"Plenty of problems" at EU environment meeting (Roundup)

Jul 4, 2008, 11:36 GMT

Paris - 'Plenty of problems' have emerged at an informal meeting of EU environment ministers in Paris, the spokeswoman for European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said Friday.

'Everybody has his demand, industry and NGOs, and this meeting is all about putting the problems on the table,' Barbara Helfferich told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'We will then try to find answers, first on a technical level and then on a political level,' she said.

The European Union and its current president, France, are attempting to find agreement on a package of laws that will reduce by 20 or 30 per cent greenhouse gas emissions in the union by 2020, increase the use of renewable energy sources to 20 per cent of all EU energy consumption by 2020, and consume 20 per cent less energy in the EU than is projected for 2020.

France took over the EU presidency on Tuesday, and has made the environment package the subject of its first ministerial meeting, underlining both its importance and, some analysts say, the solid chances that agreement will be found.

Dimas told journalists at the conclusion of the two-day meeting that there had been agreement on a number of important issues, such as the environmental integrity of the package.

'All agreed there should be no watering down of the package,' he said.

There was also agreement on the timing.

Dimas said that the aim was to have the package 'approved by the European Parliament before the end of the life of this parliament,' or in March 2009.

Elections for a new European Parliament are scheduled for June 2009.

If no agreement is reached by the end of the French EU presidency, it will be up to the Czech Republic, which takes over the role on January 1, to consummate the process.

Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik told journalists at the conference that a 'smart financing mechanism' for the package must still be found.

He was referring to the question of how much of the money raised by selling industrial-emissions permits old member states should give to the new, poorer ones to help them modernize.

Under the European Commission's proposals, industrial plants such as power stations and chemical factories will have to bid for CO2 emission permits at a national auction.

The commission wants 10 per cent of the permits - which will be turned into cash - allocated to the EU's richest nations to be transferred to its poorest ones.

'The package will be equitable, measured and fair,' Dimas said.

In 2005-07 the commission issued permits to emit an annual average of some 2.2 billion tons of CO2.

The price for a one-ton permit currently stands at 27.74 euros (43.13 dollars), giving the EU market a value of 61 billion dollars a year.

Early Friday, ministers agreed to establish a committee of experts who will be charged with drawing up a document regarding the modes of payment of the package.

This issue will then be discussed and voted on at a meeting in October, Helfferich said.

The informal meeting of EU environment ministers will be followed Friday by a meeting of the union's energy ministers, which ends on Saturday.