At the end of a climate discussion that, in the end, lasted only 3 hours, the EU27 heads of state or government adopted very brief conclusions and agreed, on Tuesday 25 May, to return to the climate issue after the presentation of the European Commission’s package of legislative proposals aimed at leading the EU towards a reduction of its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (known as the ‘Fit for 55’ package).
“We will certainly have the opportunity, probably after the summer, to have another debate of a political nature in order to have a general look at the state of progress of the legislative work necessary to move forward”, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at a press conference after the meeting of the EU27.
“We can expect the discussion to take place after the summer holidays, so in September or October”, said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, while the presentation of the ‘Fit for 55’ package is scheduled for 14 July.
Vague conclusions
In the end, the conclusions adopted by the European Council do not provide any new guidance to the Commission for the presentation of the ‘Fit for 55’ package.
They simply invite the Commission to “swiftly put forward its legislative package together with an in-depth examination of the environmental, economic and social impact at Member State level”.
“Beyond the written conclusions, which are relatively brief on the subject, the dynamics of the debate have been fundamental”, Mr Michel said, describing the debate as “dense, useful and necessary”.
“My expectations have been fully fulfilled because (...) I wanted to listen to the Member States what their views, what their concerns, what their ideas for this huge step forward in the regulatory framework are”, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Amending the draft conclusions (see EUROPE 12724/1), the leaders decided, among other things, to delete the reference to the forthcoming revision of the EU Effort Sharing Regulation (2018/842) - a revision foreseen in the ‘Fit for 55’ package.
This could, no doubt, be a way of avoiding a deadlock, given the divisions between EU countries over the revision (see EUROPE 12724/1).
Stressing the need for climate efforts to be “fair, supportive and ambitious”, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez acknowledged the existence of “differences of opinion”.
“It is clear that we will keep the scope and that we will keep the principles (of the ESR) which are principles that, one the one hand, make sure that there is fairness between Member States and within Member States but also cost-effectiveness and innovation”, the Commission President assured, mentioning GDP per capita and cost-effectiveness as the two guiding principles.
She added: “the different leaders have emphasised what is specific to their Member States and what they want to put the accent on”.
ETS
Although not mentioned in the European Council conclusions, the EU27 also discussed the revision of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), another proposal in the forthcoming legislative package.
Asked about this at a press conference, Ms von der Leyen said that the current ETS covering industry and energy production was a “very well functioning system”.
Rather than extending the scheme to road transport and buildings, the idea is “to have a complementary introduction of an own separate emission trading system at a very low scale at the beginning immediately coupled with a clear social compensation structure”, she stressed as well.
The former German minister also insisted that the revision of the ETS must be “socially just”, ensuring that the burden is borne “by those that are on the producing side, on the industry side, and on the higher income”.
Lastly, it is worth noting that Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel reiterated, on their arrival at the meeting, their countries’ opposition to nuclear energy.
See the conclusions of the European Council: https://bit.ly/3wvdveK (Original version in French by Damien Genicot with the editorial staff)