This text, which provides for the expansion of the market for trading CO2 emission quotas and the abolition of free quotas for European manufacturers in exchange for a carbon tax at EU borders, was rejected to general surprise. .
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MEPs rejected, on Wednesday June 8 in plenary session, a key text on the reform of the European carbon market, deemed not ambitious enough by the Greens and the left. This pillar of the European Union’s climate plan will have to be renegotiated in parliamentary committee. The text provided for the expansion of the market for trading CO2 emission quotas and the abolition of free quotas for European industrialists in exchange for a carbon tax at the EU’s borders. It was rejected by 340 votes against (265 for, 34 abstentions), the Green and left MEPs castigating the proposals of the EPP (right) and Renew (centrist and liberals) on the timetable and the objectives.
“Thunderbolt! The majority must review their copy (…) because of rules that are not ambitious enough. The climate does not wait”commented MEP Karima Delli (Greens). “What a terrible day. It’s a shame to see the far right voting with the socialists and the greens”, retorted Peter Liese (EPP), rapporteur for the rejected text, in a very electric atmosphere within the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The German MEP called for the text to be revised in the parliamentary committee to propose a revised version for a subsequent vote, which a large majority of MEPs approved.
The legislative proposal submitted to MEPs on the carbon market reflected a compromise reached between the EPP (pro-European right, the main force in Parliament) and Renew (centrists and liberals). In particular, it provided for a reduction of 63% by 2030, compared to 2005, in emissions from sectors subject to the European carbon market: better than the objective proposed by the Commission (-61%), but significantly lower than to the vote in the Environment Parliamentary Committee (-67%).
It also adjusted the timetable for eliminating the free emission quotas granted to European industrialists, as imports into the EU of polluting sectors will be taxed on the basis of the price of European CO2.