Press conference by Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE) and Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteurs, on the adoption of the European Parliament's position on the Alternative fuels infrastructure and sustainable maritime fuels regulations.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

ERTUG, Ismail (S&D, DE)

WARBORN, Jörgen (EPP, SE)

European Green Deal (T)

Fit for 55 (T)

Alternative fuels infrastructure and sustainable maritime fuels: Press conference by Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE) and Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteurs

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur of S&amp;D, We have voted the so-called AFIR regulation, which will open up this whole infrastructure for the alternative fuels. I think it goes without saying we want to finalise or to get our targets, when it comes to the Paris agreement, we need the decarbonisation of the mobility sector in particular. And if you look into the mobility sector, or transportation sector, you see that the road mode is also one of the biggest emitters that therefore we have to go this way on alternative infrastructure or the alternative fuels infrastructure.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE), Rapporteur of S&D, We tried that 2013, 2014 with the first legislation or with the pre-legislation called AFID, Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive, at that time. So it was not so successful. To be honest. That was also the reason why we have lost five or six years in deploying infrastructure. The Member States, they did do their homework at that time and it was a good step by the European Commission to include this AFIR as a regulation now into the Fit for 55 package.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE), Rapporteur of S&D, What we have achieved is we will have now a minimum level on infrastructure all around the European Union. We will have some alternative fuels, infrastructure for cars, for light duty vehicules, but also for heavy trucks. We have also included the hydrogen technology into this legislation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE), Rapporteur of S&D, We have also included the data of the data use and the so-called National Access Points, which would connect them on a European level in order to give all the participants the opportunity to use the database in order to offer better services for the people all around.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE), Rapporteur of S&D, We have also included the card payments, which will be obligatory as of 2025 for all those people who use electric cars, they will have the opportunity to pay by credit card or even by debit cards. And we have also included maritime, the onshore electricity supply for maritime, the same, the shoreside electricity for aircraft, for aeroplanes. And we have included the most rail, also does mean the railways should have the opportunity to get some infrastructure and to use these new technologies for the future, which will be mostly without any CO2 emission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE), Rapporteur of S&D, In a nutshell, this is that what we have achieved. What we did not achieve is so-called sanction mechanism, which would have put more pressure on the Member States to overcome or to deploy the infrastructure, but now we will start next week with the trialogues under the Czech presidency.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ismail ERTUG (S&D, DE), Rapporteur of S&D, I think we did our job as European Parliament in a very fast way and now it's up to the Member States also to get in touch with us and in order to bring this legislation through. Thank you so far.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, Thank you very much for that. So I will talk about the fuel EU maritime file, which of course, is the Fit for 55 initiative that will decarbonise the maritime sector. This regulation builds on two pillars. The main one establishes greenhouse gas intensity limits for maritime fuels and this will force the ship operators to gradually reduce the climate impact of our fuels.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, The second pillar obliges ferries, cruise ships, container vessels to connect to onshore power supply when at birth, in TEN-T ports. In combination these two measures will make sure that the maritime transport does it parts in reaching the targets laid down in the climate law. It was an overwhelming majority we achieved in in plenary today with 451 votes in favour, 137 votes against 54 abstentions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, The rejected Parliament all amendments and safeguarded every single letter of the deal we had in the Transport Committee. This is of course a big win for our committee and I'm very grateful towards the shadow rapporteurs, who helped us secure this massive majority, especially to Vera Tax of S&D, to Elsi Katainen of Renew, Marco Campomenos of ID and Johan van Overtveldt of ECR. We did cooperate on this and now we lay out the world's, by far, most ambitious pathway to maritime carbonisation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, This this legislation is ambitious, yet it is realistic because we need to make to take into many different perspectives into account when we regulate such a complex sector as the maritime sector. On climate, of course, very important, but not just setting the most extreme targets that might look good on paper, because we have to focus and I think we have focussed on real enforceability, making sure that things actually happen in reality.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, Also thinking of social aspects, protecting jobs, because seven to five percent of all our exports go by ship. We also secure connectivity for people living on islands in coastal areas and outermost regions. We shield the most vulnerable families from rising prices. So safeguarding the maritime sector's competitiveness and making sure there won't be carbon leakage or jobs loss in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, My guiding principle has been to ensure that we get the biggest emissions savings, possible per euro spent. We do that with a very effective scope. We target 90 percent of the maritime CO2 emissions, while shielding the very smallest ship owners and ports from massive economic and bureaucratic burdens. We do it with a face in that is rapid but realistic, and we do it with a target oriented design where we set a pathway forward with strict greenhouse gas limits. But without micromanaging ship owners or forcing them into some kind of one size fits all.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, We leave to them whether to choose methanol, hydrogen, advanced biofuels or large scale wind propulsion or something else, because I think there will be a massive technological development in the years ahead. Just to mention briefly, some of the main new elements from the Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, We have increased the overall climate ambitions by tightening the greenhouse gas intensity limits. We maintain the first ten years on change, giving the industry some breathing space. But then we have a significant, more ambitious trajectory. The greenhouse gas intensity fuels in 2050 will be reduced by 80 percent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, Furthermore, we introduced an RFNBOs sub quota of two percent from 2030. This is stricter than the sub quota imposed by RED, which is one point two percent. And this will send a very strong signal to the market to invest heavily in e-Fuel production. Then we streamline the fuel EU with affaire, making sure the obligations to connect to onshore power only applies to TEN-T ports, not all ports like the commission proposed.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, This is extremely important, because we won't force the smallest ports to make multi-million investments that will almost never be used. We introduce targeted and time limited exemptions to give some extra time to adopt for outermost regions, small islands and companies operating the public service obligation to secure the connectivity to sparsely populated or isolated areas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, To end this list of changes, with my personal favourite I have to say, we apply the one in one in principle. We introduced an article on compensatory regulatory reduction forcing the Commission to offset the regulator burdens from this regulation by removing existing burdens for the sector. This, I think, is very important so that the sector can focus on their main businesses and on decarbonisation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jörgen WARBORN (EPP, SE), Rapporteur of EPP, In summary, this regulation will kick start the development of the sector and I am very happy that the Parliament decided to give such a strong support for our compromise proposal because it is an urgent file to move ahead. Thank you.

Q&A by journalists, Question regarding why they believe that AFIR will be different from AFID.

Q&amp;A by journalists, Question regarding the main subjects at the trialogue discussions, the requirements on fuel suppliers and the avilability of alternative fuels in the EU.

Q&amp;A by journalists, Question regarding the priorities of the trialogue with the Council and the targets of RFNBOs use in maritime.