By Martin Banks - 10th February 2009
Fortunately, it is not Barroso who has final say on this – it will be a codecision procedure with full decision powers for parliament
A statement by a cross-party group of five MEPs after the commission reportedly backtracked on €500m of funding for EU cities
As more than 400 cities throughout Europe join forces to help tackle the impact of global warming, a group of five MEPs has criticised the commission for not dedicating any money to the initiative.
Civic representatives, including mayors from 23 member states, converged on parliament on Tuesday to formally sign a ‘covenant’ which commits their towns and cities to meeting the EU’s climate change targets. These include cutting CO2 emissions by at least 20 per cent by the year 2020.
However, a cross-party group of MEPs has accused the commission of failing to support the initiative financially, saying the executive had backtracked on its pledge to provide some €500m under last November’s economic recovery plan.
The statement, signed by MEPs Claude Turmes, Mechtild Rothe, Fiona Hall, Anders Wijkman and Umberto Guidoni, said, “We were taken aback that the €500m earmarked for the cities in the framework of the economic recovery plan was dropped by commission president José Manuel Barros and his cabinet.
“Fortunately, it is not Barroso who has final say on this – it will be a codecision procedure with full decision powers for parliament.
“We therefore call on the cities represented at the covenant to speak up and help us get majority support in parliament and council for an innovative financial instrument that could help finance committed cities’ climate investments.”
Participating cities, including Madrid, Budapest and Hamburg, have agreed to actively promote and support measures, such as energy efficiency schemes, which might help address the problem of climate change.
Speaking at a news conference to launch the covenant, Spanish EPP-ED member Alejo Vidal-Quadras said that while the agreement signed today was not legally binding, it did place a “certain responsibility” on the signatories.
“Basically, what we are saying is that those cities which have signed this covenant have committed themselves to, at the very least, meeting the EU’s energy and climate change targets,” he said.
“The progress each makes on reaching these targets will be made public and checked regularly so we can keep up to date on what is happening in each of these cities, towns and municipalities.”
Belgian politician Luc Van Den Brande, president of the Committee of the Regions, said the covenant represented an “exercise in institutional cooperation” between the Committee of the Regions, parliament and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“If these cities do not comply with the obligations and responsibilities which they have signed up to, they will be forced to leave the covenant with all the consequences that would entail.”
His comments were echoed by Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, mayor of Madrid, who urged other cities to join the “alliance against climate change” and insisted its aims were an “achievable Utopia”.
He added that the current financial and economic crisis highlights the need to promote energy efficiency and energy diversification.
EIB president Philippe Maystadt said that urban areas represent a big potential source of energy saving, thereby helping to combat climate change.
“Urban areas account for as much as 70 per cent of EU energy consumption, most of it related to buildings, transports and small firms. We believe that cities have a substantial potential to both reduce this consumption and to make significant progress in the adoption of renewable energy solutions.”
UK Europe minister Caroline Flint said, “In December EU leaders agreed to an ambitious plan to tackle climate change and it’s only by working at the national, regional and local level that we’ll succeed.
“That's why I’m delighted that mayors from cities across the UK have today embraced these commitments. Their efforts will not only improve the lives of local citizens by ensuring a better environment in which to live, but will also help their local businesses to benefit from Europe’s drive to become the world's first low-carbon economy.”
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