BETA

Activities of Elisabetta GUALMINI related to 2020/2043(INI)

Opinions (1)

OPINION Towards a WTO-compatible EU carbon border adjustment mechanism
2020/12/11
Committee: BUDG
Dossiers: 2020/2043(INI)
Documents: PDF(131 KB) DOC(70 KB)
Authors: [{'name': 'Elisabetta GUALMINI', 'mepid': 197618}]

Amendments (11)

Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Recalls EU’s international commitments under the Paris Agreement; acknowledges the European Green Deal and notes that it needs to ensure a cost- effective, just, socially inclusive and fair transition to a carbon neutral economy by 2050;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
2. Acknowledges that the primary purpose of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) must be to enable internationally effective carbon pricing schemes, to mitigate the leakage dilemma in the context of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), to increase demand for low carbon products and processes and to prevent distortions to competition and trade; stresses that the CBAM will help the EU to meet its climate targets while keeping a level playing field in international trade, with the aim of galvanising the rest of the world into taking climate action in line with Paris Agreement; believes that the ultimate aim should be to encourage innovation and investments into greener technologies globally and to work towards a global climate policy with a global carbon price;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Underlines the importance of avoiding internal market distortions, as well as protectionist measures against the EU; suggests therefore a World Trade Organization compatible, non- discriminatory and progressive mechanism and strongly encourage the Commission to take a multilateral approach to its design;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Acknowledges that the CBAM could be implemented either as an extension of the current regime of custom duties or as a complementary scheme within the existing ETS framework; highlights that the second model, centralised according to ETS standards for sectors and carbon prices, would facilitate the establishment of equivalent levels of taxation on EU and non-EU products and therefore guarantee a fair level playing field in international trade;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Calls on the Commission to conduct a solid impact assessment of the different designs according to which the CBAM could be implemented, taking into account different scenarios and the specific characteristics of the sectors that could be covered by the mechanism, before presenting a legislative proposal; considers it indispensable that the assessment evaluate economic and social consequences on the EU industrial sector, with specific regard to SMEs; stresses the importance to assess the impacts of each options on living standards of consumers, especially those of more vulnerable groups, as well as the impact on revenue;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 d (new)
2d. Notes with concern the lack of international climate efforts and measures, especially with regard to implementing the decisions made under the Paris Agreement; underlines that decentralised climate actions can lead to carbon-leakage and to a consequential increase of global emissions and a competitive disadvantage on international markets for the EU industry and that they hence put at risk European jobs and value chains; stresses that the EU industry, especially SMEs, suffers increased economic pressure due to cheap imports from trading partners and the COVID-19 crisis; thus urges the Commission to ensure a fully and effective climate and carbon-leakage protection mechanism which shall be capable of ensuring competitiveness of EU exports, in particular to third countries where the carbon constraint is absent or less ambitious than in the EU;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
3. SUrges that the proposed CBAM be based on a thorough impact assessment, which assesses the impact of different options also at sector level; believes that the CBAM should be applied gradually, first applying to select products related to carbon leakage sectors; believes that the mechanism should be designed in a way that does not impact international trade negatively and is compatible with World Trade Organization rules; stresses that dedicating the financial flows resulting from the CBAM to the EU budget would help to mitigate issues of fiscal equivalence and ensure a fairly distributed impact across Member States, as well as ensuring a lean structure with minimal administrative overheads; concludes, therefore, that defining the proceeds as an EU own resource, and decreasing GNI- based contributions accordingly, would help to mutualise the impact of the CBAM in a fair way across all Member States;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that dedicating the financial flows resulting from the CBAM to the EU budget would help to mitigate issues of fiscal equivalence and ensure a fairly distributed impact across Member States, as well as ensuring a lean structure with minimal administrative overheads; concludes, therefore, that defining the proceeds as an EU own resource, and decreasing GNI-based contributions accordingly, would help to mutualise the impact of the CBAM in a fair way across all Member States; in fact, the savings at national level by correspondingly lower GNI-contributions could be taken into account in the overall endeavour to shift the tax burden from labour to environmental costs;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the fact that the CBAM, if used as a basis for an own resource, would bring the revenue side of the EU budget into closer alignment with strategic policy objectives such as the European Green Deal, the fight against climate change and the circular economy, and that it would thereby help to generate co- benefits, incentives and EU added value; considers that CBAM revenues would be, by their nature and origin, linked to EU climate policies, external borders, as well as trade policy, and would therefore constitute a highly suitable basis for an EU own resource.
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
6. Is determined to ensure that the CBAM-based own resource are not to be formally earmarked for any particular expenditure item of fund; rather, they constitute universal income and that it be deemed to cover a share of the repayment costs of the Next Generation EU instrument; moreover, recalls that any surplus from the repayment plan shall continue to serve the EU budget as general revenue, since this approach would endow the budget with the required flexibility to cover unforeseen needs in the coming seven years;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG
Amendment 47 #
6a. Recalls that the introduction of a basket of new own resources, as established in the letter of the Roadmap for the introduction of New Own Resources under the Inter-institutional Agreement, could facilitate a better focus of expenditure at Union level on priority areas and common public goods with high efficiency gains compared to national spending;
2020/11/17
Committee: BUDG