On Monday 10 May, the Council of the European Union transmitted to the Member States the first guidelines proposed by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in order to prepare the conclusions of the European summit of 24 and 25 May on climate change, one of the subjects on the agenda of the meeting of the 27 Heads of State or Government of the EU countries.
In accordance with the conclusions of the European Council of 10 and 11 December 2020, one of the aims of the summit at the end of May is to adopt additional European Council guidelines in view of the presentation of the European Commission’s package of legislative initiatives on climate on 14 July (provisional date).
Dubbed ‘Fit for 55’, the package aims to enable the EU to achieve a reduction in its net greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels).
In particular, it includes a revision of the EU Effort Sharing Regulation (2018/842) which sets a national target for each Member State for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 for sectors not covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
Calling on the Commission to present its legislative package quickly “accompanied by an in-depth examination of the environmental, economic and social impact at Member States level”, the guidelines proposed by Mr Michel state that the distribution of effort between Member States “should be based on the criteria of the existing Effort Sharing Regulation”.
They also reaffirm “the need to maintain national targets under the Effort Sharing Regulation and to preserve its broad scope to stimulate effective measures at national level”.
Finally, the text stresses “the need to strengthen EU-wide sectoral measures and policies to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions”.
See the draft conclusions: https://bit.ly/2RNsCAY (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)