EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)

On 3 July, the European Parliament voted in favour of the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to postpone the auctioning of 900 million emission allowances (backloading) of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) for the 2013-2020 period (third ETS trading period). This represents the second attempt to rescue the EU ETS after the European Parliament voted against the EC’s proposal on 16 April 2013. The European Parliament’s endorsement of the proposal gives a mandate to the text’s rapporteur to begin negotiations with the Council in order to reach a first-reading agreement.

Latest Developments On Horizon 2020

On 25 June, the Irish EU presidency reached an agreement with the European Parliament and the European Commission, after nine “trilogue” meetings held during the last six months. They agreed on a 70.2 billion euro budget for the next R&D funding programme, running from 2014 to 2020. The figure of 70.2 billion euro is final, although the overall EU budget still needs a final sign off by EU member states.