Policy recommendations

  • The European Union must ensure that its Energy Policy will not harm the food security of the urban and rural poor in developing countries, whose daily survival is threatened by substantially higher food prices. It should draw up a strategy to ensure the urban and rural poor are compensated for higher food prices before installing mandatory levels of biofuels;
  • The European Union should abolish its domestic subsidies and import tariffs for biofuels, in order to allow developing countries to profit from the trade opportunities biofuels offer;
  • The European Union should draw up comprehensive sustainability criteria for biofuels, including more ambitious standards for greenhouse-gas reduction a slight decrease of emissions as compared to fossil fuels is simply not enough and the protection of biodiversity and carbon-rich ecosystems;
  • The European Commission should include social criteria in its review of the Biofuels Directive to guarantee that the rural populations who live off marginal lands and forests are not hurt by expanding agricultural production;
  • The European Union should stimulate local processing and the use of sustainable biofuels in developing countries. Small-scale farmer cooperatives should be stimulated to prevent the benefits from biofuel production from only falling into the hands of large-plantation owners.

Case: Biofuels

24-02-2011 MEP Marisa Matias questions biofuels

Biofuels are on the agenda of many MEPs, luckily, because many questions are to be asked on the effects for developing countries. As one of the largest economies, the EU plays a key role in stimulating the use of alternatives to fossil fuel.  Biofuels were thought to combat the climate change due to CO2 reduction. The production of biofuels are thus highly subsidized and benefit from tax exemption. Fair Politics questions the coherence between the Renewables Directive promoting biofuel production on one hand and the development objectives by the EU on the other hand.

Currently, developing countries do not benefit from biofuel production at all. Various studies have claimed that due to current EU biofuel policies developing countries suffer from land grabbing, deforestation, land-use changes etc. All this resulting in less land availability for agricultural practices, thus lower food production, which in its turn leads to increased food prices also in Europe. All this is also mentioned by MEP Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL).

MEP Matias asks the Commission if it plans to review its policy on adding biofuels to fossil fuels up until and beyond 2020 even if known that biofuels are not so beneficial? Next to this MEP Matias asks what the Commission plans to do to guarantee inclusive, accessible and sustainable mibility for all citizens. MEP Matias's question to the Commission does not specifically mention the European Development policy or the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), but the the issues which she does point out, such as raising food prices, deforestation, soil degradation are all related to this. We would like to thank MEP Matias for asking this question and we would like to ask her to also look into the relation with the EUs Development objectives.

For raising this question Fair Politics recognizes MEP Matias as a fair politician and we therefore grant her a point in our monitoring system.

Monitor fair: GUE/NGL

Parliamentary questions
E-001125/2011
2 February 2011
WRITTEN QUESTION, by Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL)

Subject: Increase in price of diesel in Portugal owing to biofuel quota
The price of diesel went up by two cents today in most Portuguese petrol stations. This increase is a result of a European measure making it compulsory for diesel to contain 7% of biofuel. On Wednesday, the Portuguese Government presented a new formula for calculating the maximum price of biofuels after this type of fuel ceased to benefit from tax exemption. The Commission has decided that by 2020 the proportion of green fuels in diesel and petrol should be raised to 10%. An increase in the price of petrol is already to be expected by 2015 following the decision, due to enter into force then, to make it compulsory to add ethanol thereto, and this will come on top of other fuel price increases in the near future.
The world is now facing historic peaks in food prices, largely due to speculation on agricultural markets and the consequences of climate change, but also to the redirecting of foodstuffs and farmlands towards biofuel production. This indirect change in the use of land is continuing to have a huge impact in terms of deforestation and sterilisation of soils and the resulting release of CO2 which, in addition to the energy wastage caused by fuel production and transport, is undermining the energy gains afforded by this option.
Given the above, the Commission is asked to answer the following:
1. It is increasingly clear that biofuel prices are only kept competitive through substantial public aid and tax exemptions and that EU citizens are the ones who in effect have to foot the bill. On the basis simply of the information so far available, we know that this type of fuel has adverse effects on food security, and thereby on society, since it has an extremely harmful impact on the environment and a dubious carbon balance, to say the least. What does the Commission plan to review in its policy on adding biofuels to fossil fuels up until and beyond 2020?
2. The European Union has effective means of promoting the use of biofuels and fossil fuels. What measures will the Commission put forward to ensure that the EU guarantees inclusive, accessible and sustainable mobility for all citizens?