LEAK: Hungary’s agenda for the Environment, Energy and Transport Council meetings

Euractiv has seen the Hungarian EU presidency’s detailed plans for the Environment, Energy and Transport Council meetings in the second half of 2024, which outline when Budapest plans to advance individual existing legislative proposals, agree a COP29 position, and present its plans for geothermal energy.

The leaked Hungarian document sets out draft agendas for each formal meeting of environmental, energy, and transport ministers between now and the end of 2024.

The agendas reflect the Hungarian’s priorities, as reported by Euractiv on 14 June, but provides precision on how Budapest hopes to progress individual files, and the timings for this work.

Environment Council

“In addition to advancing and concluding ongoing negotiations, the Hungarian presidency also intends to play a role in defining the European environmental and climate policy objectives for the next legislative cycle,” the Hungary’s presidency programme states.

Two Councils meetings are planned.

The first will be held in Luxembourg on 14 October and will focus on international negotiations.

The presidency will seek agreement on European negotiating positions ahead of the COP29 climate talks, which will be held from 11 to 22 November in Azerbaijan, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Colombia, from 21 October to 1 November.

For the later, the Hungarian presidency intends to do “everything in its power” to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Hungary would also like to see an exchange of views among the EU countries ahead of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an International Legally Binding Instrument on Plastic Pollution (INC-5), set to take place in Busan, South Korea, from 25 November to 1 December.

Finally, Budapest plans a discussion on the implementation of the EU’s chemicals strategy.

The second Environment Council will take place in Brussels on 17 December, where ministers will aim to reach a general approach on the regulation on the prevention of plastic granulate losses. They also plan to discuss progress on the regulation on circularity requirements for vehicle design and end-of-life vehicle management.

On non-legislative activities, an exchange of views is planned on Europe’s yet-to-be-decided 2040 climate target, and on the reports from the various international climate meetings.

As well as the previously mentioned climate and environment summits, this would include the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Combating Desertification, and the Meeting of the Parties of the Water Convention.

Energy Council

Two Energy Councils are also planned.

While the 15 October meeting does not yet have a detailed agenda, the one on 16 December will include an exchange of views on countries’ national energy and climate plans, and on the future of energy policy and the governance of the Energy Union.

The conclusions on promoting the deployment of geothermal energy will be submitted for approval on the same day.

Transport Council

The Transport Council will meet on 5 December for a policy debate on the regulation on air passenger rights, and with the aim of agreeing a general approach on the combined transport directive, the regulation on passenger rights during multimodal travel, and the directive on driving disqualifications

The Hungarians have also listed several current legislative proposals under ‘Any Other Business’ but have not specified how they expect to progress the files during the 5 December meeting.

These files are: the regulation on accounting of transport greenhouse gas emissions; the directive on driving licences; the regulation on rail capacity; the directive on harmonised river information services and the regulation for the European Maritime Safety Agency.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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