Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP MEPs this week threatened thousands of Welsh jobs at Airbus and elsewhere by voting to continue forcing non-European airlines to pay an emissions levy whenever they fly to or from the EU, Dr Kay Swinburne, Welsh Conservative MEP, has warned.
The European Parliament’s environment committee was voting on plans to continue exempting non-European airlines from its Emissions Trading Scheme (named the ‘Stop the Clock proposal). However, an alliance of Labour and Liberal Democrat MEPs was able to reject the plan, and voted in favour of charging US, Indian and Chinese airlines a levy for every flight.
Airbus’s site in Broughton, Flintshire is responsible for assembling the wings for all Airbus civil aircraft, including the new A350 XWB. Producing over 1,000 wings a year, it employs more than 6,000 people, in manufacturing, engineering and support functions such as procurement and finance.
The main trading partners of the EU have all threatened retaliatory measures, with the US Congress already passing a resolution condemning the scheme. However, the Chinese government is likely to respond most harshly to the levy. It had been planning to unfreeze an order of 27 Airbus A330 aircraft that was put on hold due to the prospect of the charges, and it had originally been planning to confirm an order for a further 150 Airbus jets at the end of this month.
Yesterday’s vote in the committee was extremely tight, with 29 MEPs voting in favour of the proposal and 29 against – meaning it fell. Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies defied a call from Nick Clegg yesterday evening and even brought along two other Liberal Democrat MEPs not on the committee – Bill Newton Dunn and Andrew Duff – to swing the vote. Labour MEP Linda McAvan also voted to reject the plans and apply the levy to the airlines. UKIP MEP on the committee Paul Nuttall did not show up, even though he would have been able to swing the vote in favour of British business.
Martin Callanan MEP, Conservative environment spokesman in the European Parliament, said:
“Europe’s major trading allies will react extremely badly to this vote. We are risking a trade war with China that will cost British jobs, just for the sake of a couple of Euros per flight.
Until we can find an international agreement on airline emissions we should not be risking retaliation from major economic partners for the sake of ideology. Labour and the LibDems have actively put British jobs at risk and UKIP has not bothered to show up and defend them.”
Upon learning of the result of the vote, Dr Swinburne MEP commented:
“The result of this committee vote is incredibly disappointing. For Labour and Liberal Democrat MEPs to seek to end the Emissions Trading Scheme exemption for non-European airlines defies common sense, and potentially puts the 6,000 jobs at Airbus’s wing assembly manufacturing plant in Broughton at risk.
“Labour and Liberal Democrat MEPs appear tied-at-the-foot with a hard-lined green lobby, detached from the reality of the serious implications of this vote on jobs in Wales, and the United Kingdom as a whole.
I shall continue to fight with my Conservative colleagues in the European Parliament to protect high-skilled Welsh jobs like these. This is my priority as MEP for Wales”
