{"id":447884,"date":"2026-03-17T19:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/17\/energia-pichetto-fratin-rincara-la-dose-correggere-lets-o-sospenderlo-per-il-termoelettrico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T20:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:12:15","slug":"energy-pichetto-fratin-doubles-down-amend-the-ets-or-suspend-it-for-the-thermal-power-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/17\/energy-pichetto-fratin-doubles-down-amend-the-ets-or-suspend-it-for-the-thermal-power-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy: Pichetto Fratin doubles down: “Amend the ETS or suspend it for the thermal power sector”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 It has been two days of intense discussions for the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin<\/strong>, who attended the European Union Energy Council yesterday (16 March) and the Environment Council today (17 March). At the closing press briefing, the minister confirmed that the main topic of discussion with his counterparts was the revision of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)<\/a>. Following on from the request<\/a> already put forward on 27 February by Adolfo Urso<\/strong>, Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Pichetto Fratin reiterated Italy\u2019s position in favour of a suspension<\/strong> of the ETS, which is held responsible for an excessive rise in energy prices in Italy. \u201cWe are calling for a correction of all this. Then it could be a suspension,\u201d for thermal power, \u201cit could also be a different kind of assessment,\u201d he specified at the press briefing on the sidelines of the proceedings.<\/p>\n

 According to the minister, the problem is not the principle behind the system, but the way it affects the final price of electricity<\/strong>. In Europe, the price of energy is determined by the so-called “marginal price<\/strong>“, i.e. the most expensive source being used at that moment, often gas. This means that the rise in costs linked to the ETS not only affects energy produced from gas, but is reflected across the entire electricity market. The minister spoke of a genuine “distortion<\/strong>” in the price calculation system underpinning the scheme, emphasising that “it is leading us to become the European country with the highest electricity prices<\/strong>, despite the fact that gas accounts for just over 40 per cent of our electricity generation.” “The price-setting mechanism<\/strong>\u2014this is the crux of the matter, according to Pichetto Fratin\u2014counts gas twice<\/strong>, leading to extremely high prices that are unsustainable for businesses and households.” <\/p>\n

Turning to the figures, the Forza Italia minister explained that “the ETS costs paid by the thermal power sector amount to around \u20ac2.5 billion<\/strong>,” but that “due to a pass-through mechanism, this ends up amounting to over 7 billion<\/strong> of the total energy consumed.” For this reason, Italy is pushing for immediate action at European level: “We are calling for a suspension of the ETS as regards thermal power generation<\/strong>,” he stated, “or, alternatively, a solution that prevents the ETS from tripling the price of energy”. Among the possible options, Pichetto Fratin opened up to various possibilities, such as the use of energy windfall profits<\/strong>, which the minister described as “one of the possible solutions,” “along with tax exemption<\/strong> or the non-application of VAT on the ETS<\/strong>, a tax on a tax.” In this regard, however, “there is a constraint imposed by European directives,” he noted. <\/p>\n

To those who asked him to account for the letter<\/a> sent yesterday by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, to EU heads of state and government ahead of the European Council<\/strong> on Thursday 19 March\u2014a letter which identifies the main cause of the distortions produced by the ETS as the excessive number of gas hours in electricity price formation<\/strong>\u2014Pichetto replied that \u201cItaly is fully complying with the objectives of the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan<\/strong> (PNIEC)\u201d and that it has \u201calready installed a significant number of renewable energy plants.\u201d However, he clarified, \u201cincreasing renewables as a solution to the electricity price problem may be suitable as a long-term plan, whereas what is currently being discussed is an immediate intervention<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

The issue will certainly be at the heart of the EU-27 summit, which begins on Thursday, but Italy appears to be in the minority<\/strong> at the negotiating table. As a senior EU official explained in a private meeting with the press, \u201cwe expect some leaders to argue for a review of the ETS, but the majority of countries continue to regard the system as indispensable<\/strong> and want to keep the mechanism in place.\u201d Greece, Croatia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Poland hold positions similar to Pichetto\u2019s; during a coordination meeting on the sidelines of the Council meeting<\/a> they highlighted \u201cwidespread concern, particularly regarding the impact of the ETS, both on thermoelectric power generation and on industry and the economies\u201d of Europe. <\/p>\n

Among the minority, therefore, is Hungary\u2019s Environment Minister, Aniko Raisz<\/strong>, who, upon her arrival at the Environment Council, backed Rome\u2019s position: \u201cWe are calling for gas used in power stations to be excluded from ETS 1 and for ETS 2 to be postponed until at least 2030,\u201d she stated. In contrast, Carsten Schneider<\/strong>, the German Environment Minister, stated that \u201cthe ETS has proven to be an effective tool that requires only minor adjustments, but otherwise the direction must remain the same\u201d. Finally, it was Woepke Hoekstra<\/strong>, Commissioner for Climate Action, who clarified the Berlaymont\u2019s position regarding the heated discussions of recent hours. The Dutch politician confirmed what von der Leyen had written in yesterday\u2019s letter, announcing that the review of the ETS will take place \u201cbetween the end of the second and the start of the third quarter of the year<\/strong>.\u201d He reiterated that “it is of fundamental importance to continue with the ETS<\/strong> because it is a crucial tool<\/strong> for the EU\u2019s climate policy and for achieving greater energy independence.” The “suspension” option advocated by Pichetto Fratin, therefore, does not appear to be on the agenda. <\/p>\n

In addition to the ETS issue, over the past two days of discussions on the environment and energy, Italy has once again taken a stand on sustainable mobility<\/strong>. Together with his counterparts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia<\/strong>, Pichetto Fratin signed a non-paper (an informal document produced by countries to facilitate debate) on European policies for the decarbonisation of road transport<\/strong>. The five ministers argued for the need for a technologically neutral approach<\/strong> \u201cthat safeguards Europe\u2019s industrial capacity, prevents new strategic dependencies on external supply chains and strengthens the Union\u2019s resilience.\u201d Arguing that current legislation\u2014based solely on tailpipe emissions\u2014favours electric vehicles and penalises alternative solutions such as e-fuels and biofuels, the document proposes a series of measures to review the transition towards sustainable mobility. These include the recognition of vehicles powered by CO2-neutral fuels as zero-emission vehicles<\/strong>, a review of assessment criteria to take into account overall emissions neutrality across the entire life cycle, a reduction of targets for light commercial vehicles \u201cto more realistic levels\u201d, and bringing forward the comprehensive review of the<\/strong> EU Regulation 851 of 2023<\/a> from 2035 to 2030<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the sidelines of the EU Environment Council, the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security highlighted the \u201cdistortion\u201d caused by the energy pricing system. Italy has also signed a non-paper with Eastern European countries calling for a relaxation of the rules on sustainable mobility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":435750,"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","show_comment_section":"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":[30800],"tags":[33339,27843,26147,33392,30256,29899,26148,33425],"class_list":["post-447884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-anidride-carbonica","tag-co2-in-2","tag-emissions-en","tag-energia","tag-transition-energetics-en","tag-ets-en","tag-gilberto-pichetto-fratin-en","tag-woepke-hoekstra"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447884","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\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447885,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447884\/revisions\/447885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}