Europese Commissie vraagt vier lidstaten haast te maken met klimaatwetgeving luchtvaartmaatschappijen (en)
The European Commission is urging again Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, and Poland to finalise the adoption of the legislative and administrative measures for inclusion of the aviation sector in the EU's emissions trading system. To date these four member states have not fully completed the transposition of the EU ETS aviation legislation into national legislation. On the recommendation of Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, the Commission is sending a final warning.
According to Directive 2008/101/EC, Member States should have transposed the ETS legislation concerning aviation into national law before 2 February 2010. Member States are required to inform the Commission once they have adopted the necessary implementation measures.
As the Commission was not notified of all necessary implementing measures by Cyprus, Estonia, Germany and Poland, it issued a letter of formal notice against these Member States already on 25 March 2010.
The Commission has since received notification that legislative works were still in progress in all four countries, therefore the Commission is now sending the concerned Member States a final warning, urging them to speed up the adoption of all the necessary national measures and reminding them of the possibility under Article 260§3 of the Lisbon Treaty to refer the cases to the European Court of Justice and to request financial penalties if they fail to do so.
Background
Greenhouse gas emissions from the world's airlines are increasing rapidly: since 1990 they have doubled in Europe. It is projected that even with ambitious fuel efficiency improvements of 2% a year, international aviation emissions will be around 70% above their 2005 levels in 2020.
In order to mitigate the climate impacts of aviation, the European Union has adopted legislation to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System as of 1 January 2012. The rules are set out in directive 2008/101/EC.
The EU's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading started operation on 1 January 2005. Initially the EU ETS included only land based industrial installations. From 2012 aviation activities of aircraft operators that operate flights arriving at and departing from EEA airports will also be included in the EU ETS. The legislation covers the 27 EU Member States plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
For more details on aviation's inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading System, see
For more details on infringements in general see: MEMO/10/530
See also MEMO/11/220