MEPs vote for tougher obligations on biofuel targets
MEPs have voted in favour of measures that increase obligations on Member States to try and achieve EU 'reference figures' on the proportion of biofuels used for road transport. The decision came during a meeting of the European Parliament's committee on industry, external trade, research and energy, where MEPs were voting on a report by Maria del Pilar Ayuso González on the Commission's biofuels directive. During the directive's first reading in Parliament in July 2002, MEPs voted for amendments that would impose binding targets on Member States to increase the levels of biofuels on the market to 2 per cent of the total by 2005 and 5.75 per cent by 2010. In adopting a common position, however, the Council proposed that national governments should be given the freedom to decide their own targets, and reduced the targets to 'reference figures'. MEPs are keen to see Member States doing all they can to introduce cleaner fuels, though, and have therefore begun the second reading stage by introducing amendments aimed at making it tougher for a Member State to simply ignore the reference figures. The first proposed change would oblige national governments to report to the Commission on what measures they had adopted to try and achieve the targets. The committee also argues that Member States wishing to depart from the reference figures should be obliged to meet strict conditions. Discrepancies between national targets and the reference figures should be based on two criteria: real national potential for biofuel production, and the amount of national resources allocated to the production of biomass for energy uses other than transport. MEPs also wish place greater emphasis on a clause providing for the directive to be revised after 2007. They feel that if the targets are not met for reasons that are unjustified or do not relate to scientific evidence, mandatory targets should be imposed. The report will now be voted on by all MEPs at a Parliament plenary session. If it is endorsed, the Council will have to decide whether or not to accept the changes, which should provide a general insight into how ready Member States are to set ambitious targets on the introduction of green fuels.