Chinese threat to aviation ETS: Yes to flexibility and negotiation, but Europe needs to implement its law

"If we give in because of a €1.90 additional cost for a flight to Shanghai, this will have major implications for the credibility of the EU in other policy areas."

"We should continue to negotiate and show flexibility in the agreed legislation, but we should defend our law and not give in", said Peter Liese MEP, Rapporteur for the inclusion of aviation in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in the European Parliament, following reports that Chinese authorities may have the legal possibility to prohibit their airlines from participating in the EU ETS.

According to the analysis of the European Commission and the European Parliament's Rapporteur, this does not mean that the Chinese authorities will necessarily use this provision: "It seems to give room for negotiation", said Mr Liese. "We need to consider the situation very carefully. The legislation foresees flexibility on incoming flights. Everything we do must be non-discriminatory. We cannot give derogations to China which we do not give to EU airlines flying from China to Europe. We should implement our legislation, otherwise this will be interpreted as a precedent for many other issues. In areas like trade and financial market regulations, third countries like China and the US do not like EU legislation. If we give in in this case, it will be a signal that we will always give in if the pressure is high enough."

"If we give in because of a €1.90 additional cost for a flight to Shanghai, this will have major implications for the credibility of the EU in other policy areas." Peter Liese MEP
 
 

The burden from the ETS is very low compared to the national taxes and charges. A flight from Shanghai to Europe would have a price increase of €1.90. For short-haul flights it is much lower. Ryanair, for example, calculated a price increase of 0.25 cents on average.

"Europe needs to negotiate with China and of course with the US and the developing countries. A good signal is that last week, a law similar to the one which has now obviously been approved in China, was unable to get past the US senate. This shows that other third countries are even more willing to negotiate. As a last resort, the European legislation foresees the withdrawal of starting and landing permissions. This is part of our legislation, but I hope we can avoid having to implement it", Mr Liese concluded.