Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

We are being very precise in supporting the European Commission's proposals that sustainability monitoring be put in place on any bio-fuels bought or sold in the European Union. It is correct that under World Trade Organisation rules we cannot differentiate between bio-fuels from one country or another and we do not have full traceability in place to examine the origin of the supply. It is right for the European Commission to insist that we develop this system. We are far more effective in adopting such a system as part of the European Union than developing it ourselves. It is much more effective to do it as part of the Commission proposals.

The second point is that we develop bio-fuels which have a genuine emissions reduction because there is a question over certain bio-fuels where the extent of energy put into the product exceeds that which is taken out of it. Those two key developments in bio-fuel policy in the European Commission is something we support within the agreement that must be reached on the overall EU Commission policy by the end of this year.

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