Member states are teaming up with MEPs in pressuring the Commission to include binding sustainability criteria in a revision of EU-wide specifications for transport fuels.  Representatives of EU governments agreed on 22 February that biofuel sustainability standards should be included in a revised version of the EU's 1998 Fuel Quality Directive , which relates to the use of petrol, diesel and gas oil in cars, trucks, barges, tractor locomotives and machinery (EurActiv 01/02/07).
A key aim of the proposed review is to get fuel suppliers to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by their fuels throughout their life-cycle (i.e. production, transport and use) by 10% between 2011 and 2020, either by enhancing supply efficiency or increasing the proportion of biofuel they include in their fuels. 
The plans have been welcomed by Parliament and member states, but both want the Commission to introduce binding "sustainability criteria" in the directive. They say this is necessary to avoid a situation whereby fuel makers focus purely on cutting CO2 at the lowest possible cost, without any consideration of other potentially negative environmental side-effects – notably those linked to the mass production of biofuels made from agricultural crops, including deforestation, food price hikes and water shortages. 
The Commission, however, insists that such criteria are already being proposed in a separate directive on renewables, presented on 23 January, which asks that 10% of all transport fuel consumption in the EU be covered by biofuels by 2020. Under the draft law, the EU executive is proposing that biofuels failing to deliver life-cycle CO2 savings of at least 35% compared to fossil fuels - as well as biofuels planted in protected areas, "highly biodiverse" grasslands, forests and wetlands - should not count towards the 10% target. 
But MEPs and member states argue that those criteria are unlikely to be in place sufficiently early to prevent fuel makers from investing in cheap but dirty biofuels. They want the standards included in both directives – a source of unease for the Commission as it could highlight internal tensions between its energy and environment departments, in charge of the renewables and fuel quality directives respectively. 
"This directive will provide a massive incentive for biofuels. But because the Commission has not yet put its own sustainability criteria on the table, the European Parliament has no other choice than to give its own guidelines," Dutch Socialist MEP Dorette Corbey, Parliament's rapporteur on the issue, told EurActiv. 
Whatever happens, the definition of sustainability criteria is likely to be highly controversial, as MEPs are already pushing for stricter terms than those put forward by the Commission's Directorate-General for Energy. In a Parliament environment committee vote in November, they notably called for biofuels counting towards the 10% target to deliver life-cycle CO2 savings of at least 50% compared to conventional fuels – rather than the 35% cut the Commission is proposing. 
Member-state representatives have decided to set up a working group in charge of drafting "core sustainability criteria" for biofuels, to be included in both directives. The group is expected to put forward recommendations in June.