Home Grace O'SULLIVAN

I was proud to join my Greens/EFA colleagues in co-signing and supporting this resolution to declare the EU as an LGBTIQ Freedom Zone. This resolution confirms our commitment to fight for the safety, empowerment and equal rights of the LGBTIQ community in all Member States. That means protection from injustice and ensuring equal access to services and opportunities. The EU should be a welcoming place for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. With this resolution we call on the Commission and Member States to do more to fight discrimination and harassment of the LGBTIQ community.

A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would apply a similar carbon price to both EU production and imports, a necessary step to tackle GHG emissions embedded in international trade. The Greens/EFA worked with all the political groups to define the principles on which such a carbon levy should be built. In the ENVI Committee, all major political groups supported the phasing out of the current free allocation of emissions allowances for polluting industries under the Emissions Trading Scheme in parallel with the introduction of a CBAM. Disappointingly, these groups did not keep the same position for the final vote in plenary and so there is no clear call in this report for the crucially important phasing out of free allowances. Instead, a slim majority of the Parliament voted to weaken the environmental integrity and WTO compatibility of a CBAM, two criteria which are necessary for its existence and proper functioning. For this reason, I abstained on this report along with my Greens/EFA colleagues. While we support the introduction of a CBAM, it must be done in such a way that results in real incentives for industry to decarbonise. This report does not do that.