On Wednesday 19 October, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU issued a document inviting EU Member States to adopt a position on several aspects of the text pertaining to guarantees of a level playing field for sustainable air transport (‘ReFuelEU Aviation’) (see EUROPE 13043/11).
While the positions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU are closely aligned on a number of issues in the interinstitutional negotiations, some aspects remain subject to divergence.
For example, in its original proposal, the European Commission introduced the requirement that aircraft operators must absorb at least 90% of the aviation fuel required annually at each airport that they use. While the European Parliament has retained this aspect as it stands, the EU Council would, however, like to introduce exemptions for flights of less than 1,200 kilometres from an EU airport where operators face “serious and recurrent” refuelling difficulties or where the geographical characteristics of the airport create difficulties relating to the supply of fuel, thereby leading to higher prices.
On this point, the Czech Presidency would like to sound out the national delegations and receive information about the degree of flexibility of Member States with regard to reducing the distance of eligible flights or providing greater clarity in the exemptions.
In the same way, Member States will also have to decide on the question of the allocation of the sums generated by the sanctions; will they go, as the European Parliament wishes, into a new fund or, as suggested by the European Commission, will they become part of the Innovation Fund.
Finally, the Czech Presidency also asked Member States about how ambitious they wanted to be up to 2035. The European Parliament has proposed that levels of alternative fuels for aviation be set at 0.04% in 2025 and 2% in 2030. The EU Council, for its part, proposed that this threshold be set at 0.7% in 2030 with national mandates of up to 1% until 2030, and then 3% in addition to 0.7% until 2035. Regarding this issue, Member States will have to indicate whether they agree or disagree to limit national mandates until 2030. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)