Confcommercio, stop extra costs for connections with the islands

"The energy crisis we are experiencing has, paradoxically, the advantage of making us better understand the negative socio-economic impacts of some measures adopted to support the energy transition, such as the ETS system. In maritime connections with the islands, due to the increase in energy prices, the cost of fuel combined with the ETS cost exceeds 50% of the price of tickets. Operating in these conditions and above all planning the investments necessary for decarbonisation is truly an impossible mission": thus the vice president of Confcommercio, Pasquale Russo, at the hearing at the Commission for European Policies of the Chamber of Deputies on the package of measures for the revision of the Ets emissions trading system.

"The new paragraph 6 of article 119 of the Constitution - the vice president remarked - commits the Republic to removing the disadvantages deriving from insularity. It is therefore necessary to provide as a priority for a modification of the ETS regulation which structurally excludes from the contribution the connections with all the islands, small and large, such as Sicily and Sardinia which are, unfortunately, suffering from these additional extra costs, which slow down their competitiveness. We then need truly effective measures to reduce the competitive disadvantage generated by the ETS to the detriment of European transshipment ports such as Gioia Tauro, compared to non-EU ports, starting from those on the other side of the Mediterranean."

"Furthermore, in general - concluded Russo - there is a need for proportionality and transparency in the allocation of ETS proceeds to the sectors involved, to support their decarbonisation, and it must be guaranteed that a share of the resources of the new European Bank for industrial decarbonisation can be reserved for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, favoring aggregate projects and providing simplified procedures and quicker access times".