21 Amendments of Joëlle MÉLIN related to 2021/0214(COD)
Amendment 133 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1 a (new)
Recital 1 a (new)
(1a) The European Green Deal, with its ambitious targets, has increased costs for European producers. An instrument ensuring a level playing field with third countries, which do not have the same ambitious climate policies as the EU, is thus required.
Amendment 136 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3
Recital 3
(3) Tackling climate and other environmental-related challenges and reaching the objectives of the Paris Agreement are at the core of the European Green Deal. The value of the European Green Deal has only grown in light of the very severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and economic well- being of the Union’s citizens, the need to develop European policies promoting localism and the relocation of the most strategic industries.
Amendment 157 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) The initiative for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (‘CBAM’) is a part of the ‘Fit for 55 Package’. That mechanism is to serve as an essential element of the EU toolbox to meet the objective of a climate-neutral Union by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement by addressing risks of carbon leakage resulting from the increased Union climate ambition, while at the same time preventing investment drain and ensuring a level playing field in order to preserve the competitiveness of European industry.
Amendment 167 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) Existing mechanisms to address the risk of carbon leakage in sectors or sub- sectors at risk of carbon leakage are the transitional free allocation of EU ETS allowances and financial measures to compensate for indirect emission costs incurred from GHG emission costs passed on in electricity prices respectively laid down in Articles 10a(6) and 10b of Directive 2003/87/EC. However, free allocation under the EU ETS weakens the price signal that the system provides for the installations receiving it compared to full auctioning and thus affects the incentives for investment into further abatement of emissions.
Amendment 209 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) The CBAM seeks to replace these existing mechanisms by addressing the risk of carbon leakage in a different way, namely by ensuring equivalent carbon pricing for imports and domestic products. To ensure a gradual transition from the current system of free allowances to the CBAM, the CBAM should be progressively phased in while free allowances in sectors covered by the CBAM are phased out. The combined and transitional application of EU ETS allowances allocated free of charge and of the CBAM should in no case result in more favourable treatment for Union goods compared to goods imported into the customs territory of the Union during a pilot phase that will allow for its effectiveness to be assessed following a transitional period making it possible to ensure that genuinely equivalent carbon pricing of direct and indirect emissions between the European Union and third countries has been achieved.
Amendment 270 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 13
Recital 13
(13) As an instrument to prevent carbon leakage and reduce GHG emissions the CBAM should ensure that imported products are subject to a regulatory system that applies carbon costs equivalent to the ones that otherwise would have been borne under the EU ETS. The CBAM is a climate measure which should prevent the risk of carbon leakage and supportpartially linked to the Union’s increased ambition on climate mitigation, while ensuring WTO compatibility.
Amendment 315 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) However, while the EU ETS sets an absolute cap on the GHG emissions from the activities under its scope and allows tradability of allowances (so called ‘cap and trade system’), the CBAM should not establish quantitative limits to import, so as to ensure that trade flows are not restricted. Moreover, while the EU ETS applies to installations based in the Union, the CBAM should be applied to certain goods imported into the customs territory of the Union. Overseas territories should benefit from special treatment to avoid any negative effects deriving from the application of the CBAM on their production.
Amendment 324 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) The CBAM system has some specific features compared with the EU ETS, including on the calculation of the price of CBAM certificates, on the possibilities to trade certificates and on their validity over time. These are due to the need to preserve the effectiveness of the CBAM as a measure preventing carbon leakage over time and to ensure that the management of the system is not excessively burdensome in terms of obligations imposed on the operators and of resources for the administration, while at the same time preserving an equivalent level of flexibility available to operators under the EU ETS. European SMEs and VSEs should benefit from a derogation system to prevent and limit the administrative burden caused by the implementation of the CBAM.
Amendment 361 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 28 a (new)
Recital 28 a (new)
(28a) The Commission should take into account the economic and social effects of the scope of the CBAM and its potential expansion and should propose measures to minimise these effects on European export producers.
Amendment 364 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) The goods under this Regulation should be selected after a careful analysis of their relevance in terms of cumulated GHG emissions and risk of carbon leakage in the corresponding EU ETS sectors while limiting complexity and administrative burden, particularly for SMEs and VSEs. In particular, the actual selection should take into account basic materials and basic products covered by the EU ETS with the objective of ensuring that imports of energy intensive products into the Union are on equal footing with EU products in terms of EU ETS carbon pricing, and to mitigate risks of carbon leakage. Other relevant criteria to narrow the selection should be: firstly, relevance of sectors in terms of emissions, namely whether the sector is one of the largest aggregate emitters of GHG emissions; secondly, sector’s exposure to significant risk of carbon leakage, as defined pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC; thirdly, the need to balance broad coverage in terms of GHG emissions while limiting complexity and administrative effort. fourthly, the impact of Covid-19 on global supply chain disruption and the rise in raw materials prices.
