“The ETS Directive revision proposal presented by the European Commission is too timid, although it contains important acknowledgments of the issues we have repeatedly highlighted in Brussels, at every level. But in the upcoming stages in the Council and Parliament, we expect a strengthening of the positive aspects and bolder interventions.”
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This is the comment on the ETS revision proposal from the president of Assarmatori Stefano Messina, for whom the major absences from the Commission’s text are the necessary tools to protect connections with the major islands and the Motorways of the Sea.
“On this – Messina continues – the most intransigent and shortsighted part of the European Commission did not want to make concessions. This is a serious matter: it thus puts at risk the principle of territorial continuity and the existence of freight transport services that achieve true environmental sustainability. The coming months will therefore be decisive: the European Parliament and the Council will have the opportunity to transform an still incomplete revision into a tool capable of protecting the competitiveness of maritime transport and the strategic role of European ports.”
However, there are encouraging aspects for the shipowners’ association. “One of these, which consolidates one of our requests, is the extension to 2035 of the exemption currently in force for connections with the smaller islands – the president resumes – in this way the socio-economic cohesion of fragile territories that cannot bear the extra ETS costs is protected. These results are the fruit of the commitment of both the components of the European Commission closer to the industry’s reasons, such as Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto, and the Italian Government.”
According to Assarmatori, the text also contains a special regime, although limited to routes entering the Union, in the form of discounts on the ETS extra cost for intercontinental container transshipment activities, aimed at supporting shipping companies to maintain traffic and investments in European terminals threatened by environmental taxation.
“The scope of the proposed instrument is still insufficient – Messina continues –, but it paves the way for a concrete solution to the container transshipment problem in the subsequent phases of the legislative process. Today, after years of resistance from DG CLIMA, we welcome with satisfaction the recognition of one of our priority requests, namely that to overcome the transhipment problem it is not possible to rely only on punitive and ineffective measures such as the extension, also proposed in the text and born of a bureaucratic and shortsighted approach, of the 300 nautical miles rule. It is essential to keep the vital logistics hubs in Europe, serving continental industries, especially at this moment of great geopolitical uncertainty.”
Finally, the proposal embraces the request of Assarmatori and the industry to establish an economic support mechanism for the purchase of alternative fuels, through compensation of the price differential with traditional fuels, financed with free emission allowances as already happens for the aviation sector. In this regard, the Commission’s text also includes propulsion technologies among the fundable items, creating a potentially problematic complexity as it can translate into an unclear market incentive.
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