The two motions to reject the ‘low-carbon hydrogen’ delegated act tabled respectively by the conservative (ECR) and far-right (PfE) groups were rejected on Thursday 16 October by the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) (see EUROPE 13731/7).
While several members of the EPP group were highly critical of this act aimed at defining a carbon footprint of hydrogen that could be recognised as ‘low carbon’, the Christian Democrat group finally decided not to support one of the motions to reject (see EUROPE 13702/2).
However, the group’s coordinator, Christian Ehler (EPP, German), explained that in future, the EPP would reject the European Commission’s delegated acts, believing that the Commission was “outmanoeuvring” the European Parliament’s legislative power through its lack of transparency regarding the publication of this secondary legislation.
“It is unacceptable that we do not know the number and scope of the delegated acts that will be coming”, he said.
He therefore insisted that the European Commission provide an overview in its work programme (see EUROPE 13731/14) of the planned delegated acts deriving from legislative texts adopted during the previous mandate.
“It’s not a procedural issue, it’s a political issue (...) Now is the time since we have a number of delegated acts coming up”, he insisted.
Wouter Beke (EPP, Belgian) explained to Agence Europe after the vote that his group, who were not particularly satisfied with the European Commission’s proposal on ‘low-carbon hydrogen’, was trying to “place pressure on the European Commission in another way”. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)