F-gas revision hangs in the balance

June 19, 2023

An agreement on the F-gas regulation (517/2014) revision proposals hang in the balance after it was revealed that a third trilogue meeting will be required next month.

After the Cooling Post announced that a decision on the new proposals was unlikely this month, an extraordinary meeting of the EU’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) in Strasbourg, today, was due to receive an update on the trilogue proceedings.

Instead, chair Pascal Canfin told attendees that, while a second trilogue meeting had been held in “the last few days”, a third meeting would be required on July 19. “We hope it will be the final one,” he said.

The trilogues are informal negotiations between European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, who each have their own revision proposals. The aim of a trilogue is to reach a provisional agreement that is acceptable to both the EU Parliament and the Council, the co-legislators. The Commission’s role is to mediate between the parties. Any provisional agreement must then be adopted by each of the institutions’ formal procedures.

With the EU Parliament due to shut down in August, it is unlikely that any agreement could be put before parliament until September – close to the generally accepted deadline if the new regulation is to enter into force on 1 January 2024.

Certainly, the July 19 meeting will be the last chance to reach an agreement before the summer break. And it is generally accepted that it will require three months between agreement and implementation.

Industry says it needs an agreement in order to be able to plan ahead with certainty but fears a badly constructed and worded piece of legislation would be worse.

“The rules at the moment are so confusing, they lack clarity and granularity” said Russell Patten, director general of the European refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump industry group EPEE. “It’s a real mess and very complex.”