Countries to sue EU Commission over CO2 limits
By Chris Borowski and Marek Petrus, Reuters in Tiscali.Co.Uk, January 7, 2009
Enlarge imageWARSAW/PRAGUE (Reuters) - Poland and the Czech Republic on Friday announced separate legal challenges against the European Commission for setting carbon emission limits that they said would hurt their developing economies.
The two countries joined Slovakia in a legal row pitting newer European Union states against the EU executive over how strict to make the emissions trading scheme, the bloc’s key tool to fight climate change under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Commission said it was confident the EU court, which can take years to issue a ruling, would side with Brussels.
"We feel very confident that those decisions will hold up in any court challenge," spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said.
The Commission had cut the annual allocation of carbon emission rights for the Czech.....continued below
Republic to 86.8 million tonnes per year in 2008-2012 from 101.9 million demanded by the Czechs, down from 97.6 million tonnes in 2005-2007.
Poland earlier this week proposed that the EU executive body set the country’s limit at 260 million tonnes, or 25 million tonnes lower than its original proposal. The Commission set the cap at 208.5 million tonnes.
Poland is the home of some of the biggest carbon-emitting installations in Europe and accounted for about 11 percent of the total EU allocation in the first phase of the EU’s carbon-reducing programme.
The three governments and many corporate leaders complain the proposed reductions hurt their growing economies and could undermine their efforts to catch up with richer western European neighbours.
"I believe that because of a complicated model and bad data, the European Commission damaged the Czech Republic in its allocation of emission rights," Czech Industry and Trade Minister Martin Riman said in a statement.
The ministry added the European Commission did not consult with the Czechs when calculating expected 2008 emissions.
Slovakia Pursues Appeal
Meanwhile, Slovakia, the first EU member to challenge the Commission over the programme, is pursuing its appeal and expects a hearing in the autumn.
"Slovakia’s communication with the Court of First Instance of the European Communities continues," Juraj Corba, a Slovak representative in the case told Reuters.
"We are in a phase of an exchange of written pleadings. We have a confirmed information that Latvia and Finland support our action, and both states already requested the court to intervene in support of Slovakia’s action."
Hungary is also said to be considering legal action against the Commission over carbon quotas.
Under EU rules, the countries are required to follow the Commission’s original decision until or unless the court reverses it. A decision is unlikely to come before the second phase of the scheme kicks off next year.
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