The incoming Parliament is taking office in the midst of global negotiations for a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
But pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions while tackling soaring unemployment has led MEPs to water down their initial green ambitions and seek compromises to shore up industry, which is facing growing competition from foreign countries where pollution is unregulated (see EurActiv LinksDossier on 'Carbon leakage').
While cutting emissions and increasing Europe's energy security are undisputable EU priorities for the next five years, concerns are being raised that the difficult economic situation and relatively low turnout could hamper the Parliament's ambitions on the climate front.
Marie-Hélène Fandel, a policy analyst at European Policy Centre (EPC), warned European parties' pro-climate electoral spin might not translate into reality. "I'm afraid the EU's climate ambitions might be watered down under the new Parliament. A low turnout might benefit extreme parties, and they are traditionally not supporters of strong climate measures," she told EurActiv ahead of the elections.
Keeping stakes high for Copenhagen
Dominating the bloc's climate agenda for the rest of the year, the most daunting challenge for the EU is the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks, which are set to culminate in Copenhagen in December with the signature of a new global climate treaty.
All the major European parties consider it important to ensure that the EU takes a leading role and coaxes other industrialised nations into following its lead, particularly as it is the only region to have committed to the ambitious target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. It remains to be seen whether the EU will end up raising this goal to 30%, as it has pledged to do should other industrialised countries commit to comparable goals.
The Parliament has traditionally been the EU's most progressive institution when it comes to setting ambitious targets, with the Greens pushing for the most far-reaching commitments. The Greens want the EU to commit to 40% emission reductions by 2020, in line with the demands of most developing nations, while other parties broadly support a 30% target.
But ruling centre-right governments and the Socialists insist that jobs and industry should not be sacrificed in the process. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned last month that they are "determined to take steps to protect European industry" if the EU's international partners fail to commit to comparable climate goals (EurActiv 02/06/09). As a consequence, debates over import tariffs on products from regions that do not impose a price on carbon are - among other things - likely to feature high on the agenda of the next Parliament.
Action at home
Approval for the move to a 30% target may indeed prove difficult to secure in practice, as governments have little appetite for more domestic action amid the ongoing economic recession.
Nevertheless, "moving to a 30% target has policy implications and one would hope that will lead to domestic action," said Antony Froggatt, an expert on European energy policy at Chatham House.
Froggatt argued that measures under the Eco-design Directive, for example, could be looked at again to tighten legislation in line with the EU's wider objectives. He also saw opportunities to use the intermediate review of the new Renewables Directive in 2014 to bring larger emission cuts.
The Renewables Directive - which sets binding national targets to boost the share of renewables in member states' energy mix, to achieve the bloc's goal of 20% by 2020 - officially became law on Friday (5 June) after being published in the Official Journal. The directive was part of the package of climate and energy legislation agreed in December, one of the major accomplishments of the outgoing Parliament (EurActiv 15/12/08).
With legislation now in place, including to revise the EU's flagship climate policy instrument, its emissions trading scheme (EU ETS; see EurActiv LinksDossier), attention will turn to implementation.
Some key issues surrounding the climate package are still outstanding. As the Commission prepares to publish a list of carbon trading sectors deemed to be at risk of carbon leakage (industry relocation to regions without a price on CO2 emissions), environmentalists are already raising the alarm about the Commission's method of determining the industries entitled to free emissions permits, which they say compromises the ETS's environmental goals (EurActiv 26/05/09).
The previous Parliament took a hard line during ETS negotiations, calling for full auctioning by 2020. Environmentalists hope incoming MEPs will champion a restricted list of sectors that can continue to emit for free.
Nevertheless, free allocation might not be the only sign of protectionism, as the financial crisis is dragging down profits across all the EU's major industrial sectors.
Will political families keep their promises?
Judging from their election manifestos, a shift to clean energy to cut emissions and create green growth is on all the major parties' to-do lists.
Chatham House's Froggatt argued that energy security will be a major priority for the new Parliament. "The EU will have to implement some of the recommendations of the Second Strategic Energy Review," he said, pointing to building pipeline infrastructure, developing carbon capture and storage technology and going ahead with large-scale renewables projects.
"Europe should become the market leader in green technology based on more and better research and development," the manifesto of the European People's Party (EPP) reads. The EPP, the largest European party, is calling for the share of renewable energy in the bloc's energy mix to increase to at least 20% by 2020. In contrast, the Greens have set a long-term goal to source all energy from renewables.
The Socialists are calling for a "European strategy for smart green growth," including greater investment in research and development to expand energy infrastructure, and grid modernisation to integrate energy produced on offshore wind farms, for example. The European Liberal Democrats (ELDR), meanwhile, want more investment in technologies that improve efficiency and increase the security of energy supply.
It is a relatively safe bet that energy-efficiency will remain a buzzword in the coming years, as EU lawmakers will have to hammer out an agreement on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and energy-efficiency requirements must be established for completely new product groups once the extended Eco-Design Directive comes to force.
Citizens call for more energy-efficiency
Energy-saving policies strike a chord with the European electorate at large, but questions are being raised regarding the extent to which the Parliament actually represents European citizens' interests.
"When it comes to the climate, an important issue is to what extent there is a fair representation of what people want. When polled, people are enthusiastic about having more energy-efficiency measures at EU level," said the EPC's Fandel. "But I don't have the impression that the Parliament is translating these wishes into policy," she added.
