In response to the rejection of the Revision of the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) by a rare majority formed by the right and left of the European Parliament, ECR shadow and coordinator in the Environment Committee Alexandr Vondra stated, “the failure of the vote on the ETS reform shows the extent to which the radical nature of some of the proposals divides politics and society. More and more MEPs are also starting to be confronted at home with the negative effects of the Green Deal, such as higher living costs for citizens and putting European industry at a disadvantage.”

German EPP MEP Peter Liese’s report on the extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme was rejected by the votes of the ECR, ID, S&D, Greens and Left. Subsequently, the European Parliament referred it back to the Environment Committee. In this context, the ECR Group refused to be labelled as part of the “extreme right-wing” by Liese who was visibly upset about the defeat as he gave his first reaction to the vote in the plenary chamber in Strasbourg.