The European Parliament has approved its position on extending the CBAM carbon regulation mechanism to steel and aluminum products. The industry believes that this is an important step in recognizing that carbon leakage is increasingly associated not only with primary materials, but also with industrial products.
For several years, EUROMETAL has pointed out the growing imbalances faced by European manufacturers, service centers, distributors and traders. Imported goods containing steel and aluminum continue to enter the EU market without comparable carbon emission obligations.
This problem has been recognized in the parliamentary position, and the expansion of CBAM to post-processing products has received support. At the same time, EUROMETAL notes that further refinement will be required for the mechanism to work effectively and create truly equal conditions for the entire European value chain.
In a response published today, EUROMETAL outlined four key priorities for the next stages of the legislative process.:
- extend CBAM to all relevant products with a high proportion of steel and aluminum;
- accelerate the implementation of the mechanism to prevent further carbon leakage and relocation of production facilities;
- find an effective solution for European exporters operating in global markets;
- take into account the cumulative impact of regulatory costs and trade measures on industrial competitiveness.
EUROMETAL welcomes the fact that the European Parliament has recognized that carbon leakage is increasingly occurring at the stage of subsequent processing, and not only during the production of raw materials. However, according to the federation, the current proposal still leaves some product categories outside the CBAM framework. This creates risks of circumvention of the rules and preserves the conditions for unfair competition with European manufacturers.
As negotiations between the European institutions continue, EUROMETAL intends to further promote solutions that simultaneously protect the competitiveness of the European production chain and support the EU's climate goals.
The Federation emphasizes that effective climate policy and industrial policy should be developed simultaneously. Ensuring fair competition across the entire value chain, according to EUROMETAL, is necessary to preserve production, investment, innovation and quality jobs in Europe.
