Commission stands tough in face of emissions criticism

BRUSSELS - The European Commission has indicated it will not bow to the pressure coming from several member states and soften plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions across the 27-nation bloc by the end of the next decade.

Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday (15 January), commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: "Do not expect us to compromise on European interests."

"Both our international credibility and credibility before European Union citizens depend on fulfillment of the targets."

He was speaking exactly a week before the commission is due to unveil a raft of legislative proposals detailing how to each member state is to contribute to ambitious green targets by 2020.

Amid general back-slapping and self-congratulation in March last year, EU leaders agreed that the bloc should reduce its CO2 emissions by 20 percent and have renewable sources account for 20 percent of energy production in 12 years time.

Since then, EU officials have been working on the nitty-gritty of the proposals, using 2005 as the base year for calculating what each country has to do in order to reach the targets. Renewable energy in the EU currently stands at 8.5 percent of production.

In recent weeks, as the commission fine-tunes its proposals, it has been subjected to strong lobbying from member states who are keen to play down their capacity to produce renewable energy and the extent to which they can be expected to reduce their CO2 emissions.

France, Germany and Spain have sent letters of complaint to Brussels while other countries are said to be supportive of the criticism of the commission.

In addition, the business lobby says that European companies will be disadvantaged if they have to comply with stricter environment rules than their counterparts in the US or China.

For its part, the commission has on several occasions argued that the EU by acting now will have the advantage of moving into the green market first.

Its international reputation for being a flag-bearer for environmentally friendly proposals is also at stake.

It needs the measures approved by the end of the year if it is to maintain a strong moral standing in the international climate change talks beginning in Copenhagen next year.

On 23 January, the commission is also due to unveil a proposal to strengthen the carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) - under which pollution credits can be bought and sold. The ETS is Brussels' key method for reducing greenhouse gases in the EU.

It will also lay out what reduction in CO2 levels each member state has to achieve by 2020 and what percentage of renewable energy each of the 27 has to use by then.

In addition, it will propose a law on carbon capture and storage - a carbon emissions reduction method that involves the storing underground of carbon instead of releasing it into the the atmosphere.

The commission is also expected to announce an overhaul of the rules on granting state aid for environmental projects.