Federmacchine in the field to defend the Made in EU clause

"The government authorities,' explains Federmacchine president Bruno Bettelli, 'had assured us that the incentive would be available as early as the beginning of 2026. Unfortunately, however, we are once again witnessing a lengthening of the timeframe that risks demotivating the market, exactly as has happened in the past'.

The reference is to the lacklustre experience of Transition 5.0, first announced at the end of 2023, operational with the Gse platform only from August-September 2024, then updated with the next Budget Law in the light of the many difficulties encountered by companies, reflected in the measure's poor draught, which only began to take off in the spring of 2025. A regulatory stop, the current one, which once again freezes customers' orders: those who can wait obviously do so, taking into account the tax breaks coming but not yet defined.

'In the absence of certain rules,' adds Bettelli, 'demand remains at a standstill while we wait to know the modalities and technicalities of this hyper-amortisation that should spur the Italia market to invest and, instead, paradoxically, under these conditions, acts as a brake, further complicating the situation on which international geopolitical instability already weighs heavily.

Geopolitical uncertainty has already been reflected in the export slowdown for several categories of manufacturers. In the machine tools sector, for example, the first nine months of 2025 saw a double-digit drop in foreign sales, just as foreign orders in the October-December period were down. Overall, the entire Federmacchine perimeter closes 2025 in the red by two points, precisely because of a 5.4% drop in exports. If exports are not pulling, manufacturers are now betting on domestic demand, on which, however, the cold shower of the non-EU incentive arrives.

The current picture (2025 figures) sees the import of capital goods at 10 billion against a domestic demand of 27, thus with an overall share of 37%. Which, of course, domestic manufacturers would not like to see rise too much. If in general EU competition, first and foremost from Germany, operates under similar conditions, the concerns relate in particular to Asian production, which is beginning to spread to more categories of goods and where prices are on average lower.

"The elimination of the 'Made in the EU' clause," continues Bettelli, "a clause that was correctly envisaged to protect and promote European production, feared by the Deputy Minister for the Economy, Maurizio Leo, has generated further discomfort and perplexity among Italian manufacturers. The limitation of the hyper-amortisation to goods produced in the EU only, is in fact a sign and instrument of attention and safeguard for our production. We also ask the government authorities, together with the European authorities, to continue to ensure that non-EU machinery installed in our territory respects the safety standards and certifications to which our products are subject. Now more than ever, decisive action is needed to show how much the entire political economic system of the country believes in the importance of its manufacturing and European manufacturing