The European Parliament has approved a compromise on the European Union’s proposed sustainable finance rulebook, ending a bitter fight with EU member states on whether to recognise nuclear power as “green”.
The compromise proposal was approved during a meeting of politicians from the European Parliament’s political groups in charge of following the issue.
“I am delighted that a deal was reached between the European Parliament and the Council,” said Pascal Canfin, a French MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s powerful environment committee.
The EU newsagency EURACTIV reports the deal ends a bitter fight between Parliament and EU member states over the recognition of nuclear and gas as a “transition” source of energy.
Britain, France, and Eastern EU countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia, rejected an earlier deal last week, fearing it would exclude investments in nuclear and gas projects from being labelled as green in the transition to net-zero emissions.
“With this deal, we now have a common language and new rules for financial markets,” said Mr Canfin who was among a group of MEPs leading the Parliament delegation in talks with EU member states.
“This will not only allow us to avoid greenwashing, or to allocate much more assets to financing an economy that is truly aligned with the United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement, but also enable to increase the transparency of financial markets,” Mr Canfin said in a statement.
Finland, the current holder of the six-month rotating EU Presidency, made a final push to close a deal by tabling a compromise to the proposed green finance rules that was endorsed by EU member states’ representatives.
That amendment, seen by EURACTIV, appears to slightly water down previous wording on the so-called “Do no harm” principle that would have in principle excluded nuclear power from being considered “green”.
However, the lead Parliament negotiator in the talks, Green Party politician Bas Eickhout, told EURACTIV those were merely “cosmetic changes” with no major implications.
“It was already clear from the deal last week that nuclear could be identified as transitional source of energy, and only that,” Mr Eickhout said.
“The European Parliament fought for a clear ‘do not harm’ principle for the disposal of waste before it can qualify as sustainable.
“That principal stands as well.
“So it reads like technical clarifications,” he told EURACTIV in emailed comments.
Mr Canfin agreed, saying the deal reached “remains balanced” overall and does not undermine the objective of the EU’s sustainable finance rulebook.
“We have overcome this impasse with the following compromise: gas and nuclear can under no circumstances be included in the category of so-called ‘pure green’ investments, but they are neither included nor excluded in principle from the other categories.
“Like all technologies covered by the taxonomy, they will be subject to the strict test of the ‘do not significant harm’ (DNSH) principle.”
Green campaigners hailed the agreement over green finance.
“Evidence-based policy making wins out in the end. We have a deal which will be instrumental in the transition to a net-zero emissions economy,” said Tom Jess from climate think tank E3G.
The next steps should now be a formality, E3G said.
EU governments will sign off the deal today followed by a plenary in the European Parliament at a later date, to be confirmed.
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