Swedish MEP Jytte Guteland will co-ordinate the centre-left S&D on the post-2020 EU ETS reform proposal, completing the line-up of major political groupings to steer the file.
Confirmed as a shadow rapporteur on Twitter by S&D’s environment committee leader Matthias Groote, Guteland’s closest experience to date was the same role for the committtee’s opinion on an energy union resolution voted on earlier this month.
Six of the seven political groupings have selected their co-ordinators, with only the small far-right Europe of Nations and Freedom group outstanding.
The line-up is stacked with veterans of EU climate policy, with the EPP’s Ivo Belet, ALDE’s Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy and Greens’ Bas Eickhout all crafting ETS legislation in the past.
EASTERN PROMISE
Yet just one of the six, GUE’s Czech MEP Katerina Konecna, is from an eastern European nation, and none are from the six eastern member states that voted against the MSR, which passed the European Council in a rare qualified majority vote rather than finding consensus.
Despite the lack of eastern co-ordinators, rapporteur Ian Duncan has noted the need for lawmakers to take their views into account when considering the ETS proposal.
“I think the key thing here is to make sure those voices are heard. We can’t make progress by turning our eyes away from the East. We need to have them as part of the discussion. What emerges from that will depend on the compromises that we drive forward. Nonetheless, all must be part of the debate. I am very open to any representation, as I am sure my shadow colleagues will be, from whomever believes they need to have a voice in the discussion,” he told EurActiv in an interview last week.
Duncan has indicated that his initial report on the proposal won’t be ready until the second quarter of next year, meaning a full agreement between Parliament and member states is only likely by late 2016 at the earliest.
In order of the % of parliamentary seats their groups hold, the names, nationalities and (all-important) Twitter handles for the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs are:
– European People’s Party (EPP) (29%): Ivo Belet, Bel, @IvoBelet
– Socialists and Democrats (S&D) (25%): Jytte Guteland, Swe, @JytteGuteland
– Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) (10%): Ian Duncan, UK @IanDuncanMEP
– Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) (9%): Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy Neth, @Gerbrandy
– United/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) (7%): Katerina Konecna, Cze, @Konecna_K
– Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens) (7%): Bas Eickhout, Neth @BasEickhout
– Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFD) (6%): Eleonora Evi, Italy @EleonoraEvi
– Europe of Nations and Freedom (5%): Not chosen
By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com
