While the cause of high energy prices in Europe lies mainly in the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels, “targeted interventions” in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) are nonetheless useful to make the European carbon market more predictable and robust against market manipulation, said Peter Liese MEP (EPP, Germany), the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the ETS review, in a conversation with the media on Wednesday 9 February.
“The share of the ETS of the current development of the electricity price is very low. However, it is important to also look at this small part in the desperate situation of many families and companies especially SMEs”, Mr Liese underlined.
He therefore plans to submit on Wednesday 16 February amendments to his draft report with the aim of reviewing in particular Article 29a of the EU directive (2009/29) amending the ETS directive (2003/87).
“We need targeted interventions after a careful assessment. I could imagine increasing transparency and market surveillance and changing Article 29a”, he said.
This article allows the European Commission to intervene if, over a period of more than six consecutive months, the price of emission allowances is more than three times higher than the average price of allowances for the previous two years on the European market.
If this price evolution does not correspond to a change in market fundamentals, Member States may decide to auction more allowances to increase supply to the market and thus contribute to lower prices.
In addition, Mr Liese would like to table an amendment to ask the Commission to propose an initiative to increase transparency in the ETS.
His draft report, previously detailed in this newspaper (see EUROPE 12867/3), will be discussed for the first time by members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on Thursday 10 February. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)