UPDATE 2-Hungary to take CO2 cuts to European court

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By Andras Gergely

BUDAPEST, June 7 (Reuters) - Hungary will go to the European Court of Justice to fight the European Commission's cut to its carbon dioxide emissions plan for 2008-2012, the Environment Ministry said on Thursday.

The Commission in April set Hungary's cap at 26.9 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas annually, a 12.4 percent reduction from the limit that the country had itself proposed.

Budapest, concerned that the tighter limits could harm its economic growth, said then that it might fight the decision in court. It joins three other eastern European countries that have decided to challenge their caps.

The ministry said the Commission, the European Union executive, had exceeded its authority and used the wrong calculation methods when it told Hungary to slash its planned emissions.

"(The procedure) was not transparent and there was not sufficient consultation," Head of Department Csaba Nemes told Reuters.

Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have also said they would sue the Commission over carbon dioxide (C02) limits, while Brussels has said it is confident of winning the Czech and Polish cases.

The court can take years to decide on the matter and Hungary will produce a revised allocation plan by late July based on the Commission's demands.

"That's the rule. The decreased quota allocation plan must be prepared," Nemes said.

Hungary, which was on track to meeting its emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto protocol on climate change even with the originally proposed emissions cap, will decide whether to cut emissions equally across all sectors, he said.