Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-299"
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"en.20030923.9.2-299"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, as you yourself underlined, this proposal goes back a long way. I will not go back over its entire history, but I would like to stress, in connection with what you have just said, that in 1999 the European Parliament adopted a report, for which Mr Pat Cox was the rapporteur, which improved the Commission's proposal, in particular in three respects: Parliament asked for an increase in all of the minimum rates stated in the Commission's proposal; it also called for these minima to be index-linked, and finally, it called for the number of derogations and exemptions to be reduced. As you yourself pointed out, we have had to wait four years for the Council to reach an agreement and for Parliament to be re-consulted.
In general, the report seeks to support the compromise struck in the Council – acting, as you said, under the constraint of unanimity – despite the text's serious shortcomings, the Council of Ministers not having in fact taken on board the proposals made in the Cox report in 1999.
I should like to focus on two points amongst many where the position adopted by the Council appears to us to be weak. Firstly, the minimum rates set by the Council to be applied from 1 January 2004 are, almost without exception, lower than those proposed by the Commission in 1997 and by the European Parliament in 1999. Such a step backwards stands in flagrant contradiction to the undertaking given by the Council, and in particular the European Council, to provide instruments that seek to break the link between economic growth and energy consumption.
The second issue that we have addressed is that of derogations and exemptions. The text of the directive is littered with them. The Council has added an annex with a virtual shopping list of individual exemptions and derogations so that each of the 15 Member States can find what they want in the list and can therefore agree to the text.
Having referred to the position adopted by Parliament in 1999 and taken into consideration new political material such as the Gothenburg European Council's declaration in favour of a Sustainable Development Strategy, as rapporteur I therefore proposed to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs that we should reinforce Council's position on certain points, while retaining a moderate stance bearing in mind the different political sensitivities.
In particular, I proposed bringing forward the second step of motor fuel taxation and the revision of tax rates by two years. I also proposed a sunset clause for all derogations, whereby exemptions and derogations could only be maintained if the Council explicitly so decided. Finally, I proposed making it mandatory to support renewable sources of energy. In principle all renewable sources of energy should be fully exempt.
I confess that it came as an unpleasant surprise when all of the amendments were rejected by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs – and I do not share your approval, Commissioner. It is true that in many cases they were rejected by a majority of one single vote and that not all Members of the committee were present. I therefore think that the logical step for me, as rapporteur, is to re-table these amendments in the plenary.
In addition, Commissioner, I would draw your attention to Amendment No 2, tabled by Mrs Kauppi and adopted by the committee. If it were to be confirmed in the plenary it would mean that Parliament was denying the very timeliness of this proposal for a directive because we recently adopted a directive on emissions trading.
In conclusion, I hope that Parliament's vote in September 2003 does not represent a retreat from its 1999 position, although this was adopted, it is true, during a different term of office."@en1
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