Industry, Pichetto Fratin: “Decarbonization good but without ideology”. Orsini: “On duties Europe must negotiate united”

Brussels – For the European industry, which is trying to carve out a leading space for itself amid instability and conflict within an increasingly competitive global market, circularity can still be an element of revenge, especially thanks to Italy’s contribution. The sector was the subject of Confindustria‘s event “Loop Forward. Building a circular economy for a Sustainable and Competitive Europe”, held at the European Parliament in Brussels this morning (March 18).

At the conference, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, emphasized the need to focus on recycling to counter the crisis in European industry. Our country is the first in Europe in raw materials recycling: 80 per cent of our steel is made from scrap iron, while 72 per cent of plastic packaging is recovered, cutting costs and environmental impact. On the European Commission’s energy neutrality and simplification goals, the minister did not hide a certain dissatisfaction: “We must have ambitious but not ideological goals. I make no secret of the fact that I disagree with the method used: the electric motor is the easiest to produce, but it could not be a European position to impose the technique, but rather the objective.” For this reason, Pichetto recalled his government’s effort to call for greater regulatory clarification: “We made ourselves promoters of simpler rules and streamlined permitting procedures for critical raw materials.”

Also speaking out against overregulation was Emanuele Orsini, President of Confindustria, who stated, in no uncertain terms, how European regulations are for producers “worse than tariffs.” On the subject of actual tariffs, Orsini said he was concerned, recalling that for Italy, the world’s fourth-largest exporter, “the tariffs war is only bad,” and therefore, “On these issues, Europe must be united and firm in order to negotiate immediately.” A quick negotiation aimed, however, at “putting back at the centre the relations that there have always been between Italy and America.” The president welcomed the Plan for steel promoted by the Commission. However, he called it “fundamental” to find an effective cure to the industrial crisis, calling for an adequate price for energy, for ferrous metals to remain in the European market, and above all, a re-evaluation of the gas emissions trading system (ETS): “The issue of the ETS was born for a noble purpose, but it has turned into a mere speculation. We need to pull financial speculation out of the ETS,” concluded Orsini.

The leader of Italian industrialists also seems concerned about the emphasis in Europe on boosting defence investment. “Within Confindustria, we have companies that do defence and, therefore, for us, defence growth also means innovations, investments, because we know very well that innovation in defence has brought growth in other sectors as well. However, it is obvious,” he stresses, “that we cannot think only of defence. At a time like this, where geopolitically China and the United States are running, we need to think about a factual, industrial policy, obviously of companies. That is, today, we cannot only remember defence, but we must also think about the difficulties that businesses are experiencing.”