The European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI) has approved its position on proposed changes to the Carbon Dioxide Emissions Regulation Mechanism (CBAM), supporting the extension of this mechanism to processed products and approving the creation of an Interim Decarbonization Fund (TDF) to support the transition of European industry to low-carbon production.
In line with the adopted position, MEPs support the expansion of the scope of CBAM beyond basic materials to include a wide range of steel and aluminum products such as fasteners, wire, springs and household items, while emphasizing that the expansion of the scope of application should be based on transparent and quantitative methodologies. The Committee also approved an exception for electricity imported by grid operators from non-EU countries in order to maintain the stability of the electricity grid.
The Committee proposes to strengthen measures to combat circumvention of the rules
The Committee proposed strengthening anti-circumvention provisions, clarifying that the ban on "minor modification" of products should also apply to minor processing and indicating that the rules should only apply to mechanisms designed solely to circumvent CBAM, and not legitimate business decisions aimed at reducing costs. In addition, the committee proposed allowing the European Commission to apply default emission values for the true country of origin when identifying bypass schemes.
MEPs also rejected the Commission's proposal to exclude products from the scope of CBAM during price shocks and instead proposed a mechanism to allow CBAM to temporarily redirect revenues generated from affected products to the affected industrial sectors.
To eliminate potential loopholes in online commerce, the committee recommended replacing the exclusion for each parcel with a single weight-based threshold covering all shipments from the same seller, and supplementing it with new reporting rules.payments and retroactive responsibility for deliveries are intentionally separated to stay below the threshold. The Committee also proposed to simplify the reporting requirements for least developed countries, together with the technical assistance framework.
At the same time, MEPs rejected the Commission's proposal to allow carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to offset CBAM obligations, arguing that the issue should instead be addressed during the upcoming review of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).
MEPs, early start again
