rather than 2020 as proposed by the European Commission. EC previously agreed to
"stop the clock" on full implementation of its
controversial emissions trading system, which would have applied to all flights to, from and within the airspace of the European Economic Area (comprised of the 28 European Union member states, Norway and Iceland). Following
an agreement reached last year by the International Civil Aviation Organization to formalize a global aviation emissions framework in 2016 and enact that framework in 2020, EC
proposed to regulate in the interim only emissions from flights, or portions of flights, within EEA regional airspace. "Parliament could not accept the Council's wish to stop the clock until 2020," according to a statement from Peter Liese, a German member of Parliament representing the European People's Party. "We have the next ICAO assembly in 2016, and if it fails to deliver a global agreement, then nobody could justify our maintaining such an exemption for another four years." The new deal would need majority approval from European Parliament before advancing.