France says EU may need to reconsider biofuel goal

A car drives behind a biodiesel fuel filled petrol can during a Greenpeace environmental activists protest in front of the federal environmental ministry in Berlin April 7, 2008.

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union may have to reconsider its target of getting 10 percent of transport fuel from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020, or extend the deadline, incoming EU president France said on Monday.

Biofuel use is soaring as developed countries try to curb dependence on imported oil and cut emissions of carbon dioxide, but critics say the industry has encouraged deforestation and pushed up food prices by competing for grain.

The EU's target, which is intended to spur investment, has been a particular focus of criticism.

"On biofuels, we do not rule out in the long-run reconsidering the target, but that's not the issue now," French secretary of state for ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet told visiting EU reporters.

She said the EU approach of setting a quota target was "probably a mistake", and it would be better to set strict environmental and social criteria for biofuels and then see what level of use was viable.

Those criteria would have to include measures to ensure biofuels do not displace food-producing crops, she said.

"Probably we will be obliged to call into question or postpone the 10 percent objective," said Kosciusko-Morizet.

Earlier this month, Italy became the first EU member to publicly call for a review of the target. Britain has also raised concerns, and this week its government will receive a long-awaited report on the impact of its targets for biofuels.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has said the EU target must be conditional on rigorously applied sustainability criteria.

Efforts towards a sustainable market for biofuels are being closely watched by producers such as Brazil, which hope the EU's huge market will create the critical mass to bring biofuels into the global mainstream.

(Reporting by Paul Taylor, writing by Pete Harrison)