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Lawmakers submitted 115 amendments to the legislature’s industry committee, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. The carbon fix, proposed by the European Commission in January this year, would impose automatic supply controls in the EU emissions trading system, where a glut of permits swelled to a record, pushing prices down nearly 80 percent over the past six and a half years.

The changes sought by members of the EU Parliament focus on the starting date of the supply checks, which the commission wanted to introduce from 2021, on thresholds that would trigger injection or withdrawal of permits and on tools to protect the industry from relocating to regions without emission curbs. Amendments were proposed by members of both the industry committee, which as an advisory role in the legislative process, and the environment committee, which leads the parliamentary work on the measure.

The price of EU permits for delivery in December fell 0.3 percent to 7.07 euros a metric ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange as of 9:08 a.m. in London.

The European People’s Party, the biggest political group in the EU legislature, is split on when the market stability reserve should begin and what its parameters should be, according to the document. Antonio Tajani, Italian member of the EPP who oversees the measure in the industry committee, proposed in a draft report earlier this month precise safeguards to prevent a negative impact of the fix on industry.

Automatic Release

Tajani and 18 other regular and substitute members of the industry committee, known as ITRE, proposed the threshold that would trigger an automatic release of permits from the reserve be increased to 500 million allowances in circulation from 400 million sought by the commission. The lawmakers, including ITRE Chairman Jerzy Buzek of Poland, also favor a smaller portion of allowances to be transferred into the reserve from 2021.

Four other EPP members from the industry and environment committees, including Germany’s Peter Liese and Karl-Heinz Florenz, opted for bringing the market overhaul forward to 2017. An early start was also proposed by lawmakers Fredrick Federley, Morten Helveg Petersen and Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, by Peter Eriksson of the Greens and some members of the Socialists and Democrats, the second-biggest group in the EU Parliament.

‘Significant Impact’

“To ensure the market stability reserve has a quick and significant impact on the European Emission Trading System, it should be established as of 2017,” S&D members Theresa Griffin and Kathleen Van Brempt said in one of their amendments. “Without early introduction, projections show that the amount of surplus allowances would not fall below the current levels until 2025.”

An early start of the reserve is also urged by a group of EU member states led by Germany and the U.K.

The European Conservatives and Reformists, the third- largest group in the EU legislature, proposed delaying the market overhaul to 2023. Two non-attached Italian lawmakers submitted an amendment to reject the measure.

Some parliamentarians also called for tackling allowances from the so-called backloading measure, which delayed sales of 900 million permits in 2014-2016 to 2019-2020. While the commission proposal would dilute the impact of returning allowances in 2020, some lawmakers prefer to transfer all the 900 million permits directly into the planned reserve, a solution also advocated by environment committee member Ivo Belet, who oversees the carbon fix in the Parliament.

Direct Transfer

Amendments to that effect were proposed by EPP’s Esther de Lange, S&D’s Miroslav Poche and ALDE’s Federlay, Petersen and Gerbrandy. Five Italian lawmakers of the Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy group, who favor the start of the carbon fix as soon as in July 2016, also back direct transfer of backloaded allowances to the market stability reserve, or MSR.

Socialists’ Griffin proposed cancellation of the backloaded permits to curb price fluctuations in the future.

Lawmakers also seek to limit the impact of the carbon market fix on the industry as Europe grapples with weak economic growth and high energy prices.

Within six months of entry into force of the market stability reserve, the European Commission should present post-2020 rules on free permit allocation and tools to protect companies from relocating to regions without emission curbs, proposed 23 EPP members. The law should better reflect changing production levels and encourage “the most efficient performance taking into account direct and indirect carbon costs,” according to their amendment.

Draft Measure

The draft measure needs qualified majority support from national governments and majority support from the European Parliament to be approved or amended. The industry committee will vote on its opinion on Jan. 21 and the environment committee is scheduled to adopt a report on Feb. 24.

The position of the environment committee may be the basis for negotiations of the final version of the overhaul with national governments in the process known as trilogue. The market stability law will then need to be formally approved by EU ministers and the Parliament’s plenary.