(Finance) – Keep Europe competitive in key production sectors, support the path of energy-intensive industries towards the green transition, achieve the continent’s strategic autonomy and stop the relocation of industries. With these objectives, Italy, with Austria, Bulgaria and Poland, presented the non-paper relating to the European institutions review of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which provides for the taxation of imports from non-EU countries with less stringent climate regulations, calculated based on the quantity of CO2 incorporated or emitted for the production of the goods.
The document, promoted by the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, in agreement with the Minister of Environment and Energy, Gilberto Pichettoproposes to the European Commission to bring forward the revision clauses already foreseen to 2025, in order to improve the CBAM before its full entry into force in 2026. The CBAM, in fact, established on 1 October 2023 by Regulation (EU) 2023 /956, is currently in a “transitional” phase which will end on 31 December 2025.
There proposed revision is among the initiatives that MIMIT has undertaken to reaffirm the need for a holistic and pragmatic Competitiveness Deal at European level. These include the Italian-Czech non-paper on the automotive sector, signed by seven member states and supported by a further eight: fifteen countries that have expressed themselves in favor of re-examining the methods that will lead to a stop to internal combustion engines in 2035.
“The revision of the CBAM is necessary to avoid compromising the competitiveness of European industry and protecting jobs. This time too, as for non-paper auto, Italy is at the forefront – he declared Ursus –. It is necessary to ensure that the decarbonisation of highly energy-intensive sectors particularly exposed to international trade, such as steel, chemicals, aluminum and cement, is sustainable from a production point of view to compete on equal terms with non-EU countries, also in order to counteract delocalisation”.
Specifically, the document intervenes in four areas. First of all, it aims to simplify and reduce administrative burdens for businesses. He then wants to strengthen measures to combat the risks of carbon leakage and dumping practices that could damage European industry and encourage the relocation of strategic production. Third, aim not to extend the CBAM rules to indirect emissions if their inclusion would lead to an increase in the cost of decarbonised electricity compared to that produced from fossil fuels. The proposal also has among its objectives that of protecting European exporters by introducing mechanisms that ensure equal conditions with reference to the price of CO2 emissions on foreign markets in which there is no emissions taxation system comparable to the European ETS.
Finally, as reported in Draghi Report on Competitiveness, the non-paper takes into account the postponement of the phase out, or the gradual elimination of free ETS allowances for energy-intensive industries, should the review confirm the doubts and risks of an effective implementation of the CBAM. Among the sectors most penalized by this latest measure provided for in the EU mechanism is the steel industry, which benefits from free emission quotas, which however will be gradually eliminated starting from 2026, with the entry into force of the Regulation.
The revision proposed by the government – explains Mimit – is, in fact, part of the national strategy to protect and relaunch the development of the four steelmaking centers in the area: Taranto, Terni, Piombino and Acciaierie del Nord. Italy today – we read in the ministry’s note – represents a virtuous case in Europe, producing 85% of national steel production with electrofurnaces, using recycled scrap compared to a European average well below 50%.