OilPrice.com reports, “On 4 October the European Commission proposed that oil sands crude be ranked as a dirtier source of fuel compared with oil from conventional wells. …A bill containing a fuel-quality directive (FQD) targeting oil sands imports is due to be presented to the European Parliament for a vote later this year.” Though a date has not been specified for the vote yet, the European Parliament meets in full later this year on October 24-27, November 14-17, November 30, December 1, and December 12-15. There is speculation now that the vote will take place on Friday December 2.
The news report notes, “Ottawa is now threatening to retaliate in the area of Canadian-EU bilateral trade… Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver…thundered against the European Union, saying the action would be ‘discriminatory’ and could trigger a challenge before the World Trade Organization, adding, ‘Should the European Union implement unjustified measures which discriminate against the oil sands, we won’t hesitate to defend our interests. They are doing it believing, apparently, that there is no downside.’”
The European Parliament has been expressing concerns about the tar sands for some time now:
– In May 2010, the Canadian Press reported that the 736-member European Parliament passed a resolution expressing concern about the tar sands during the Canada-European Union summit when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Brussels meeting with EU representatives to promote CETA this past Wednesday. The media report said, “(The resolution) takes a poke at Alberta’s oil sands, expressing ‘its concern about the impact of the extraction of oil sand on the global environment due to the high level of CO2 emissions during its production process and the threat it poses for local biodiversity and the rights and health of indigenous peoples.’”
– In August 2010, MEPs received a Canada-EU trade sustainability impact assessment for the European Commission that stated,”Where the CETA contributes to greater extraction and investment in the tar sands, it is likely that Canada’s emissions of greenhouse gases will increase…”
– In June 2011, Postmedia News reported, “The European Parliament took shots at Canada over the oilsands industry’s environmental record…(in a) statement, adopted by a show of hands at a plenary session in Strasbourg, France…” MEPs raised concerns about “the environmental impact of extracting oil from tarsands, due to its high CO2 emissions and its local impact on biodiversity.”
The Council of Canadians supports the EFQD and is asking all Members of the European Parliament to back the European Commission’s recommendation on this matter. We oppose the Harper government’s intention to challenge the EFQD through the World Trade Organization.
In a recent blog, energy campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue writes, “The last two years have seen fierce lobbying on the part of the Harper government against the EU FQD. According to a report prepared by Friends of the Earth Europe, there have been over 110 lobbying events organized by Canadians on tar sands and the FQD since September 2009! …A new report on tar sands and CETA, written by Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives was released (October 14). …Sinclair adds a needed element to this debate. If Europeans want to protect the FQD from corporate challenge, they are best advised to reject the inclusion of an investor-state dispute settlement in the CETA. …Sinclair’s analysis is consistent with Steven Shrybman’s conclusions in a legal briefing prepared for the Council, Indigenous Environmental Network and Friends of the Earth Europe; The Potential Impacts of the Proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on the Pace and Character of OIl Sands Development.” Andrea’s blog – with the links to these reports – can be read in full at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=11170.
More blogs on the European Fuel Quality Directive can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22european+fuel+quality+directive%22.
