Lisbon, Jan. 25, 2021 (Lusa) – The Environment Minister on Monday challenged the European Parliament to engage in negotiations with the EU Council to pass a climate law before the end of Portugal’s six-month presidency.

"It is unimaginable that Europe is not the first continent to commit to carbon neutrality," said João Pedro Matos Fernandes in a virtual hearing with the European Parliament's Environment Committee, assuming there are differences on how to get there even within the European Council.

"Those who think that if we don't succeed, the Council is to blame. It's all our fault. We all have to do a job to meet what European citizens are clearly asking of us", the Portuguese minister argued, addressing MEPs who questioned him on how the Portuguese presidency intends to act.

Matos Fernandes assumed that, even within the countries of the EU, "there are still divergent positions" on issues such as the "carbon budget", i.e. the emission limit that each country and the Union as a whole has to meet the target of carbon neutrality, defined by the European Commission as 2050, and limiting global warming.

"I can assure you that we will do our utmost to have climate law by the end of this semester, but do not put it as if it were just my own or the Council's," he said, stressing that a negotiation only goes well when each side defines well what it has to give, not just what it wants from the other side.

The minister hoped that Parliament "has also defined what it has to give in this process", with a view to passing a climate law by the end of the Portuguese presidency of the EU Council.

APN/AYLS // AYLS

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