Considerations on COM(2020)320 - Amendment of Decision 2008/376/EC on adoption of the Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal & Steel and on the multiannual technical guidelines for this programme

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dossier COM(2020)320 - Amendment of Decision 2008/376/EC on adoption of the Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal & Steel and on the ...
document COM(2020)320 EN
date June 28, 2021
 
table>(1)On 5 October 2016 the Union ratified the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (hereinafter ‘the Paris Agreement’). The Paris Agreement invites parties who have ratified it to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change with a view to limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 °C.
(2)In line with the Paris Agreement, on 11 December 2019 the Commission published a communication to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the European Green Deal, committing to tackle climate and environmental-related challenges and to transform the Union into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. The communication on the European Green Deal, which sets out a new growth strategy, refers to the need to support clean steel breakthrough technologies leading to a zero-carbon steelmaking process by 2030 and to explore whether part of the funding liquidated under the European Coal and Steel Community can be used. The communication also states that all Union actions and policies should pull together to help the Union achieve a successful and just transition towards a sustainable future. In line with the ‘do no harm’ principle referred to in the communication, the objectives of the Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel are being revised, so as to no longer cover activities that perpetuate the extraction, processing and unabated use of coal.

(3)The Union has been pursuing an ambitious policy on climate action and has put in place a regulatory framework to achieve its 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target. In particular, Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) sets out the legislative foundation for reliable, inclusive, cost-efficient, transparent and predictable governance of the Energy Union and climate action which ensures the achievement of the 2030 and long-term objectives and targets of the Energy Union in line with the Paris Agreement.

(4)In its communication to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan and the European Green Deal Investment Plan, the Commission announced its intention to propose a revision of Council Decision 2008/376/EC (3) with the aim of enabling the funding of large clean steelmaking R&I breakthrough projects as well as research activities in the coal sector in line with the principles of the Just Transition Mechanism.

(5)In addition, the report on the monitoring and assessment of the Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (‘the Research Programme’) recommends to amend the research objectives for coal and steel set out in Chapter II, Sections 3 and 4, of Decision 2008/376/EC and to support breakthrough research in the steel sector as well as emblematic projects in the coal sector.

(6)It is necessary therefore to align the objectives of the Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel with international agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, as well as with the scientific, technological and political objectives of the Union on climate neutrality by 2050.

(7)Co-programmed partnerships have been shown to be effective in pooling resources for a common European research objective. In order to help to reach a climate-neutral economy by 2050, it is necessary to set out the possibility of providing support via co-programmed European partnerships, in synergy and sequencing with other programmes. A European partnership could be an ideal instrument for pooling resources to support research on breakthrough technologies for the reduction of CO2 emissions in the steel industrial sector.

(8)Decision 2008/376/EC should therefore be amended accordingly,