MEPs are expected to put renewed pressure on the European Commission to come up with EU fuel quality labelling rules that apply to oil derived from tar sands.

The European Parliament’s international trade committee is expected to raise concerns about tar sands in a report on EU-Canada trade relations to be approved on Wednesday (13 April).

Although at present almost no oil from tar sands (oil derived from bitumen, largely produced in the Canadian province of Alberta) comes into the EU, the fuel has become a divisive issue for EU regulators.

A draft of the report says that the Parliament is concerned “about the impact of the extraction of tar sands on the global environment” because of the high level of carbon dioxide emissions released and the threat posed to local biodiversity.

The Commission, notably Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, is being blamed by MEPs for prevaricating on the inclusion of environmental rules in the EU’s fuel quality directive. These rules could label products derived from tar sands as more polluting than conventional fossil fuels.

Trade concerns

Commission trade officials said they are worried that such labelling would result in legal challenges at the World Trade Organization and could affect talks on liberalising trade between the EU and Canada.

A study produced for the Commission, which was leaked in February, said that oil from tar sands creates more greenhouse-gas emissions than that from conventional fossil fuels.

Catherine Bearder, a UK Liberal MEP, said the trade negotiations should “in no way affect the EU’s right to legislate as it sees fit in the fuel quality directive”.

Parliament officials said all groups were working on a compromise text that would relay this concern to the Commission and the Canadian government.

Officials from the Green group said the committee and the Commission had faced heavy lobbying over the draft report from Canadian officials seeking to water down calls for the fuel quality directive to include a polluting value for tar sands.

Canadian officials said the issue should not be linked to the trade talks.

Caitlin Workman, a spokeswoman for Canada’s department of foreign affairs and international trade in Ottawa, said products derived from tar sands “should be treated on the same basis as other crude oil sources”.

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