MEPs plan new climate change committee

MEPs are planning to set up a temporary committee to examine the problems of climate change and the necessary responses.

The committee, which would work for a year, will probably be chaired by an MEP from the Socialist group. Guido Sacconi, the Italian Socialist MEP who drafted the European Parliament’s opinion on the REACH chemicals review legislation, is reported to be the front-runner while German centre-right MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz, former chairman of the environment committee, is expected to draft the committee’s final report.

The decision to set up a temporary committee comes partly in response to a fear among MEPs that they will have less substantial legislation to work on as a result of the Commission’s ‘better regulation’ agenda which aims to cut the burden of red tape on business.

Parliament sources say the move makes sense because the temporary committee of inquiry into alleged CIA secret abduction, flights and prison camps will be wound up this week once its conclusions have been adopted. Another temporary committee into the loss of investors’ funds at the Equitable Life insurance company will also be wrapped up this year.

MEPs are also concerned that they only have co-legislative powers over a part of the energy package adopted by the Commission in January which aims to tackle climate change, the security of energy supply and complete the single energy market. Formally the Parliament has co-decision powers over internal market legislation and issues such as energy efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions for motor vehicles and fuel quality standards.

The committee is expected to be very large given the interest of MEPs in the subject and the need to have input from members of the committee on industry, energy and transport, the committee on internal market and the committee on economic and monetary affairs.

At first, members of the environment committee were opposed to setting up a new body to examine a subject which normally falls to them. But the project was strongly backed by the centre-right EPP-ED and the Socialists, the assembly’s two largest groups. Martin Schulz, the leader of the the Socialists’ group, recently expressed concern about the small number of proposals coming from the Commission.

• MEPs yesterday (14 February) approved a report asking the Commission to gear all the EU’s internal policies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. The non-binding own initiative report also said Europe should aim to get 25% of its energy from renewables and 12.5% of its fuel from biofuels by 2020, instead of the 20% and 10% proposed by the Commission.

MEPs are planning to set up a temporary committee to examine the problems of climate change and the necessary responses.