On Wednesday 8 June, MEPs will vote, as part of the votes on the ‘Fit for 55’ package, on a draft report on the creation of the Social Climate Fund (SCF) that is slightly different from the text agreed by MEPs from the European Parliament’s Environment (ENVI) and Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) committees on 18 May (see EUROPE 12955/16).
As some groups had anticipated in recent days, the EPP group took the opportunity of this vote in plenary to reintroduce an amendment aimed at including SMEs, and not only micro-enterprises, which represent more than 90% of European businesses, in the scope of this Fund linked to ETS2, and called for supporting the public most affected by the energy transition.
The EPP group had refrained from presenting these amendments on SMEs during the vote on 18 May, but had made no secret of its intention to return to them in one way or another. This addition is therefore not a real surprise.
But the S&D group also decided to introduce an amendment on SMEs, which could confuse the vote.
According to some sources, the S&D approach can be considered strategic. The S&D amendment could be a fallback amendment in case the EPP amendment is adopted.
The Socialists proposed in this amendment that the national SCF plans should only cover SMEs up to 5%, which would be a lesser evil if SMEs were eventually covered.
The inclusion of SMEs in the scope of this Fund has always divided the groups. Renew Europe, S&D, The Left and the Greens/EFA have always been opposed to it and are logically expected to block the EPP amendments again on Wednesday. But there will still be the alternative proposal from the S&D, which could still glean votes and send a contradictory and ultimately counterproductive message on SMEs.
A potentially risky vote
The groups, including Renew Europe, will define their internal position on Tuesday evening and uncertainties remain, with the vote ultimately proving to be quite risky.
Tensions could indeed run through the groups officially opposed to the inclusion of SMEs.
“The psychological impact of a vote against SMEs in the plenary cannot be minimised”, a source told us, saying that it was possible that votes could be scattered during the vote.
The EPP will also have the opportunity to support the S&D amendment, thus still being able to achieve a small victory on the inclusion of SMEs.
This could also suggest that, despite its commitments, the S&D also wanted to include provisions on SMEs in the end, under the guise of ‘damage control’.
It should be noted that the ID group has presented an amendment to reject the Fund.
Link to the amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/1y9 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)