At their EU Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday 5 December, Europe’s transport ministers discussed extending the Emissions Trading System (ETS) to the maritime sector. Their visions were somewhat divergent.
At the previous EU Council in June, the subject had already been raised, with nine Member States – Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal and Romania – calling for this extension of the ETS (see EUROPE 13435/11).
According to the European Commission, there is no evidence of any significant change in traffic patterns resulting from the introduction of the ETS. “However, the maritime ETS has only been in force for a year” was the qualification from the Commission representative. “Moreover, everything that has happened in the Red Sea has caused disruption to maritime traffic, probably far more than any envisaged impact of the ETS” she added. The Commission will therefore monitor the situation with a report every two years, but has taken note of the Member States’ comments on the methodology.
A number of ministers have taken the Commission’s report as a basis for their cautious approach. “It’s a good thing that we are constantly monitoring the consequences of the ETS system. The studies carried out did not seem to show that air transport was specifically bypassing it”, emphasised Germany’s Volker Wissing. “If such strategies were to be developed, the Commission would have to take measures to combat the phenomenon under the ETS Directive”, he added. The same caution came from Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.
For his part, Estonia’s Vladimir Svet stressed the importance of the competitiveness of EU ports. “We need to support the development of the maritime industry throughout the European Union, and we hope that the forthcoming ports strategy will cover all the problems mentioned in the documents”, he said.
Finally, Barry Madlener from the Netherlands lent his support to the nine Member States. He referred to the use of British ports before arrival in European ports and asked the Commission to extend the scope to ships over 5,000 tonnes. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)