The Commission adopted the Taxonomy Delegated Act on 9 March 2022. It proposes the inclusion, under certain conditions, of specific nuclear and gas energy activities in the list of environmentally sustainable economic activities covered by the so-called EU Taxonomy. Parliament rejects the motion to oppose the inclusion of nuclear and gas as environmentally sustainable economic activities.

debate

plenary session

vote

Transeuropean Energy Networks (T)

energy union (T)

European Green Deal (T)

Taxonomy Delegated Act: extracts from the debate and the vote

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), ENVI, On nuclear. First of all, it's very controversial. Will any investor really step in because of the Green label? Absolutely not. Because an investor will need security from the government. This green label will not work and will not help. This is a pure political game by France. The criteria are written by France for France.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), ENVI, We now have the war in Ukraine. How can we label gas green? And LNG terminals will not comply, but gas from Russia can. That is the opposite direction and we have to stop this idea. This is the moment to stop this delegated act.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sirpa PIETIK&Auml;INEN (EPP, FI), ECON, This has been the reaction by the financial market investors already. None of them are labelling gas or the nuclear as green investment. So the EU, according to this proposal, would do that. And there's a strong signal that this might discredit the whole process.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mairead MCGUINNESS, Commissioner, Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Gas is a fossil fuel. It is not green and I have never described it thus, thank you. I can say that in several languages, if you wish. But I have never described gas as anything other than a fossil fuel. But some member states moving from dirty fossil fuel may need gas in transition. And that is why we have placed gas in this taxonomy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mairead MCGUINNESS, Commissioner, Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Nuclear power. The speaker before me just said it is divisive. There are many different views aroundit, it has supporters and detractors, but nuclear low carbon is part of our energy mix in transition to, and that is why it is in the transition category of the Taxonomy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mairead MCGUINNESS, Commissioner, Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Member states are and remain fully in charge of their energy mix. I want to stress that there is no obligation on any member state to invest in either nuclear or gas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mairead MCGUINNESS, Commissioner, Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, While the CDA was drafted before Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, it does actually help us to look for alternative sources of gas, including LNG from our international partners. It sends a signal that we support investment in gas infrastructure, power plants during our transition. It does not deepen our dependence on Russian gas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Markus FERBER (EPP, DE), The Commission has thought very clearly about how these two elements can be combined together that don't belong together at all, gas and nuclear policy. And that's nothing to do with science but politics. Secondly, the Commission has presented a standard that perhaps is acceptable to a critical mass of member states, but not for a critical mass of market participants. To spell it out, investors who want to make green investments don't want to finance gas plants or nuclear power stations, and thus such a taxonomy cannot work. If you want to put forward a standard not based on scientific criteria and it is no good to market participants, then we should turn it down.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAF&#200; (S&amp;D, IT), This delegated act, apart from not respecting the scope implementation of the regulation as already explained by previous speakers, gives the wrong message to European citizens and investors because it labels as green something that isn't green because it can't be as energy, comes from a fossil fuel like gas or nuclear cannot be seen as green and as there's waste that takes thousands of years to be disposed of properly.

SOUNDBITE (French), Mich&#232;le RIVASI (Greens/EFA, FR), How are we going to use this energy with no solution for nuclear waste? It's a burden for future generations. It can't be part of the transition. It's going to be too late. It'll take fifteen years to build a reactor. On gas, it's the same thing. It's a fossil fuel, you said. And if we want to achieve the Paris agreement, then we need to scrap all production of fossil fuel gas by the target date. So it's too late. So I would ask you to vote against the taxonomy, including gas and nuclear power.

SOUNDBITE (French), Gilles BOYER (Renew, FR), The Ukrainian energy minister has just supported, spoken out in favour of this act, saying that will be important for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. And he wants this to happen as soon as possible. So it's my view that you must make use of every tool at our disposal to try and move on from oil and coal, then later gas, and then one day further down the line nuclear. So, colleagues, I would call on you to reject this objection and to adopt the delegated act.

Results of the vote: 678 voting,  278 in favour, 328 against, 33 abstentions. The resolution is rejected.