EU Member States should be given more flexibility to meet climate targets - Silina

RIGA - When setting the EU's next climate targets, Member States should be given more flexibility to achieve them, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) told members of the press on Thursday ahead of the European Council meeting in Brussels.

"I hope that in the area of climate change we will not make the mistakes, if I may say so, that we made when setting the 2030 targets. We need more flexibility and to see the reality of how we can achieve these targets," said Silina.

She stressed that targets are good, but we need to decide how to achieve them and if it is too expensive for residents, then EU Member States should be given some flexibility to decide how to achieve them.

As reported, on July 2 the European Commission published a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the EU by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990. The Latvian government decided at a meeting on July 8 not to support this proposal until it was clear how Latvia would be affected by such an overall target set for EU Member States.