The Permanent Representatives Committee endorsed today (7.3.2014) the agreement reached between the Presidency of the Council and representatives of the European Parliament on 4 March, regarding a draft regulation amending the EU Emissions trading scheme (ETS) directive (2003/87/EC), in view of the implementation by 2020 of an international agreement applying a single global market-based measure to international aviation emissions.

"This issue was a top priority for the Greek Presidency, I am very happy that we could successfully agree on it today" said the president of the Council, Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Yannis Maniatis.

The new regulation stipulates that the EU ETS directive will apply within the European Economic Area (EEA) until 2016. A review is to take place immediately after the ICAO Assembly in 2016, in order to assess the ICAO's outcome and permit the EU's response to it.

The agreement still needs to be formally adopted by the Parliament, whose vote in plenary is expected to take place on 3 April 2014, and by the Council, which is due to take its decision after the vote in Parliament.