Meloni to EU: energy costs top priority. Urso: suspend Ets pending review

 "If Europe wants to count in a rapidly changing global context, it must strengthen its internal market, reduce administrative burdens, accelerate regulatory simplification. From this point of view, there is no more time to lose, starting with a priority that we consider absolute, which is energy costs". These were the words of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during joint statements with the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, at the end of the bilateral at Palazzo Chigi. "The commitment we have made," she added, "is to build concrete answers, already at the European Council in March, because we cannot ask our companies to compete in global markets if they structurally pay more for energy than their competitors. "The Italia government from this point of view has recently approved a decree that I consider ambitious and courageous, in which there are also some regulations that obviously need to bring the debate to the European dimension,the issue of Ets first of all. So we are carrying out work that has a strategy that involves both the national and the European level,' the premier concluded

"The EU's Ets systemis an additional tax on European companies, which affects their costs and limits their competitiveness. We will ask the European Commission to suspend it until a thorough review is carried out on emission benchmarks and quota allocation mechanisms, including the postponement of the phasing out of free quotas,' he said. This was announced by the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, during the meeting of the 'Friends of Industry' countries that took place yesterday evening in Brussels.

The forthcoming revision of the Ets should ensure 'an effective price signal, predictability, market stability and protection against excessive price volatility, together with a pragmatic approach on free allocation' of quotas. This was demanded in a joint statement by the Industry Ministers of Italy, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain who met yesterday evening to coordinate positions on the eve of the ongoing Competitiveness Council in Brussels, where Italia is represented by Minister Urso.

The next revision of the ETS - expected in July - "should aim to support the competitiveness of European industry and strengthen investment in innovative technologies", the signatories write, warning that the reduction of the overall EU-wide emissions cap risks industrial operators facing high price levels, increased market volatility and limited liquidity. It is therefore imperative to increase 'investment in the enabling conditions necessary for decarbonisation' as well as 'targeted protection against carbon leakage'.

For the minister, the revision will have to introduce a "stable support mechanism for exporting companies, which has not yet been fully defined in the reform of the Cbam". In the discussion between the industry ministers, it is noted in a note, Urso emphasised industrial competitiveness and the necessary coherence between the revision of the border carbon adjustment mechanism and the Ets reform.