10 July 2026 – The joint appeal from businesses in Italy, France and Germany—the three European industrial engines—for a revision of the ETS system is a warning cry that Europe cannot ignore. The CO2 compensation tax has lost its original purpose and now represents an unsustainable burden for businesses, threatening the survival of entire supply chains and making it impossible to compete on a level playing field in global markets.

The action taken by Confindustria, Medef and the BDI is a pro-European, common-sense measure at a time when systemic competition between the three main economic and political blocs is being played out on all fronts and with every available tool. To prevent deindustrialisation and restart European industry, we are calling on the European Commission for a regulatory framework capable of balancing climate ambition with industrial competitiveness and safeguarding the European production base; otherwise, we will be handing a further competitive advantage to the USA and China.

Giuseppe Pasini, President of Confindustria Lombardia