EU states push for early adoption of biofuel standards[fr][de] 

Representatives of EU governments agreed on 22 February that biofuel sustainability standards should be included in a revised version of the EU's 1998 Fuel Quality Directive , which relates to the use of petrol, diesel and gas oil in cars, trucks, barges, tractor locomotives and machinery (EurActiv 01/02/07).

A key aim of the proposed review is to get fuel suppliers to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by their fuels throughout their life-cycle (i.e. production, transport and use) by 10% between 2011 and 2020, either by enhancing supply efficiency or increasing the proportion of biofuel they include in their fuels. 

The plans have been welcomed by Parliament and member states, but both want the Commission to introduce binding "sustainability criteria" in the directive. They say this is necessary to avoid a situation whereby fuel makers focus purely on cutting CO2 at the lowest possible cost, without any consideration of other potentially negative environmental side-effects – notably those linked to the mass production of biofuels made from agricultural crops, including deforestation, food price hikes and water shortages. 

The Commission, however, insists that such criteria are already being proposed in a separate directive on renewables, presented on 23 January, which asks that 10% of all transport fuel consumption in the EU be covered by biofuels by 2020. Under the draft law, the EU executive is proposing that biofuels failing to deliver life-cycle CO2 savings of at least 35% compared to fossil fuels - as well as biofuels planted in protected areas, "highly biodiverse" grasslands, forests and wetlands - should not count towards the 10% target. 

But MEPs and member states argue that those criteria are unlikely to be in place sufficiently early to prevent fuel makers from investing in cheap but dirty biofuels. 

"We do not want the Fuel Quality Directive, which is much more advanced, to be a victim of the renewables directive," Dragan Barbutovski, spokesman for the Slovenian representation to the EU told EurActiv.

According to a Presidency compromise agreed by member states, an ad hoc working group has been set up, with the aim of drafting "core criteria" for biofuels, that would be included both directives. The group is expected to put forward recommendations in March. "Ideally, these would be 'copy-pasted' into the main renewables directive afterwards," Barbutovski said.

The definition of sustainability criteria is nevertheless likely to remain highly controversial. MEPs are already pushing for stricter terms than those put forward by the Commission's Directorate-General for Energy. In a Parliament environment committee vote in November, they notably called for biofuels counting towards the 10% target to deliver life-cycle CO2 savings of at least 50% compared to conventional fuels – rather than the 35% cut the Commission is proposing.