Amendment 466 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 52
Recital 52
(52) The Commission should evaluate the application of this Regulation before the end of the transitional period and report to the European Parliament and the Council. The report of the Commission should in particular focus on possibilities to enhance climate actions towards the objective of a climate neutral Union by 2050. The Commission should, as part of that evaluation, initiate collection of information necessary to possibly extend the scope to indirect emissions, as well as to other goods and services at risk of carbon leakage, and to develop methods of calculating embedded emissions based on the environmental footprint methods47 . __________________ 47Commission Recommendation 2013/179/EU of 9 April 2013 on the use of common methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations (OJ L 124, 4.5.2013, p. 1).
Amendment 513 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 55
Recital 55
(55) As the CBAM aims to encourage cleaner production processes, the EU stands ready to work with low and middle- income countries towardsincome should be used primarily to support the de- carbonisation of their manufacturing industries. Moreover, the Union should support less developed countries with the necessary technical assistance in order to facilitate their adaptation to the new obligations established by this regulationEuropean industry, technological innovation within it and its competitiveness. These resources should be allocated directly to Member States for redistribution under a sector-by-sector approach.
Amendment 517 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 55 a (new)
Recital 55 a (new)
(55a) This assistance should be financed under the expenditure programmes in the Union budget, in particular the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) or the Instrument for Pre- Accession Assistance (IPA III) and not through revenue generated by the CBAM.
Amendment 528 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 61
Recital 61
(61) The financial interests of the UnionMember States should be protected through proportionate measures throughout the expenditure cycle, including the prevention, detection and investigation of irregularities, the recovery of funds lost, wrongly paid or incorrectly used and, where appropriate, administrative and financial penalties.
Amendment 540 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article premier – paragraph 1
Article premier – paragraph 1
1. This Regulation establishes a carbon border adjustment mechanism (the ‘CBAM’) for addressing greenhouse gas emissions embedded in the goods referred to in Annex I, upon their importation into the customs territory of the Union, in order to prevent the risk of carbon leakage and encourage third countries to align with European standards.
Amendment 562 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article premier – paragraph 3
Article premier – paragraph 3
3. The mechanism will progressively become an alternative to the mechanisms established under Directive 2003/87/EC to prevent the risk of carbon leakage, notably the allocation of allowances free of charge in accordance with Article 10a of that Directive, without prejudice to the maintenance of EU ETS allowances allocated free of charge until 2030 and only provided that the CBAM has proven to be effective in preventing the risk of carbon leakage.
Amendment 956 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 24 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 24 – paragraph 1 a (new)
The revenues generated from the sale of CBAM certificates shall be allocated to Member States to be used for the decarbonisation of European industries and the deployment of low-carbon technologies, as they face higher production costs as a result of the ambitious targets set under the European Green Deal, as well as to cover the administrative costs of the CBAM.
Amendment 966 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 25 – paragraph 5 – point a (new)
Article 25 – paragraph 5 – point a (new)
(a) The Commission shall report annually to the European Parliament and the Council, with a view to drawing up an exhaustive list of unfair practices and fraud and circumvention practices related to the MACF in third countries.
Amendment 1140 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 30 – paragraph 2
Article 30 – paragraph 2
2. Before the end of the transitional period, the Commission shall present a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of this Regulation. The report shall contain, in particular, the assessment of the possibilities to further extend the scope of embedded emissions to indirect emissions and to other goods at risk of carbon leakage than those already covered by this Regulation, as well as an assessment of the governance system. It shall also contain the assessment of the possibility to further extend the scope to embedded emissions of transportation services as well as to goods further down the value chain and services that may be subject to the risk of carbon leakage in the future, without undermining the proper functioning of the internal market or increasing costs for consumers.
Amendment 1159 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 30 – paragraph 3
Article 30 – paragraph 3
3. The report by the Commission shall, if appropriate, be accompanied by a legislative proposal. The proposal should consider, inter alia, the option to maintain the allocation of free allowances for EU exports and to allocate a refund for the carbon costs that EU producers incur under the EU Emissions Trading System.
Amendment 1244 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 36 – paragraph 3 – point d a (new)
Article 36 – paragraph 3 – point d a (new)
da) In order to ensure carbon neutrality and a level playing field, Article 31 shall only apply when carbon costs are equal for the EU and third countries.