ePURE calls for improved rules for decarbonising transport fuels

On 17 December 2014, the European Parliament voted in support of a motion for resolution to reject the European Commission’s proposal to implement Article 7a of the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) but the vote did not gain the support of the required qualified majority needed to block the proposal. 337 MEPs voted to reject the Commission’s proposal, 325 MEPs supported it, 48 MEPs abstained.

The European renewable ethanol association (ePURE), which represents the interests of European renewable ethanol producers, while disappointed that the Parliament’s resolution did not gain enough support, welcomes that the debate has revealed the shortcomings of the Commission’s proposal.                          

While ePURE welcomed, that after years of intense debate, the Commission finally published a proposal that would allow the implementation of Article 7a of the Fuel Quality Directive, the Commission proposal fundamentally undermines the 6% decarbonisation objective and the role of sustainable biofuels, such as ethanol, in helping to achieve it. ePURE has therefore called on the European Parliament to vote against the Commission's proposal.

‘While   the European ethanol industry is disappointed that the Parliament's resolution did not gain enough support, we welcome that the implementation the FQD will, after many years of delay, finally move forward. The well documented controversy with the FQD's Article 7a has caused an unacceptable delay in the full transposition and implementation of this important Directive, a cornerstone of the 2009 Energy and Climate package’, says Robert Wright, secretary general, ePURE.

‘The delay in implementing the FQD has meant Europe has lost out on vital GHG savings that could have already been achieved in transport through the use of sustainable biofuels, such as ethanol. ePURE now calls on the European Commission to ensure that the Fuel Quality Directive is properly implemented, maintained and strengthened as part of the 2030 Energy and Climate policy  framework’, adds Wright.