MEPs had until midnight on Tuesday 12 September to lodge an objection to the mandate adopted by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on the reform of the electricity market on 19 July (see EUROPE 13226/1).
Opposed to the text restricting access to CfDs (contracts for differences) for existing nuclear power plants, Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe, French) set about collecting the 71 signatures needed from individual MEPs to “defy” the mandate to bring the text into inter-institutional negotiations (without it having been put to a vote in plenary) (see EUROPE 13246/8).
Once these signatures have been collected, a vote may be taken at the European Parliament plenary session on Thursday 14 September to oppose sending the text to the negotiation stage with the Council. These signatories include members of the EPP, Renew Europe and S&D groups, who do not support their group’s line, since they supported the ITRE committee’s mandate.
The ECR and The Left groups intended to lodge an objection at group level. This means that the signatures of ECR members are no longer counted as part of the collective objection lodged by Mr Grudler.
The French MEP maintains that the ID group and the non-attached MEPs were not approached by his team, thus responding in part to the reproaches of the French delegation of the S&D group, which had expressed in a press release its desire not to mix “its votes with those of the right and the far right”.
By continuing his work, Mr Grudler hopes to achieve “a central initiative”. However, at the time of writing, the required 71 signatures had not yet been collected.
Even if he is short of signatures, the MEP intends to send them in. “This shows that you have Members from five different political groups in Parliament who have objected. That’s what counts”, he added.
In fact, Mr Grudler’s main message is a political one, as he does not believe it will be possible to win Thursday’s vote. “That’s not what’s important to us. The important thing is that Nicolás González Casares (rapporteur) goes to the trilogue without draping himself in a virtually unanimous mandate from Parliament. (...) His mandate will be weakened”, he added. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)