BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - European parliamentarians on Thursday approved EU plans to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent but called for stricter limits to be set on the controversial use of biofuels.

"We have put a stop to this first generation biofuels craziness," argued parliamentary rapporteur Claude Turmes, a Green MEP who would like to see their use stopped altogether.

The vote within a parliamentary committee is preliminary but sets the tone for all 785 MEPs to tackle the matter.

The 27 EU nations have agreed an overall target of finding 20 percent of its energy resources through renewable sources by 2020 for use in transport, electricity, heating and air-conditioning.

However the 10 percent renewables target for cars has come in for criticism in recent months, with detractors arguing that first-generation biofuels, such as ethanol, require the growing of colza and other crops for the purpose, thus exacerbating deforestation and food security problems.

The European deputies backed the overall goal but suggested that at least 40 percent of the renewable fuels used in cars by 2020 should be provided by electricity or hydrogen derived from renewable sources and "second-generation" biofuels, which would largely be sourced from waste vegetation or algae.

At the moment around three percent of the fuel consumed in Europe is via biofuels.

The biofuels industry argues that the second-generation technologies are still a long way off. They have also said that electricity used to fuel electric cars could come from environmentally unfriendly coal-based power stations.

A call by the euro-deputies for an analysis of the European Union's energy goals could also act as a dampener for investors, a European Commission official told the parliament's influential industry committee.

The committee members also voted in favour of a system of penalties against EU countries that do not fulfil their national targets on climate change, a measure unlikely to find favour in European capitals, which are involved in the negotiations for the green energy measures.

Adrian Bebb, Agrofuels Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe, said the EU parliament vote recognised "the serious problems associated with the large scale use of biofuels.

"Using crops to feed cars is a false solution to our climate problems and could lead to irreversible loss of wildlife and misery for millions of people in the South," he added.