On December 11^th, 2019, Environmental NGOs from the U.S. and Europe lodged appeals against the 4^th PCI list approved by the European Commission  via the formal Internal Review Process following shocking admissions by DG Energy that it deliberately turned a blind eye to the climate impacts of all Gas projects of common interest. The move brings into questions the legality of the special status given to the entire list of Gas projects of common interest, known as the PCI list.

The appeal was lodged following the shock written admission 5 days earlier by the Director General of DG Energy herself - Mrs Ditte Juul-Jorgensen – that  the Commission breached the EU  PCI Regulation by not evaluating climate impacts when assessing all the proposed gas PCI projects. This list includes the controversial Shannon LNG project being proposed for the large-scale importation of US fracked gas into Europe.  The Trans-Atlantic group of NGOs’ appeal raised the accusation that Trade Considerations for the importation of US fracked gas, as agreed by Presidents Trump and Juncker in July 2018, are dominating over Climate in the European Commission institutional mindset, forcing European Commission staff to illegally turn a blind eye to the disastrous Climate impacts of filthy fracked gas imports and blatantly commit discriminatory breaches of EU Regulations in the process.

 By law, the potential overall benefits of each proposed project of common interest must outweigh its costs and the criteria to make this assessment must include the Sustainability Criteria, which means reducing Emissions and Climate Impacts.  

The Director General claimed that the breach of EU Regulations will be fixed for future PCI lists but did not offer to do any climate impact assessment of the currently proposed PCI list it approved, and which is currently before the European Parliament, rendering the entire PCI list legally unsafe due to a serious discriminatory breach of the PCI Regulation by DG Energy.

The Climate activists were reacting to the latest peer-reviewed research which notes that Methane is a greenhouse gas 100 times more powerful than carbon-dioxide over a 10 year period and that shale gas development in North America is the single largest driver of this increase in methane, accounting for one-third of the increase in global emissions from all sources.

The appeal comes on the very day that President Ursula Von der Leyen announced the adoption of the European Green Deal. How the Commission deals with the carbon leakage and non-territorial emissions of US fracked gas imports into Europe on a massive scale which leave a carbon footprint 44% greater than that of coal will quickly reveal whether the European Green Deal is to signal real actions or just aspirations.

The Deputy-Director General  of DG Energy Klaus-Dieter Borchardt had already admitted breaches by DG Energy of the PCI Regulation  to the ITRE Committee on October 17^th, 2019 in not assessing the climate impacts of the gas projects on the 4^th PCI list, but he said that this assessment would be undertaken for “future projects”.