Brussels, 13/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - Informal negotiation underway between the Commission, Council and Parliament on the climate/energy package are to enter into a decisive phase in the next two weeks, which should lead to a vote in plenary on 3 and 4 December. After preliminary meetings of the trialogue, devoted to identifying points of agreements and tricky points to be negotiated in each of the directives, the meetings of 17 November in Strasbourg and on 24-25-26 November in Brussels will allow negotiators to enter into the heart of the subject. It is clear, however, that the most problematical issues - which are of concern to Poland, Italy and Germany in particular in the directive reviewing the emissions trading system (ETS) - will be left to the end. The French Presidency, which is determined to reach an agreement at first reading by the end of the year, launched into a real marathon by negotiating on three fronts at once: with the Parliament (in trialogue), in bilateral talks with member states experiencing difficulties, and with the EU27 to have the least arbitration possible at the level of heads of state and government during the European Council of 11 and 12 December. The Commission and the Parliament's rapporteurs are also just as determined - which has allowed the first meetings of the trialogue to unfold in a constructive atmosphere, as the European Commission put it, and at the “pace hoped”, according to the rapporteurs. It is therefore up to the Council to make its intentions clear. Informal negotiations can be outlined as follows:
ETS (Rapporteur Avril Doyle, EPP-ED, Ireland). The controversial issue of pre-allocating receipts from auction to the fight against climate change was tackled. The Parliament stressed the need for credible Council commitments and called, on this point, for aviation to be treated like other sectors (in the directive on including aviation in ETS, conditions are more favourable as they provide for the trading of only 15% of quotas leaving it up to member states to decide on allocating receipts when, for other sectors, in the EU or third countries, the Parliament calls for 50% allocation of receipts in member states and 50% in developing countries). The Council - jealous of the prerogatives enjoyed by finance ministers - does not agree. The thorny issue of trading energy quotas and that of carbon leaks have not yet been tackled.
Sharing of efforts between member states in the non-ETS sector (Rapporteur Satu Hassi, Greens/Finland). There are many points of disagreement between the Parliament and Council, in particular the financial penalties for every tonne surpassing national targets recommended by Parliament. As a gesture towards the Council, the Parliament stated it was open to an alternative system to fines, as long as the measures foreseen have an “equivalent effect”.
The Parliament stated clearly, moreover, that in order to bring costs down, it prefers flexibility within the EU (through quota trading between member states) rather than outside the EU (via the clean development mechanism and joint implementation). Positions are coming closer in discussions marked by the “pragmatism and willingness to find solutions together”, the European Commission states.
Legal framework for the capture and storage of carbon (CSC) (Rapporteur Chris Davies, ALDE/UK). The most important questions of dispute to be settled concern: - 1) financing of CSC. The Parliament's proposal to use up to 500 million from ETS quotas to finance new power plants equipped in CSC and pilot projects comes up against very strong resistance from the Council, which considers that this turns the reserve of quotas from new entrants away from its aim. It also expresses concern that, in the event of a rise in the price of CO2 per tonne, so much money could be poured into a technology whose reliability still gives rise to doubts. A compromise solution could consist of reducing the number of quotas but the question has not been submitted to the member states; - and 2) the emissions limit value for all new major coal-fired power plants as of 2015, which is accepted neither by Council nor by the Commission as this threshold is equivalent to making CSC compulsory, while the directive only aims to encourage it.
Within the Council, Poland and Italy demand that the climate/energy package be settled at the highest level. In the European Parliament, some MEPs (mainly from the EPP-ED Group) could agree that the plenary vote be deferred until after the European summit on 11-12 December, on condition that there are only a few points to be settled by the heads of state and government. The opinion expressed by Hans-Gert Pöttering, Parliament President, is very plain. Speaking on 13 November before MEPs ands researchers during a conference entitled “Meeting future energy demand while combating climate change”, the president called for swift, concrete results in the trialogue underway. “If we want to convince our partners in the world to participate in a binding global strategy, we have to show concrete results”, he said, confirming that the Parliament is ready to vote at first reading in December, before the European Council that will coincide with the ministerial part of the Poznan Conference (11-12 December). “It is now up to the Council to say if there is enough flexibility [Ed: in the package] to reach an agreement in first reading by December this year”, he said. (A.N./transl.jl)