BRUSSELS, July 21 (Reuters) – European steelmakers said they started legal action on Thursday to overturn the way the sector has been included in the European Union’s carbon market.

Industry body Eurofer says the rules for the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) do not fairly set a benchmark that would allow the industry’s most efficient 10 percent of factories to get free pollution permits after 2013.

“Nowhere in the world is a steelworks that could operate its plants at the level of this benchmark,” Eurofer Director General Gordon Moffat said in a statement.

The European Commission, which oversees the ETS, could not be reached to comment on the challenge, launched at the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the EU.

The European Union aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. Its main tool for doing that is the ETS, which forces companies to acquire permits for each tonne of carbon they emit.

Some industries, including steel, have been given permits for free to prevent their costs rising above those of overseas rivals.

That has often translated into windfall profits worth tens of millions of euros for the companies involved, such as steel giant ArcelorMittal .

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s energy chief announced seven green certification schemes for biofuels on Tuesday and promised in future to tackle the unwanted side-effects of turning food into fuel.

Guenther Oettinger said biofuels’ indirect impacts were dangerous for the planet’s carbon balance and food supply.

“It is a real concern … particularly in the big producing countries, southeast Asia and in South America,” Oettinger told reporters. “This is an evolution which we cannot accept.”

The European Union agreed three years ago to get 10 percent of its road fuels from biofuels — at a time when such fuels were widely regarded as good for the environment — but since then controversy has raged in Europe over the target.

Oettinger took a first step toward limiting biofuels’ impact on the environment on Tuesday, launching a green standard to prevent companies from clearing forest, peatlands or grassland to grow biofuels for the European market.

The European biofuel market is expected to grow to about $17 billion a year and is being eyed by European farmers as well as growers of sugarcane in Brazil and palm oil in southeast Asia.

Oettinger named seven certification schemes, including Bonsucro and Greenenergy for Brazilian sugarcane, and the Round Table on Responsible Soy Association.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Radioactive waste from Europe’s 143 nuclear reactors must in future be buried in secure bunkers, ministers from EU member states agreed on Tuesday.

The new rules force national nuclear authorities to draw up disposal plans by 2015, which will be vetted by Europe’s energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger.

“After years of inaction, the EU for the very first time commits itself to a final disposal of nuclear waste,” Oettinger said in a statement.

The 14 European Union member states using nuclear power currently store the radioactive waste in surface bunkers or warehouses for decades while it cools down.

But crises such as Russia’s wildfires last summer and leakage at Japan’s stricken Fukushima plant have highlighted the risks posed by surface storage.

Nuclear energy has not been popular in Europe since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but it is even less so since Fukushima, and Germany has even agreed to phase out nuclear power completely by 2022.

DEEP STORAGE

LUXEMBOURG, July 5 (Reuters) – U.S. airlines stepped up their campaign against European Union climate policy on Tuesday, challenging the EU in its highest court over the right to regulate their greenhouse gas emissions.

The EU aims to lead the world in fighting climate change, and says it needs to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions to guard against future climate impacts such as crop failures, droughts or flooding.

From January 2012, airlines flying to or from Europe will have to buy permits from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for 15 percent of the carbon emissions they produce during the entire flight. They join 11,000 factories and power plants already in the scheme.

China criticised the scheme on Tuesday , adding to fears of a brewing trade war.

The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) mounted its challenge to the EU on two main fronts — that its climate regulations breached U.S. sovereignty, and secondly that they comprised an illegal charge under the main international treaty on air travel, the Chicago Convention.

“The EU does not have competence to regulate third country airlines in third country airspace,” Derrick Wyatt, a lawyer for ATA, told the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

“It is astonishing that a U.S. airline must acquire an EU licence to cover emissions at a U.S. airport.”

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Serbia and Kosovo agreed on Saturday to cooperate on several practical issues, taking their first step toward easing troubled relations and advancing toward European Union membership.

The EU-mediated talks target a tangle of problems crucial to Kosovo’s daily existence, which are a legacy of Serbia’s refusal to recognize its secession in 2008, but sidestep the question of Kosovo’s independence.

Under Saturday’s deal, the two sides will recognize national identification cards and education diplomas issues by each state, making travel easier and allowing for better access to jobs, particularly for Kosovars seeking employment in Serbia.

Belgrade has also agreed to share copies of Kosovo’s civil registry, crucial for the smooth operation of the judiciary and combating organized crime which is rife in the region.

“In particular the agreement on free movement is important,” EU mediator Robert Cooper said.

“An agreement on free movement in the Balkans in a material way not only helps ordinary people lead more normal lives, but makes it into a more European area.”

In return, Kosovo made concessions on the validity of its car registration plates, and any cars with newly issued plates will have to get a substitute at the Serbian border.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. airlines will step up their campaign against European Union climate policy next week, with a legal challenge at Europe’s highest court to their inclusion in the EU carbon market.

The EU aims to lead the world in fighting climate change, and says it needs to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions to guard against future climate impacts such as crop failures, droughts or flooding.

