During a meeting on aviation on Wednesday 23 February, the French Presidency of the Council of the EU (FPEU) invited Member States to discuss the penalty provisions of the proposed regulation on the deployment of alternative fuels in the aviation sector (‘ReFuelEU Aviation’) (see EUROPE 12878/17).
The Member States’ discussions therefore focussed on the effectiveness of the measures provided for in Article 11 of the proposal. These relate to fines imposed on aircraft operators for non-compliance with refuelling obligations at EU airports, or on suppliers who fail to meet alternative fuel incorporation targets or synthetic fuel sub-targets.
On this point, the FPEU asked the Member States to define for themselves the nature of the financial sanctions to be imposed., following requests from several Member States for more flexibility.
In addition, the FPEU also sounded out Member States on the issue of allocating the revenue from fines to the Just Transition Fund, which is part of theInvestEUframework.
Several Member States had argued for the deletion of this provision as they felt that these amounts should be returned to their national budgets. Others had called for clarification of the legality of such a provision under EU law.
On this point, the delegations in favour of earmarking the amount of the fines to a European fund also had to decide whether or not they found the choice of the Just Transition Fund appropriate.
The subject of ‘ReFuelEU Aviation’ had already been discussed this week, at the informal meeting of Transport Ministers in Le Bourget on 21 and 22 February (see EUROPE 12896/14). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)