New delay in the European taxonomy, this classification of sustainable activities which aims to direct private investments towards sectors contributing to reduce greenhouse gases. The delegated act that the Commission has been preparing for several months will not be presented during the last week of January, as planned.
Brussels first wants to make sure that it will not be rejected by the co-legislators. Because, once published, the text can no longer be amended, but the Member States and the European Parliament can oppose it, within four months, by a qualified majority of 20 Member States representing 65% of the population of European Union (EU) for the former, and by a simple majority for the latter.
Since the beginning of the year, the Commission has stepped up contacts with its experts, the Member States and the European Parliament, who had until Friday 21 January to give their feedback.
Berlin has yet to make its position clear
On the side of the Twenty-Seven, the draft delegated act, which provides for nuclear and gas to be included in the list of activities « durables », to the extent that they would contribute to the « transition » towards a green economy, divides. But a circumstantial alliance between the proponents of gas and those of the atom assures him, at this stage, of being adopted. The former, notably Poland and its Eastern European neighbours, need gas to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The latter, led by France, know how to put forward their arguments, at a time when energy prices are soaring and when Europe is committed to respecting the Paris climate agreement of 2015 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
During a meeting in Amiens of European environment ministers on Friday 21 January, Luxembourg and Austria reaffirmed their opposition to the inclusion of nuclear power in the taxonomy and recalled their intention, if the text should not evolve, to seize the Court of Justice of the EU. The day before, Vienna and Luxembourg had published a letter with Copenhagen and Madrid, in which they ask the Commission to reconsider its plan to grant gas and nuclear power a green label, even on a transitional basis.
Berlin, for the time being, has not made its position clear, as the three coalition parties are so divided: the liberals of the FDP support the Commission’s text, the SPD is against the atom, but can live with gas, and the Greens are hostile to both energies. Nuclear is not “not green energy” ni « durable », nevertheless affirmed, in Amiens on Thursday, Secretary of State Stefan Tidow, while adding that he does not “thought” not only that “weighs on Franco-German relations”. So far, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not made taxonomy a casus belli with Paris.
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