Gathered around the French Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, European officials do not expect to seal a general agreement in Amiens but “to advance as much as possible”.
France, which will hold the rotating presidency of the Council until June, is pressing for the adoption of a “carbon border adjustment mechanism”, proposed by the Commission and currently the subject of discussions between the bloc’s states and the European Parliament.
The objective is to tax imports such as steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers or electricity at the price of the European carbon market, according to the emissions linked to their production.
In order not to infringe the principles of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Commission also proposes to abolish the free emission quotas hitherto assigned to European industrialists to allow them to face competition from third countries.
However, that idea includes the risk of increasing production costs in Europe, a possibility that alarms several member states of the bloc. Spain, Portugal, Poland and Austria ask that quotas be kept free.
Paris intends to build a consensus among the bloc’s 27 members for future negotiations with the European Parliament.
Another star project of the French president Emmanuel Macron is the development of an instrument to fight against what he calls the “imported deforestation”, to prevent European imports of wood, palm oil or soybeans from contributing to the felling of forests.
On Friday and Saturday the city of Amiens will also host a meeting of energy ministers.
Source From: Ambito
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