Despite some progress, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union left without any major breakthrough on the ‘Climate Law’, on Friday 12 March, at the end of a fourth session of interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) that lasted until early evening.
This fourth round focused on the possibility of establishing an EU “greenhouse gas budget” (GHG) and the creation of a “European Climate Change Council” (ECCC), both of which were supported by Parliament.
Regarding the GHG budget, the Council of the EU would not allow it to be used as a basis for defining the EU’s climate target for 2040.
On the second point, negotiations are progressing a little better. The EU Council and the European Commission are said to support the idea of creating an EU-wide scientific advisory body on climate change, but differences seem to persist over the form this body would take.
The EU Council would like it to be composed of one expert per Member State, while Parliament insists that it should be limited to a maximum of 15 independent scientists in order to avoid it becoming a political body in which each of the 27 national experts would defend the interests of their respective countries.
In terms of progress, it should be noted that the co-legislators agreed that the Commission should, in future, propose guidelines for national institutions responsible for establishing and implementing programmes to improve adaptation to climate change.
The most divisive points of the ‘Climate Law’, namely the EU’s climate targets for 2030 and 2050, have still not been addressed (see EUROPE 12649/3).
Parliament’s negotiators therefore believe that at least two more sessions of political trilogues will be needed before an agreement is reached. Like the Council of the EU, MEPs want to conclude this dossier before the presentation of the ‘Fit for 55’ package of initiatives scheduled for June. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)