The European Parliament must decide by the summer on the Commission’s project. The 27 will then adopt their final position and engage in talks with MEPs to find a definitive agreement.
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A first green light for one of the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. EU member states endorsed their roadmap for the carbon border tax project on Tuesday 15 March, without however deciding on several key terms that continue to divide the 27 and will be debated later.
The European Commission had proposed in July to establish a “carbon border adjustment mechanism” of the EU, to tax certain imports from 2023 at the price of the European carbon market, according to the emissions linked to their production. This device would concern in particular steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizer or electricity.
Meeting in Brussels, European finance ministers approved on Tuesday in “a very large majority” a compromise on this text. That “general guidance” of the States intervenes when the European Parliament must decide by the summer on the Commission’s project. Then, the 27 will adopt their final position and engage in talks with MEPs to find a definitive agreement.
“This is a major decision for the EU”greeted the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire. “Our efforts to decarbonize our industries, our metallurgy, our cement factories, we do not want to lose them by re-importing largely carbon-intensive and less expensive products which give us unfair competition”he pleaded.
The approved text takes up the Commission’s proposals on the sectors concerned by the mechanism and on the timetable. On the other hand, the 27 have not decided on the project to simultaneously abolish the free emission quotas allocated to European industrialists to enable them to face competition from third countries. States are extremely divided on this subject.