Wednesday 8 June in the European Parliament will be remembered for a series of votes on eight proposals in the ‘Fit for 55’ climate package: the unexpected rejection of the report on the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the postponement of votes on the ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’ (CBAM) and the final vote on the ‘Social Climate Fund’, support for the proposal to end the registration of new cars and vans with internal combustion engines in the EU from 2035... Let's take a look at the main votes of this eventful day in Strasbourg.
Following the rejection of the ETS report (see EUROPE 12967/1), the Parliament’s political groups blamed each other for the failure, with the EPP accusing the Social Democrats (S&D) and the Greens/EFA of having made common cause with the ID and ECR groups, and vice versa.
The detailed results of the final vote on this dossier show that the votes against include: all Greens/EFA (with the exception of Lithuanian Stasys Jakeliūnas), a large majority of Social Democrats (16 votes in favour, 97 against and 21 abstentions), all MEPs from The Left Group, the whole ID Group (with the exception of Dane Peter Kofod), a very large majority of MEPs from the ECR group (2 votes in favour, 52 against and 4 abstentions), 6 Renew Europe members, 4 EPP and Non-attached MEPs.
However, as the MEP from the EPP group behind the report, Peter Liese (Germany), acknowledged, “the main reason for the Social Democratic Group to vote against the report along with the Greens, The Left and the far-right was that S&D was very unhappy with the result on the timetable for the introduction of CBAM and the phasing-out of free allowances”.
In fact, nothing went according to plan during the votes on the amendments prior to the final vote.
The bone of contention: the end of free allowances
In a close vote (303 votes in favour, 314 against and 20 abstentions), a narrow majority rejected a Renew Europe and S&D amendment for a complete abolition of free allowances for the sectors covered by CBAM in 2032.
This majority is composed of: all MEPs from the ECR and ID groups (except 3 members), a very large majority of the EPP (only 12 MEPs voted in favour of the amendment), 15 Social Democrats (6 MEPs abstained), 16 Renew Europe MEPs (6 MPs abstained), 5 MEPs of The Left (4 MEPs abstained) and the Non-attached MEPs.
Rather than supporting this amendment, almost all the MEPs from the EPP group (all but 3 members) voted in favour of an alternative amendment providing for the complete abolition of these free allowances by the end of 2034. However, this amendment was also supported by all of the MEPs from the ID and ECR groups (with the exception of 3 MEPs) as well as by 22 Renew Europe MEPs (one abstention), 18 S&D MEPs (5 abstentions), one MEP from The Left and the Non-attached MEPs.
Thanks to this majority, which consisted mainly of the EPP, ID and ECR groups, the amendment was adopted with 327 votes in favour, 297 against and 18 abstentions.
This scenario caused the Greens/EFA, but especially the Social Democrats, to turn around and oppose the report in the final vote to prevent the amendment from passing.
“If the S&D group voted against (the report), it is because there was a majority on certain issues that some have broken up with amendments with the extreme right (...) They can’t ask the far right to vote to lower the ambition and then ask us to vote on that”, said the S&D Group President, Iratxe García Pérez, addressing the EPP.
In an email statement to EUROPE, Peter Liese said that the main reason for the Parliament’s failure to adopt a position on the text was the divisions within the S&D group.
He points out that the majority of Social Democrats on the Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) had supported an amendment similar to the EPP’s in the ITRE vote on this dossier and that S&D MEPs could have had the amendment rejected in plenary if they had been more united.
It should also be noted that another reason why the Greens/EFA opposed the final report concerns the level of ambition of the ETS in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the sectors covered by this emissions trading system.
In the plenary vote, the Parliament approved an amendment from the EPP and Renew Europe groups to increase this ambition to a 63% reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 emission levels, a level between the European Commission’s initial proposal (61%) and the position of the Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI) (67%) (see EUROPE 12967/1).
End of new combustion engine vehicles in 2035
On the report on banning the registration of new CO2 emitting cars and vans in the EU from 2035, the Parliament also appeared divided.
Adopted by a narrow majority (339 votes in favour, 249 against and 24 abstentions), the report stipulates that car manufacturers must reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans placed on the EU market by 100% (compared to 2021) by 2035.
Contrary to the wishes of Parliament’s rapporteur on this dossier (see EUROPE 12853/7), MEPs retain the intermediate targets proposed by the Commission: -15% by 2025; -55% for cars et -50% for vans by 2030.
The majority in favour of the text included: all Greens/EFA, almost all Social Democrats (4 votes against and 5 abstentions), a large majority of Renew Europe (13 votes against and one abstention) and The Left (one vote against and 6 abstentions), a minority of EPP MEPs (29 members), 4 members of the ECR group, one ID and Non-attached MEP.
The MEPs who opposed the report were mainly from the ID, ECR and EPP groups.
This result was raised by the S&D on Twitter, criticising the EPP for voting with the “far right” again, as it did with the vote on the abolition of free allowances.
The EPP, on the other hand, accused the groups supporting the text of having “put all our eggs in one basket” and abandoning the principle of technological neutrality.
To its regret, a majority of MEPs rejected its amendment to lower the target for reducing emissions from the newly registered car fleet from 100 to 90% by 2035. The EPP justifies its position on the grounds that “the internal combustion engine offers great opportunities, especially with synthetic fuels”.
“Electric cars are the cars of the future (...) But we also want to leave space for other new technologies like hydrogen”, the EPP said on Twitter.
Its amendment to support synthetic fuels was also rejected.
See the details of the votes:
- on the ETS report: https://aeur.eu/f/22b
- on the end of free allowances: https://aeur.eu/f/22c
- on the report on CO2 emission standards for new cars and vans: https://aeur.eu/f/22d (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)