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Green car compromise

• Mark Mardell
• 24 Oct 07, 08:21 PM

We have had the first real sign that the planned law aimed at making manufacturers produce greener cars is going to be watered down.

The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, has for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Or should that read "tougher targets"?

It's hard to say: the parliament has voted for a target of 125g of carbon emissions for every kilometre driven. That's not as tough as the European Commission,

But the parliament's target would have to be achieved through car design alone, whereas 10g of the commission target could be reached by using biofuels and the like, so some would argue the commission target is really 130g.

The current average car emission is 160g.

Confused ? I am.

Anyway the greens aren't happy.

'Judas'

This is the proposal for a new law which I have been trying to

The parliament's vote was on what is known in the jargon as an "own initative" report. In other words, it has no legal force. On the other hand, it鈥檚 a warning shot that if the European Commission sticks to its current plans it鈥檚 likely it would be defeated when MEPs do get a full vote on the full law.

The report MEPs were voting on was written by Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies, who argues that while some people want to punish car makers, he鈥檚 interested in a workable law that benefits the environment.

During the debate, earlier in the week, this infuriated the pony-tailed Green MEP from Luxembourg, Claude Turmes, who said Mr Davies had gone from "a green liberal climate-change hero" to "a climate-change Judas".

Aat Peterse from the green pressure group said: "MEPs seem to have lost their nerve. Sadly, there is an increasing disparity between what MEPs say needs to be done about climate change, and what they are prepared to actually get on and do."

He says the commission should stick with an older target 鈥� 120g - when it comes up with actual proposals for a new law later in the year.

It鈥檚 pretty likely they won鈥檛. There鈥檚 been a fight between Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, who is standing up for German drivers and manufacturers, and Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas from the moment this idea was first mooted.

It鈥檚 going to get sharper as they actually knuckle down to writing a directive, as EU laws will be continued to be called in the Lisbon Treaty.

MEPs also backed plans for huge warnings about the cleanliness or otherwise of the product on car ads: they say these should take up 20% of the space, similar to the big warnings on cigarette packets.

'Weapon'

I asked Mr Davies, a long-term environmental campaigner, how it felt to be called "a climate change Judas" and whether he was handing Mr Verheugen a weapon in the coming battle.

His answer was one of rueful honesty.

"Yes. Yeah I am. But at the end of the day I am trying to get two things here. First of all, do I like being called a climate changed Judas? Not really. Not when I鈥檝e got Chris Huhne back in the UK saying we want to stay at the front of the environmental debate, we don鈥檛 want to ever be seen to be out-sold by the Greens.

"So adopting what I regard as realistic position here doesn鈥檛 necessarily fit in with being an opposition party that likes to vote about its green credentials back in the United Kingdom.

"As for the debate with commissioner Verheugen, undoubtedly that鈥檚 going to take place, and he and his officials will seize on this report as a weapon in that internal discussion."

But he argues he鈥檚 done a deal which avoids the danger of the parliament voting for a report from the industry committee next month, which was recommending a 135g target.

Is the car industry winning this battle?

Are the MEPs right?

Should there be any law in the first place?

You tell me.

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Friendship failure

• Mark Mardell
• 24 Oct 07, 10:44 AM

This is the third of three pieces I've written to set the scene for Friday's EU-Russia summit, as I explain here.

The Friendship pipeline snakes all the way from Siberia to the largest oil refinery in Eastern Europe, in Lithuania.

But friendships can come to a sudden end.

The walls of the headquarters of the oil refinery are lined with black-and-white photographs of Soviet-era workers, looking suitably heroic, building the plant.

When Lithuania became an independent country 16 years ago, the oil kept flowing, the friendship kept going after a fashion.

Taps off

But when the Lithuanian government decided to privatise the plant, it chose to sell to a Polish company rather than Russia鈥檚 which was eager to purchase this window on the West - the modern equivalent of a warm-water port.

According to the company鈥檚 PR department, the sale was announced in June, and by July the Russians had discovered that the pipeline was leaking.

The taps were turned off and have never been turned on again. Is this an example of Russian bullying, normal commercial practice, coincidence or accident?

The management here simply doesn鈥檛 want to speculate.

I was told before interviewing the Polish director of that he wouldn鈥檛 talk politics, but he seemed to want to gloss over the last year altogether.

The company does still get Russian oil from a sea route and is also looking to South America, so when I ask him what happened, he told me: "We are trying to earn money in the current environment. It means we are searching for the best offer as far as supplies are concerned."

So I asked him again: "What happened to the other supply route? Did you turn up to work one day and it wasn鈥檛 working?"

He replied: "We are concentrating on the current situation and the current situation is that one route isn鈥檛 working, so we are concentrating on our other route which is available."

I persisted: "But did you turn up to work one day and the oil wasn鈥檛 coming in?"

He ignored the question and instead said: "Hopefully we have a connection to the sea, and that allows us to get suppliers from different sources."

Punishment?

This is perhaps what one expects from a company that is a minnow compared to the giant Gazprom, and one might have expected the same sort of evasion from the Lithuanian government, which is equally dwarfed by Russia鈥檚 might.

Not a bit of it.

The Lithuanian president, Valdas Adamkus, is an interesting man, who fought the Soviets when they invaded and then fled to America where he made a career in the US environmental protection agency.

In a state room where he once greeted both the Queen and President Bush, Mr Adamkus told me that he鈥檚 sure the switch-off was intended as punishment for selling to the Poles.

"I have no doubt about this. Let鈥檚 be honest, there is no need any more to cover up with nice diplomatic phrases," he said.

"At the very beginning it was definitely a very reasonable technical issue. We offered assistance from our specialists to repair it. No response. Formal letters came from the presidents, even came from the EU president Barroso, no response, total ignorance.

