The leaders of several European countries are calling on the European Commission to review the ETS system, according to Callanish.
Italian President Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, as well as leaders from several other countries, held an informal meeting last week in Oldenbizen, Belgium, to discuss Europe's competitiveness. The focus of their meeting was on regulatory simplification, lower energy prices, and trade policy.
Meloni called for an early review of the ETS mechanism and an end to "financial speculation" related to the system, she told the press on the sidelines of an informal meeting.
Among other measures to restart the European industry, Meloni argues that one of the main problems is energy costs, and other systems such as CBAM need to be reviewed to restart the industry in Europe.
"For our country, where, unlike the rest of Europe, natural gas production is the main source of electricity generation, the distortions created by the ETS system are particularly significant. The specifics of our energy balance, combined with the ETS system introduced in Brussels, has led to Italy having the highest electricity prices in Europe for too long," says Antonio Gozzi, president of the Federacciai steel producers association, in a note obtained by Kallanish.
"This has forced the government to take protective measures for energy-intensive consumers, who are fully aware of the unacceptable price gap compared to their counterparts in France and Germany. Now that this issue has been officially raised at the EU level, it is important to closely and consistently monitor the progress of the case in the interests of national competitiveness and coherence of European energy policy," he adds.
Gozzi says that for the first time, the issue of ETS's shortcomings was brought to the center of the political debate in Brussels.
European Commission President von der Leyen outlined the actions needed to strengthen Europe's competitiveness, addressing a plenary session of Parliament, the European Industrial Summit in Antwerp and an informal meeting of leaders in Oldenbiesen. "We have the second largest economy in the world, but we are holding it on the handbrake," she said in a statement after an informal meeting held by Callanish.
"At the next meeting of the European Council, I will present various options and conclusions about whether it is time to move forward in developing market design or whether we are still good at this market design. And we will arrive as planned, and as stipulated by law, with an ETS check," she says.
