EU

Environmental NGOs are alarmed that a new own initiative report on Cohesion Policy and energy might be considered sufficient by some REGI MEPs to consider that the rejection of fossil fuels subsidies in ERDF is put into question – overruling the clear REGI mandate voted in July 2012. To ensure consistency, the REI MEPs should maintain the REGI mandate as it is and oppose any fossil fuel subsidies in ERDF.

Environmental NGOs emphasise that, with very long lifetimes for transport infrastructure, today’s decisions on EU transport spending will set the path for transport beyond 2050 and into the next century. Yet, in light of the EU budget negotiations, there will not be enough funding for all the projects in the Connecting Europe Facility annex or the TEN-T maps to get off the ground. This briefing therefore focuses on how to make the most of the limited funds available, and to avoid the major cost-overruns and delays that have plagued TEN-T policy to date.

Quote from the WWF comments: "The EIB’s objective should support the EU’s 2050 decarbonisation goal. An EIB substantively revised energy lending policy should precludes investment in assets that lock‐in high carbon emissions and instead focuses on delivering a European zero‐emission energy system by 2050."

This letter from Claude Turmes (Greens), Alojz Peterle (EPP) and Kathleen van Brempt (S&D) calls upon the European Investment Bank’s President Werner Hoyer to withhold the disbursement of EIB funds for the Šoštanj lignite power plant project in Slovenia due to ongoing corruption investigations and the project's questionable economic viability.