González Álvarez (GUE/NGL). – (ES) Mr President, as our colleague, Mr Seppänen, said, our group is no supporter of the trade in emissions allowances, because we believe it may contribute to the imbalance between rich and poor countries, but we Members on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy do support Mr Moreira da Silva’s proposal, because it tries to establish stricter controls on this trade, restoring some of the amendments from first reading, which we believe to be important.

Despite this lack of enthusiasm, I hope that the rapporteur is right when he says that this trade will correct the situation of non-compliance on the part of the majority of Member States – my own country is perhaps one of the worst offenders – and contribute to teaching European companies in preparation for 2008 when the international trade comes into effect, and, most importantly of all, may convince the United States to comply with the Kyoto Protocol.

We agree with the rapporteur on the need to include the six greenhouse gases, although the common position only establishes that, as of 2008, the Member States will be able to request their unilateral inclusion in the allowance trading system. We believe it to be important that projects which relate to the mechanism for clean development and joint application should not be a replacement for prioritising emissions reductions, which must be achieved within the European Union.

In any event, the common position includes certain proposals from the European Parliament which we believe to be very important, such as, for example, the demand for greater transparency in the registers, in relation to the ownership of transfer and the cancellation of allowances, the obligation to publish the names of non-compliant operators and penalties imposed for non-compliance, which are now fixed.