BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) (ITALPRESS) – “Europe has so many watches, so many rules that mark minutes and seconds, but no longer has time at its disposal. If today we are forced to review CBAM, ETS and Vehicle CO2 Issues Regulation, to introduce the Industrial Accelerator Act and safeguard measures, and even to present ten Omnibus packages to simplify – which is already a contradiction in terms – means that so far Europe has wrong industrial, energy and economic policy. We must take note of reality to free ourselves from ideological flaws and act now.” The Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, said this in Brussels, where he participated in the Sixth Meeting of the Alliance of Energy Industries and, subsequently, at the work of the Competition Council.
At the heart of the discussion, the strengthening of European strategic industries and the risks of elusion of EU instruments, from CBAM to commercial defence measures to the Industrial Accelerator Act.
On 26 February, in Brussels, Urso had already asked for the suspension of the ETS pending a deep review, defining it “a tax on European enterprises” and denouncing its impact on costs and industrial competitiveness. The outbreak of the conflict in Iran, two days later, made that request even more current and urgent.
“That request was necessary before the war and is fundamental today, with the ongoing war,” Urso added. “The conflict in Iran has a direct impact on energy and therefore on the productive costs of our enterprises, while the European industry undergoes the invasion of extra-EU products. Energy, defence and industrial security are now the same game for the future of the continent.”.
In the course of the intervention, the minister also recalled the crisis of the supply chain of white, starting from the Electrolux case, asking that the appliance be recognized as a European strategic sector equal to the automotive. “Italy will present with other countries a non-paper to ask for a European plan dedicated to the sector, the extension of the Cbam to products downstream conditions of parity against Asian unfair competition and tools of support for productive investments” Urso announced.
“We cannot wait for 2029 because the Industrial Accelerator Act produces effects. An act called industrial acceleration cannot enter into force in three years: of this step, in three years Europe will already be an industrial desert. We work in Europe with concrete and constructive proposals. But now there is no longer time to lose and Brussels must take note of it,” the minister concluded.
– Mimit press office photos –
(ITALPRESS).
