EPP for orderly but fast proposal / Agreement before climate conference in Belém still possible

"We as EPP are in favor of an orderly but fast procedure on the proposal of the European Commission for a 2040 climate target. This is possible even though the Parliament opposed an urgency request by S&D, Renew and the Greens today,” declared Peter Liese, spokesperson of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP Christian Democrats) in the Committee for Environment and Climate.

“We couldn't support the urgency procedure today because some of our priorities were not accepted by other political groups. We insist on a proper involvement of committees, including the committees for advice, in particular ITRE. We want to make sure that the Parliament has enough time to discuss the proposal (in particular, we think the plenary should vote after the Council has fixed its position). We will immediately start to work on our position on the Commission proposal and try to improve it also in cooperation with the EPP representatives in the Council.

We welcome that the Commission has included some of the EPP priorities already in the proposal, but we in particular need assurance that enabling conditions for citizens and industry will be there. Our responsibility lies with a view to the international process, the necessity to deliver an NDC in due time and give a positive signal to the climate conference in Belém. On the other hand, we think that Europe needs to lead by example by keeping industry inside Europe and helping them to decarbonise and keep citizens on board,” Liese said.