Actually, the votes in Strasbourg should primarily be regarding details. Parliament wanted to set its position for negotiations with member states on how the EU can reduce its CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030. In mid-May, Parliament’s Environment Committee approved the extension of European emissions trading to include transport and buildings.
After long negotiations, the committee members also came out in favor of a CO2 tax on imports of certain products such as steel and cement from countries with lower climate protection standards than the EU.
MEPs sent draft back to committee
A majority of MPs on Wednesday rejected ETS reform and then voted to refer the dossier back to the Environment Committee. The content-related parts regarding a CO2 limit tax and the establishment of a climate social fund to relieve low-income households were not accepted and went back to the committee.
Before that, amendments had been voted on for almost an hour, the results of which did not please the Greens and the Social Democrats in particular. Among other things, the plenary had adopted an amendment by the conservative EPP group, which meant that the introduction of a CO2 border tax should be fully implemented by 2034. The Social Democrats and the liberal Renew faction had proposed 2032 for the CO2 limit tax.
Commission package “Fit for 55”
The background to the votes is a proposal by the EU Commission for the “Fit for 55” legislative package to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 and to become climate-neutral by 2050. The climate package deals, among other things, with a possible de facto ban on combustion engines from 2035. This proposal by the EU Commission is also controversial.
In numerous committee meetings over the past year, the parliamentarians have tried to find a common position that the entire parliament must now vote on. The laws then have to be negotiated with the states before they can be passed.
“In an unprecedented maneuver, this alliance of left and right overturned this important element of the climate protection package for the time being and thus also jeopardized the financing of the climate social fund,” said Angelika Winzig, head of the ÖVP delegation in the European Parliament, and Alexander Bernhuber, environmental spokesman for the ÖVP in the European Parliament, in a broadcast.
EU Parliament “split”
The EU Parliament is “split between industry-friendly concreters from the conservative and liberal groups and climate protectionists who do not want to allow any dilution,” said Thomas Waitz, MEP of the Austrian Greens and co-chair of the European Green Party.
“In the end, the Greens had to pull the necessary emergency brake and vote once morest the report, otherwise the position of the European Parliament would have lagged behind the position of the Commission, which would have meant an end to the Green Deal.”
The general overhaul and expansion of emissions trading is the right thing to do, “but with the weak compromise that the conservative forces wanted to push through, we would have missed the climate goals. I therefore also voted once morest this reform proposal,” emphasized Claudia Gamon, NEOS MEP, following the votes.
WWF
The WWF took a similar view. “The MEPs pulled the plug just in time today. This prevented the reduction targets from EU emissions trading from being severely watered down,” said Thomas Zehetner, climate and energy spokesman for WWF Austria.
“With the planned ban on internal combustion engines, the Brussels eurocrats are showing once once more that they don’t care regarding the real needs of the citizens and are causing them the greatest possible damage with their short-sighted urge towards ideology-laden dead ends,” said FPÖ traffic spokesman Christian Hafenecker on Wednesday in a broadcast.
