policy, Doreen Fedrigo, on 10 March.
Majority support. However, the majority of the European Parliament supported the text, which brings together the concerns of all parties. “It is still clear that we will not accept any double protection. Every tonne of carbon dioxide should be paid for only once and protected only once”, the rapporteur Karin Karlsbro (Renew Europe, Sweden) told EUROPE. For her colleague Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France), from the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI), “the vote confirms an important step with the aim of making the new regulation a key element of the French Presidency in early 2022”. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)