{"id":418199,"date":"2025-02-07T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T11:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/07\/semplificazione-green-deal-cbam-hoekstra\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T13:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T12:21:11","slug":"green-deal-simplification-reaches-the-cbam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/07\/green-deal-simplification-reaches-the-cbam\/","title":{"rendered":"Green deal simplification reaches the CBAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The EU is working to simplify the CBAM<\/strong>, the Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism<\/strong> that is a key component of the Green deal sought by Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> during her first term at the helm of the EU executive, said Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra.<\/strong>\u00a0During a\u00a0European Parliament hearing in Brussels, he also\u00a0reiterated the need to address the twelve-star bureaucratic hypertrophy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

During a speech to the Subcommittee on Fiscal Matters (FISC)<\/strong>, chaired by 5 Star Movement MEP\u00a0Pasquale Tridico,<\/strong> Hoekstra emphasized yesterday (Feb. 6) that it is necessary to address “the complexity and bureaucracy<\/strong>” of European environmental legislation<\/strong>. Too bad it was precisely the First von der Leyen College\u00a0 —\u00a0<\/strong>of which the former Shell employee was a member, albeit for only a few months, after replacing his\u00a0compatriot Frans Timmermans,<\/strong> who left Brussels to lead the coalition of Social Democrats and Ecologists (the same coalition\u00a0that he would like to see replicated<\/a> throughout the 27 member states) in the Dutch November 2023 elections\u00a0– that introduced the Green Deal<\/strong>, claiming it as a necessary and fundamental advance.<\/p>\n

However, as is now evident even in the early months of this new institutional cycle, the focus on green policies gave way<\/a> to priorities more in line with business interests<\/strong>. The latest\u00a0buzzwords are competitiveness and simplification<\/strong> (or deregulation, whatever you want to call it). “We are exploring, in\u00a0each individual area, what we as a Commission can do or how we can incentivize member states” to reduce regulatory and bureaucratic complexity, starting with “a simplification of the CBAM<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\"Adolfo<\/a>
Italian Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso (photo: Paola Onofri via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This need has become a flagship issue for the Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy<\/i>\u00a0(MIMIT)\u00a0Adolfo Urso<\/strong>, who for months has\u00a0been advocating<\/a>\u00a0“technological neutrality,<\/strong>” which, he argues, must form the backbone of the\u00a0new EU industrial policy<\/strong>. The Minister\u00a0is pleased with the direction the EU executive seems intent on taking, touching on “many of the elements we have indicated,” including the revision of CBAM, active in an experimental phase until the end of the year<\/strong> and scheduled to come into final effect in 2026.<\/p>\n

Concretely, to the Financial Times<\/i><\/a>, Hoekstra outlined Brussels’ willingness to exempt some 180,000 European companies out of a total of 200,000 from bureaucratic obligations<\/strong> related to the mechanism, which effectively imposes a “carbon tax” on non-EU goods from selected\u00a0heavy industry sectors<\/strong> that cross the borders of the 27 member states, limiting its application only to the largest importers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Less than 20 percent of the companies<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0the scope are responsible for more than 95 percent of the emissions in the\u00a0products<\/strong>,” he explained, arguing that this move “does not do anything to [diminish] the importance of climate targets, but is a way to make life much easier”<\/strong> for a wide range\u00a0of companies\u00a0across the continent, helping them improve their competitiveness. That simplification proposal will come with the first “Omnibus”\u00a0<\/strong>measure, which the Commission is expected to present later this month and which the European Parliament and the EU Council will need to approve.<\/p>\n

\"Pasquale<\/a>
European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra (right) at a hearing before the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Fiscal Affairs (FISC), chaired by Pasquale Tridico, on Feb. 6, 2025 (photo: Laurie Dieffembacq\/European Parliament)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Separately, Hoekstra pledged to start<\/strong> a review of the CBAM\u00a0<\/strong>specifically for the cement, aluminum, electricity, and hydrogen sectors, which could also be extended to other areas such as glass, ceramics, paper, pulp, and basic chemicals. “We will carefully examine the areas of application” and “we will also carefully evaluate exports<\/strong>” while keeping an “open mind,” he added, stressing that this is not an easy undertaking.<\/p>\n

The commissioner reiterated before MEPs that “taxation can prove to be a powerful<\/strong> and effective tool to promote progress toward our climate goals.” For example, the Energy Taxation Directive (currently being negotiated among the co-legislators) “will further incentivize clean energy<\/strong> by taxing fossil fuels more than renewables.” “The text needs to be more ambitious in the aviation and shipping<\/strong> sectors,” he noted, “and we want to make sure we make progress on emissions targets<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra announced plans to exempt about 80 percent of European companies from obligations under the mechanism that introduces a “carbon tax” at borders, since almost all emissions are the responsibility of a few large importers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":418192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25706],"tags":[30396,29083,25905,27356,27238],"class_list":["post-418199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-economy-en","tag-cbam-en","tag-emissioni-co2-en","tag-green-deal-en","tag-simplification-en","tag-wopke-hoekstra-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418199"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418220,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418199\/revisions\/418220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}