ClientEarth, the European Policy Office of WWF, Transport & Environment (T&E) and BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) filed an appeal with the European Court of Justice on Tuesday 18 April against the Complementary Delegated Act (CDA) on taxonomy. Adopted in July 2022 (see EUROPE 12991/32), this text includes certain fossil gas and nuclear energy activities in the EU taxonomy as being ‘transitional’ activities.
Anaïs Berthier, lawyer and head of ClientEarth’s Brussels office, explained at a press briefing on Thursday 13 April that this appeal follows an administrative request that was denied. In the opinion of the lawyer, this delegated act is “unlawful and inconsistent”, since “the European Commission is violating taxonomy regulation and EU climate legislation” by not using science-based criteria.
With regard to nuclear power, Roda Verheyen, Greenpeace’s legal representative, emphasised that “new nuclear power plants won’t be transitional”.
On Tuesday morning, to make their objections heard, the associations demonstrated in front of the European Commission’s Berlaymont building in Brussels, as well as in front of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.
Austria (see EUROPE 13039/24) and MEP René Repasi (S&D, German) (see EUROPE 13040/36) have also lodged a complaint against this delegated act with the Court of Justice of the European Union. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)