Groot-Brittannië wint gevecht over toewijzing emissierechten broeikasgassen voor EU-Hof (en)

Britain has won a legal battle against the European Commission over greenhouse gas emissions, with the highest EU court declaring on Wednesday that vetoing the British request to increase greenhouse gas emission was inadmissible.

The verdict relates to the EU's so-called emissions trading scheme, under which every member state has been assigned a quota of greenhouse emission rights which can be traded between companies.

The British government challenged the commission's rejection of its request for a 2.7 percent rise from its set quota of free carbon-dioxide permits, issued in March.

According to the commission, the British government missed the deadline for putting forward an amendment, and had to go ahead with the original target plan. The UK, however, vowed to fight the commission's decision.

The European Court of Justice announced on Wednesday (23 November) that the commission did not have the right to refuse to allow the British Government to alter its plans.

"The United Kingdom was entitled to propose amendments to the plan submitted to the commission, even though they increased the total quantity of emission allowances," the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg said, annulling the commission's veto.

The court also said that the commission had failed to prove that the relatively small adjustment would affect the working of the EU emissions trade scheme.

Environment backlash expected

In Brussels, a commission spokesperson declined to comment on concerns about the ruling creating a "domino effect" among member states to overstep set emission targets.

In Parliament, however, reactions came rapidly.

"With Britain's global warming emissions actually on the increase, this is hardly a good moment to relax the reduction targets", Liberal Democrat spokesperson on climate change, MEP Chris Davies, said.

"With the emissions trading scheme now in place the UK Government would do best to claim this decision as a moral victory but accept the need to set a standard for the rest of Europe."

MEP Carl Schlyter from the Greens said that the emissions trading scheme in its current state is what makes member states put national interests over common environmental goals.

"When the free emission quotas are handed out cost-free among member states, each state does its best to give national companies as many quotas as possible - against the aim to actually reduce emissions", he said, pointing out that because the quotas are traded, big companies with many quotas make huge profits out of the trade.

The Greens in the European Parliament want to auction the quotas among the companies so that the company who wants to trade quotas will have to buy them first.

Conservative MEP and rapporteur on climate change, Andres Wijkman, declined to comment on today's court case, but explained that the quota system in general is too generous, making it hard to put the screws on member states to reach the Kyoto agreement targets.

An overwhelming majority of MEPs adopted Mr Wijkman's report last week on climate change, suggesting more binding targets to reduce energy, CO2 emissions and to include the aviation sector in the overall emissions trading scheme.

Only a few days later however, British environment secretary Margaret Beckett, suggested that voluntary targets for cutting emissions should be introduced when the Kyoto climate agreement ends in 2012, saying it would be impossible to achieve a consensus on compulsory targets.