Tighter controls on fluorocarbons
The Austrian presidency achieved its first conciliation agreement on 31 January, with an agreement on fluorinated greenhouse gases between the Parliament and Council. The deal tightens measures on fluorinated gases covered under the Kyoto protocol, and imposes further measures on vehicle air conditioning systems. The deal's sticking point was on the first, general, measure to impose tougher laws on the use of fluorinated gases. Some countries currently have tighter measures than the EU, including Austria and Denmark, and wanted to preserve this. The Council wanted to impose a cut-off date for exemptions of 31 December 2012. The compromise came thanks to the Parliament accepting the cut-off date, in exchange for a clause allowing for this to be revised, should the EU or individual Member States make any further international commitments. 'With this agreement we have reached a good balance between environmental protection and the proper functioning of the single market,' said Irish MEP and rapporteur Avril Doyle. 'There is no reduction in the standards we wanted. Our agreement allows some member states to maintain stricter measures and others to introduce such measures but under precise circumstances.' The new legislation allows the sale of products containing fluorinated gases, but with a permanent marker indicating which gases the appliance contains and the impact on the environment of those gases. Some of the fluorocarbons exist as greenhouse gases, ozone depleting gases or both in the upper atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years. Austrian Environment Minister Josef Pröll said: 'It was not a foregone conclusion but we arrived at a sensible solution which shows that Europe is still operational in the fight against climate change.'