The elected representatives of two committees rejected, on Tuesday, the text of the Commission on the taxonomy which defines “green” investments.
Correspondent in Brussels
Mass is not yet said. But it’s a new snub for Ursula von der Leyen. The MEPs of the Economy and Environment Committees adopted on Tuesday an objection to the text on the taxonomy which plans to include gas and nuclear in this classification of so-called sustainable energies. And would allow, in the event of adoption, these two energies to benefit from more private and public financing, in particular that of the EU provided for in the framework of the European recovery plan. In the text, they are indeed classified in the “transition energies“, likely to “facilitate the transition to renewable energiesand climate neutrality.
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Macron in the viewfinder
The results of Tuesday’s vote are however close: 76 MEPs voted in favor of this objection, 62 against and 4 abstained. Details were not given. Ecologists, part of the Social Democrats and the EPP have long been opposed to the inclusion of gas and nuclear. “Last week we refused an indecent climate ambition for the industry sector. This week, we are endangering the largest greenwashing operation of the moment. It is time for the liberals and Emmanuel Macron to understand that we cannot incidentally play with ecology. The climate emergency is here,” rejoiced the ecologist MEP Marie Toussaint, in a reference to the rejection of the reform of free emission quotas. Climate defense NGOs are not left out. “After the banishment of Russian lobbies from the walls of the European Parliament following the publication of the latest report by Greenpeace France, (the vote, Editor’s note) signs a new defeat for the lobbyists of the Russian gas and nuclear industries, but also for Emmanuel Macron who was one of the spearheads of the lobbying in favor of the inclusion of fossil gas and nuclear in the taxonomy, in defiance of the climate emergency and the energy transition“, reacted the association, calling for the test to be carried out in early July in Strasbourg, during the plenary vote..
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The taxonomy text, which is a ‘delegated act’, cannot be amended. It is either accepted en bloc or rejected en bloc. “If the delegated act is rejected by one of the co-legislators (the European Parliament or the Council, editor’s note), it is rejected and lapses“Commission spokesman Eric Mamer explained on Tuesday. Paris, which plans to build mini atomic power stations, has fought for nuclear power to be included. Poland, very dependent on gas to get out of coal and eager to invest in the atom, too. Conversely, several Member States have already indicated that they would take legal action against Brussels if the text is adopted, in particular Luxembourg and Austria. As for Germany, it made it known that it would vote against the text but would not seize European justice.
On Tuesday, Macronist Pascal Canfin, president of the Environment Committee at the Strasbourg Parliament, voted against the objection to the Commission’s text. In his entourage, it was argued on Tuesday that it is quite possible that the text will pass in plenary at the beginning of July. “There are few representatives of Eastern European countries in the economy and environment committees“, we underlined.