Confindustria: “EU duties on Chinese cars good. Defend our supply chains”

Brussels – Europe “so-so”, between right insights and “wrong choices”. The president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, tries to take stock of the situation, and the picture that emerges is one of reflection and rethinking. There are courageous and right choices, such as stopping a Chinese competition on the battery-powered car shared by the Italian industrial world. “We are in favour” of the European Commission’s tariffs proposals, Orsini clarified in his first press conference held in Brussels, where he had a series of institutional meetings, because “we have to defend our supply chains” and “today we must think about increasing duties on Chinese electric cars.” Although “we have to be careful with duties because they could penalise us” and put at risk part of those €620 billion Italian exports that drive the national economy.

However, the EU lacks strategy and courage on everything else. No one questions the Green Deal and the ambition of a sustainable agenda, but “achieving the sustainable transition takes time,” notes the Confindustria president. “We cannot imagine that the transition can be done within the timeframe indicated by the outgoing European Commission.” This emphasis translates into a call for changes in timetables and timelines, which are considered too tight and, therefore, a headache for many industries.

“It is a question of competitiveness,” Orsini notes—the competitiveness on which Mario Draghi and his report drafted at the explicit request of the outgoing and incoming president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Merely contemplating the transformation of transportation,
wherein cars will shift from conventional internal combustion engines to
electric and synthetic fuels starting in 2035, “we are not ready from an
infrastructure standpoint,” laments the number one of Confindustria, “More time is needed to be able to get there.” Hence the call to bring forward the regulatory review, scheduled for 2026. “Getting to the end of 2026 is too late; we need answers much earlier,” meaning late 2025 at the latest.

Mobility is just one of the knots in the European Union of today and tomorrow. As Antonio Gozzi, special adviser to the president on Europe, reminds us, there is the issue of the ETS, the market for CO2 emission rights. “The market is now open to investment funds and banks,” and therefore not industry but financial bodies and entities, “which then speculate” by changing the price of carbon that penalises the secondary sector. On the industry side, “one of the requests to the European Union could be to go back to the original ETS, not open to investment funds and banks”.

The wrong choices are not only of strategy but also of courage. There is a different game here, all commercial, delicate yet inevitable. “We need to open up to new markets, and I’m thinking of Mercosur,” is Orsini’s annotation. The president of Confindustria, who met with Italian MEPs from all sides, is actually addressing the government majority. The Meloni government on the possibility of relations with the bloc of South American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, plus the suspended Venezuela) is wavering, as is the European Commission, which, after European farmers’ protests in recent months had to change the tone of a subject not archived yet.

The Mercosur issue is significant in Europe. Austria has begun to get in the way by threatening a veto, then it was France’s turn. Even in Italy, the idea of a free trade agreement such as the one called for today (Oct. 2) by Confindustria is opposed, especially by the primary sector. Filiera Italia is particularly worried and scared despite the auspices and well-wishers of the head of state, Sergio Mattarella.

For the Confindustria president, however, there are no significant alternatives, even considering how much the geopolitical and, therefore, trade environment has changed. “Russia,” Orsini recalls, “was an important market, and we lost it” after the war of aggression against Ukraine and the European sanctions.