Assarmatori's most decisive lunge in denouncing the impact on some sectors of maritime transport the application of the ETS to the sector EU emissions was launched by the President of the shipowners' association on the occasion of the mission to Brussels meeting of the organisation's governing council held Tuesday and Wednesday: "The effects of the tax on emissions wanted by the European Union - denounced Stefano Messina - are producing negative consequences on the most maritime transport strategies comparable to those major international crises, such as rising prices of energy linked to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The difference - he underlined - is that Hormuz is a shock while the ETS is a structural taxation, which is intended to have a permanent impact on competitiveness and sustainability of connections with the islands, of the motorways of the Sea and the transhipment of containers".

"In recent months - recalled the president of Assarmatori - we welcomed the inclusion of some Priorities of national armament in European strategies dedicated to the maritime sector. However, the decisive issue was and their translation into concrete measures remains. In the case of the ETS, unfair taxation because it is not selective as it is applied horizontally, without considering the specificities of the individual sectors, there is now a clear awareness of the criticality of the current regulatory framework, but it remains insufficient clarity on the corrective tools that will be adopted. In this context - Messina specified - we look with with particular attention to the future "European Strategy for Renewable Technologies" islands", which is being developed under the guidance of the executive vice president Raffaele Fitto, to whom we have represented our priorities on maritime connections with the islands. The imposition of a taxation on these services disproportionate climate and which, moreover, does not return to the maritime sector in the form of investments with a view to a real environmental sustainability puts its fragile balance".

"The feeling," Messina concluded, "is that the European technocracy remains inflexible with respect to the need for a significant improvement of these policies. But we We ask that the July review be courageous, to allow to our industrial sector to remain competitive in a particularly difficult global scenario".