From January 2012, airlines flying to or from Europe will have to buy permits from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme for 15 percent of the carbon emissions they produce. They join 11,000 factories and power plants already in the scheme.

Airlines warn of a looming trade war, but the EU says it will not back down. The carriers say their emissions should only be tackled in United Nations bodies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The U.S. government demands an exemption. And on July 5, the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), American Airlines and United Continental will seek to overturn the EU scheme at Europe’s highest court.

EU officials say the international talks at ICAO have dragged on since 1997 without bearing fruit and they can wait no longer to start dealing with airlines’ emissions.

“We have been patient for many years,” EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard told Reuters. “Global solutions? I’m all for it. The EU has been fighting for global solutions for many years — unfortunately, without enough success.”

BRUSSELS, June 29 (Reuters) – European Union governments struck a provisional deal on Wednesday on preventing market abuse and insider trading in energy markets, negotiators said.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger proposed new rules in December to prevent market abuse in a wholesale market estimated to be worth around 500 billion euros ($708 billion) per year.

“As the EU internal energy market for electricity and gas is becoming more and more liberalised and interconnected, the potential for abuse and manipulation is also growing,” said a statement from EU government negotiators.

“The proposed regulation sets up a framework for monitoring wholesale energy markets in order to detect market abuse and manipulation, thereby ensuring the integrity and transparency of those markets,” it added.

A team of about 15 market monitors, based at the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) in Slovenia, will be handed extensive powers to collect market data and act on manipulative behaviour and insider trading.

The deal, which still needs approval by the European Parliament, forces energy traders and other market participants to sign up to national register and ACER’s European register.

Wednesday’s agreement also outlines the levels of fines for non-compliance, aimed to be “proportionate, dissuasive and effective”.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The fuel efficiency of European cars advanced last year, with exhaust carbon emissions falling 3.7 percent, provisional European Union data showed on Wednesday.

The EU, home to 500 million people, has set a target for cutting average emissions from new cars to 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2015.

Last year’s improvements bring the average emissions of new cars to 140 grams, putting the EU on track to overachieve on a target that was set in 2008 despite heavy lobbying from car makers in Germany, France and Italy.

In 2009, car emissions fell 5.1 percent.

“These data show again that setting targets… stimulates the car industry to put greener cars on the market,” said EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard. “These innovations also ensure Europe’s car industry remains competitive in the changing global market.”

The weight of cars rose by 28 kg in 2010, after falling in 2009, a trend that environmentalists blamed on increasing numbers of small sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

“That is no surprise,” said Arne Richters at transport campaigners T&E. “EU rules favor heavier cars by allowing them to emit more CO2. The EU should be favoring more efficient saloons, estates and hatchbacks rather than encouraging gas-guzzling, tall and heavy SUVs.”

BRUSSELS, June 29 (Reuters) – The fuel efficiency of European cars advanced last year, with exhaust carbon emissions falling 3.7 percent, provisional European Union data showed on Wednesday.

The EU, home to 500 million people, has set a target for cutting average emissions from new cars to 130 grams of CO2 per kilometre by 2015.

Last year’s improvements bring the average emissions of new cars to 140 grams, putting the EU on track to overachieve on a target that was set in 2008 despite heavy lobbying from car makers in Germany, France and Italy.

In 2009, car emissions fell 5.1 percent.

“These data show again that setting targets… stimulates the car industry to put greener cars on the market,” said EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard. “These innovations also ensure Europe’s car industry remains competitive in the changing global market.”

The weight of cars rose by 28 kg in 2010, after falling in 2009, a trend that environmentalists blamed on increasing numbers of small sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

“That is no surprise,” said Arne Richters at transport campaigners T&E. “EU rules favour heavier cars by allowing them to emit more CO2. The EU should be favouring more efficient saloons, estates and hatchbacks rather than encouraging gas-guzzling, tall and heavy SUVs.”

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russia and six other neighbors of the European Union agreed to follow the EU’s lead by imposing new safety checks on their nuclear power stations, the EU’s executive said Thursday.

“Following the ongoing re-assessment of nuclear plants in the EU, several neighboring countries will perform similar stress tests,” the European Commission said in a statement.

“Armenia, Croatia, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Belarus, agreed today that they will reassess their existing and planned nuclear power plants, using the stress tests developed by the EU as a reference,” it added.

Last month, European nuclear watchdogs agreed details of new safety checks on the region’s 143 reactors.

By June 1, regulators will have to start checking power plants’ resilience to earthquakes and tsunamis to avert any crisis like that at Japan’s stricken Fukushima plant, but terrorist scenarios will be left out.

The tests, which followed two months of dispute, also address the ability of reactors to withstand more common threats such as forest fires, transport accidents and the loss of electrical power supplies.

Thursday’s agreement with Europe’s six neighbors also includes a peer review, meaning that each national safety assessment will be checked by other countries’ experts, the Commission said.