"Finally they have admitted that they don鈥檛 intend to deliver any more to Lithuania. I don鈥檛 believe that this is really fair dealing with their neighbours."

What is now known as "energy security" will be high on the agenda of the

When Russia turned off the taps to Ukraine in the new year of 2006 the householders in the rest of Europe didn鈥檛 shiver for long, if at all.

But the politicians did... at the thought of a European Union that depends on Russia for half its gas and a third of its oil needs.

Free trade

The EU wants plenty of different supply routes from Russia and elsewhere and is beginning to see renewable energy as a strategic "must" as well as an environmental imperative.

But what they would really like is to be able to trust Russia, and not feel that Gazprom has them over a barrel.

The Lithuanian president, like most leaders of the ex-communist countries, wants a firm, single European policy towards Russia and wants to hear that voice raised at the summit.

"I believe the European Union, all the members, should speak with one voice, as far as the EU relationship with Russia is concerned. We still want to see Russia as a good neighbour, a co-operative neighbour," he says.

"We want to see Russia as a real participant in European affairs, because let鈥檚 face it, it鈥檚 a great country which has a lot of potential. It鈥檚 a country which needs to participate in European affairs, bringing stability to the entire European continent.

"But it should be dealt with strongly, clearly... If we are talking about free trade - and Russia definitely needs markets in Europe and around the world 鈥� if Russia wants to be in the World Trade Organisation, a fully-fledged market, I believe they have to play according to same rule that applies to everybody."

"Or else, what?" I ask.

"Or else if they want to be isolated from the rest of it, that鈥檚 their choice."

Nuclear deficit

At the end of my all-too-brief tour of Poland and two of the Baltic states, I sought out the Russian response.

The Russian ambassador to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, is also an interesting man, a former deputy foreign minister.

His curly grey hair and broad smile give him an avuncular appearance but when you listen to his replies you see the steel that makes him a Kremlin favourite.

He says the EU-Russia relations are "complex, multi-faceted, not without problems". But he denies that Russia uses energy as a political tool.

"Well, it is totally untrue. We never cut off pipelines in order to punish anybody. When there is a rupture in the pipeline, yes, the supply has to be cut off to avoid environmental disaster.

"Pipelines have to be cut off when somebody鈥檚 not paying for the gas. It鈥檚 the same on a household basis, so whenever any of your viewers in Britain stops paying his or her bills for gas, British Gas will come and cut it off.

"That鈥檚 what鈥檚 been happening. I would say, on the contrary, as an example of politicising the energy business, I can give you a small example.

"Before the countries of Central and Eastern Europe joined the EU in 2004 and 2007, during the pre-accession talks, they were made to abandon the existing nuclear power stations, those that had been built by my country鈥檚 specialists during various years, for purely political reasons - not because all those reactors were Chernobyl-type, or too old. Actually, the oldest nuclear power reactors are those in Britain.

"So, as a result, starting from 2009, most countries of that particular part of Europe, will have to suffer for at least five to six years a deficit of energy. And as a result, the governments of those countries, applied to Russian suppliers of oil and gas for additional amounts, and Brussels begins crying wolf saying that the degree of dependence on Russians supplies is growing. It鈥檚 a situation created by the European Union itself."

Fish flour fuss

I asked him about the specific example of the Lithuania refinery. Why was oil not flowing through the Friendship pipeline?

"There was a series of ruptures in the pipeline along this 70km stretch. And since then the technological survey of the Russian Federation has been assessing the situation from a technical point of view, and also the owner of the pipeline, which is a Russian company, has been assessing the feasibility of restoring it.

"I鈥檓 not aware of the conclusions that they might reach eventually, this is still to come, but understandably, the company might have views on whether it is worthwhile to repair the pipeline or not.鈥�

I put it to him that the Lithuanian president rejects that argument.

"Well, it鈥檚 his personal view. He鈥檚 entitled to have one."

"But you鈥檙e saying there鈥檚 no politics."

"No politics. No politics."

Then I turn to the question of trade, which I referred to in my posting from Latvia, and touched on briefly in the article on Poland. He starts by talking about the Polish ban on fish flour.

"You see, if our veterinary experts find that the fish flour is actually two-thirds bone flour, from animals, rather than fish, it doesn鈥檛 smell of politics, it smells of fraud.

"And the bone flour, as you may be aware, is forbidden is to be re-exported or sold within the European Union, because it鈥檚 the easiest way to transfer the famous BSE disease.

"As far as the famous polish meat issue is concerned, well the problems primarily were not initially with Polish meat as such, but rather with meat and other products posing as Polish meat 鈥� transiting Polish territory, and ending up in the Russian market.

"Of course, it was not the Russian side that has been politicising the whole issue."

And the sprats?

What about those Latvian sprats that don鈥檛 meet Russian standards but pass EU laws which are often perceived as too tough?

"The fact is, that Russian veterinary and food safety standards are much stricter than those applied in the European Union. But again, nobody should see anything political in it 鈥� it鈥檚 just public health."

Then to the question behind all of this. Does Russia bully its old allies?

"We believe the problem with the political elite or at least part of it in those countries, and the problem of the EU since those countries acceded to the EU, has been that they are suffering from what is sometimes called phantom pains of the past, some going back to the days of the Soviet Union of which they were part, some going even further to the days of the Russian empire in 18th Century, particularly concerning Poland.

"So I don鈥檛 believe that this is the way to address future relations with the new democratic Russia. It only hinders the development of bilateral relations and unfortunately, due to the principle of EU solidarity among members, it hinders the overall development of EU-Russia relations."

The last point is critical. Russia doesn鈥檛 like the European Union speaking with one voice, which is precisely the reason politicians from the eastern part of the EU are so keen on it.

We鈥檒l find out on Friday at the summit itself what policy they pursue.

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