15 July 2022

START OF THE TRILOGUES ON THE REVISED EU ETS

On 11 July, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and European Commission kick-started the interinstitutional trilogue negotiations on the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). Ahead of the meeting, the Rapporteur, Peter Liese (EPP, Germany), stressed the need for a rapid adoption of the proposal during the Czech Presidency to mitigate climate change and match the EU climate ambitions.

Mr Liese underlined that both institutions had converging points among their positions, namely the inclusion of maritime emissions in the EU ETS, citing the need to include both intra-European journeys and journeys to/from third countries. While there are some disagreements on the phase-in of maritime emissions, the Rapporteur thinks that intensive negotiations would allow to reach an ambitious agreement, so that shipping finally respect the polluter-pays principle.

With regards to the ETS for heating and road transport (ETS II), the scope adopted by both institutions have significant differences: the Parliament’s position excludes private users, while the Council maintained the inclusive scope proposed by the Commission. CLECAT has repeatedly called on policymakers to include all road users, in order to set a universal price on CO2 to foster the greening of all vehicles on the road. We therefore called on the Parliament and the Council to agree on the scope adopted by the Commission in order to make the ETS II the flagship EU policy instrument to effectively decarbonise road transport. In addition, allocating a certain share of ETS II revenues to the road transport sector is essential to secure investments in green vehicles and technology.

Mr Liese finally called on Member States to have a constructive approach in order to conduct negotiations on equal terms and reach a successful deal. The next meetings will take place in the next months following some technical work with the aim to close the negotiations by the end of the year.

Source: MEP Peter Liese’s website