“The European carbon market will remain clinically dead until structural decisions are taken to reform it, meaning that no effective price signal will be sent to investors for years”, stated Bernadette Ségol ETUC General Secretary upon hearing the results of the vote. “It will also have a negative impact on EU leadership in international discussions because it will be incapable of demonstrating real progress and ambition to its partners before 2015 when a new international agreement must be adopted. Moreover, if politicians were unable to agree to a soft and temporary measure like the back-loading proposal, what will be their position in the debate on the structural reform of the ETS and on the decisions for the 2030 milestones that we crucially need for a Just Transition towards a low-carbon economy?”

The ETUC’s main concern is the general political message that has been sent by the European Parliament today. It shows that there is a majority which is ready to use the current crises to impose a short-sighted vision of competitiveness and on these grounds oppose progressive proposals in the fields of environment or social protection. The ETUC sees this conservative stance as extremely worrying at a time when ambition and long-term vision are needed to protect our climate as well as to exit the crisis through investments, sustainable growth and job creation.