The European Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, outlined in the European Parliament on Wednesday 1 December the European Commission’s approach to the inclusion of gas and nuclear energy in the European Union’s taxonomy, a system for determining which economic activities can be considered sustainable for financial investment purposes.
In response to a question from fellow Irish MEP Mick Wallace (The Left), the Commissioner said that the aim of the “extremely complex” process was to provide “full transparency” to investors on what activities will be included, or excluded, from the taxonomy.
Derived from the general regulation agreed at the end of 2019 (see EUROPE 12392/14), a first delegated act, which covers 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, was approved by the European Parliament in September (see EUROPE 12799/1) and still needs to be approved by the European Council, “hopefully by the end of 2021”, Ms McGuinness recalled.
The Commission is due to present a second delegated act before the end of the year, which will complete the first draft delegated regulation by including the issue of gas and nuclear power, as the deadline of 1 December has passed (see EUROPE 12843/14).
On this point, the Commissioner noted that the regulation establishing the EU taxonomy provides for the inclusion of “transitional and enabling activities”. “Our services are following at a technical level where there is the possibility to include gas and nuclear energy based on what the regulation would allow”, she added.
Referring to a recent trip to Finland, Ms McGuinness said that Finland sees nuclear power as “an important part” of its transition to climate neutrality by 2035, combined with renewables. Other Member States use coal for district heating and, in her view, it will be impossible for them to phase out this fossil fuel in the near future.
According to the Commissioner, consideration will also need to be given in the coming months to how to include “agriculture” in the taxonomy, once the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has been fully finalised.
During the discussion with the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Ms McGuinness referred to the recent legislative package to make the capital markets union a reality (see EUROPE 12840/6) and the banking union in the euro area, which will be the subject of a ministerial dinner on Monday 6 December in an attempt to give new political impetus to this project (see EUROPE 12842/17).
Crypto-assets. In response to a question from Aurore Lalucq on whether crypto-assets should eventually be included in prudential financial regulation under the ‘same risk, same rules’ principle (see EUROPE 12841/2), the Commissioner said she was “more nuanced” than the French socialist so as not to hamper innovation.
She mentioned the organisation of a major conference on the finance of the future to assess whether the EU’s regulatory framework needed to be changed. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)