The EU’s climate and energy policies must promote investment, not undermine it, warned ECR MEPs following a vote today in a joint meeting of the parliament’s environment and energy committees

The EU’s climate and energy policies must promote investment, not undermine it, warned ECR MEPs following a vote today in a joint meeting of the parliament’s environment and energy committees.

The initial proposals from the European Commission seek to put in place a system to monitor the planning and implementation of the wide range of EU climate and energy policies, such the Emissions Trading Scheme. However the parliament’s rapporteurs attempted to significantly broaden the scope of the legislation and introduce specific annual goals as part of the monitoring that would undermine the general targets that allow member states to plan over long term cycles, for example the 2020 or 2030 targets.

Commenting after the vote, ECR MEP Evzen Tosenovsky, who sits on the energy committee and jointly followed the proposals for the ECR group said:

“This legislation was about putting in place a system for tracking progress towards our climate and energy goals – what was put on the table in the parliament sought to create new targets and undermine our existing ones. Setting binary and cumbersome annual roadmaps are a crude tool and ignore the realities of investment cycles – if we’re going to modernise our energy system then we need to promote investment not undermine it.”

ECR Group coordinator on the environment committee, Julie Girling, who also followed the proposals for the ECR Group said:

“This file is about the governance of an ambitious set of legislative proposals, which should put us firmly on track to meet our Paris goals. I regret that some members of the European Parliament wish to over-complicate this by introducing new concepts here such as energy poverty. I look forward to continuing work on this file as we go towards the plenary vote.”