The Netherlands has invited other EU countries to work on a joint declaration in the EU Council to ask the European Commission to make the prevention of biofuel fraud a priority in the forthcoming revision of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001) (RED II), according to a Dutch document sent to the national delegations of the 27 Member States on Monday 7 June.
“In recent years, various fraud cases involving biofuels (biodiesel) have come to light, and these have led to criminal investigations. [...] These cases seriously harm the confidence that consumers and the market need to have in the sustainability of biofuels”, the Dutch document laments in opening.
In 2019, the UK and the Netherlands had notably launched investigations into companies that allegedly marketed biofuels containing palm oil as used cooking oil (UCO), a violation of the RED II directive.
According to an analysis conducted by the Dutch authorities, while the RED II directive provides “tools to improve supervision and to increase transparency of the supply chain” of biofuel, it also requires further “improvements”, the Dutch document goes on to note.
The Netherlands therefore calls for the revision of the directive to focus on strengthening public oversight by extending it, on a mandatory basis, to all actors involved in the supply chain within each Member State.
They also want private supervision to be strengthened, for example, by a stricter sanctions policy and minimum requirements for auditor training, while calling for more European collaboration between supervisors, both public and private.
The Dutch request, supported by the Belgian, French, and Luxembourg delegations, will be presented to the other Member States on 10 June at the meeting of Environment Ministers (see EUROPE 12735/10).
See the document of the Dutch delegation: https://bit.ly/3gfwaop (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)