The European Commission's proposal to revise the system EU Emissions Trading ETS, presented this morning in Brussels, accepts part of the requests of the transport sector to rectify the scheme, and in particular some put forward by the representatives of the sector maritime-port area.

The proposal provides first of all, moving away in this case by the wishes of the shipowners and rather by acknowledging the requests of the environmental associations, to ensure a level playing field by extending the scope of the EU ETS to certain categories of smaller ships (general ships cargo and offshore vessels), lowering the threshold from 5,000 tons of gross tonnage to 400 tons, thus including small units which today account for about 15% of the emissions of the ships already within the scope of the PUR Directive being numerically very numerous. The extension is planned from January 1, 2029 and aims to ensure greater competitive parity with ships of greater dimensions. The proposal provides that. by 31 at the latest December 2031, the Commission should submit a report to the Parliament and the Council of the EU, where it will assess the feasibility and the economic, environmental and social impact of a further extension to ro-pax and passenger ships under 5,000 GRT.

The proposal also provides for the strengthening of incentives for the use of sustainable marine fuels, clean ship propulsion and hydrogen, introduces measures to simplification for shipping companies and supports progress in the field of decarbonisation in the area of of the International Maritime Organization in order to avoid duplicate payments by shipping companies, with a specific review clause in case of IMO agreement on decarbonisation shipping. With regard to the latter aspect, the proposal provides that, if a measure is adopted within the IMO to decarbonise international shipping, Commission report to Parliament and the Commission within 18 months. assessing its ambition and consistency with the EU ETS with a view to to avoid double payments. The envisaged operational mechanism is the application of a "deduction mechanism" that would allow shipping companies to return a number allowances to the extent that the same emissions are already taxed at IMO level, exempting the Commission from accompanying this relationship with a legislative proposal for edit.

On sustainable transport fuels instead of accepting the association's request European shipowners to require EU states to use EU ETS revenues for the decarbonisation of shipping, the proposal provides for the establishment of the Sustainable Maritime Mechanism Alternative Propulsion (SMAP) which reserves 110 million allowances issuance, from 1 January 2028 (or from the first year after entry into in force of the Directive) and until 31 December 2040, to be allocated shipping companies on a transparent, equal and non-equal basis discriminatory. The aim is to cover part of the price differential between conventional fossil fuels and sustainable marine fuels, in addition to the additional costs for the adoption of zero-emission propulsion technologies (electric or wind assisted propulsion).

As regards ECSA's request to make Permanent exceptions to the system ( of 14 July 2026), the proposal provides that the current derogations the obligation to surrender allowances in force for ships for routes to outermost regions and small islands without regular connections to the mainland and for services of passenger transport subject to public service obligations, the whose deadline has so far been set at 31 December 2030, extended until 31 December 2035 and, therefore, do not become permanent. In addition, the proposal includes a review clause under the which by 30 September 2033 the Commission shall consider further extending the exemption on ice-class ships, taking into account available technological advances.

With regard to the risk of circumvention of the EU ETS by of container ships and ships engaged in offshore activities, with the making of calls in neighboring transhipment ports non-EU citizens made to "break" the route thus reducing emissions formally subject to the system, the proposal confirms the possibility for the European Commission to update the list of transhipment ports which will be reviewed annually instead of every two years, and to further monitor this risk. In addition, in order to cover the range of ports outside more adequately with a high potential to attract transhipment activities to the detriment of EU ports and where the container transhipment accounts for the largest share of traffic containers, the Commission's proposal provides that the criterion that identifies the neighboring transhipment ports from a threshold of 65% of container traffic in transhipment to 50%. The proposal also provides for the exclusion from the definition of "port ports equipped with the necessary infrastructure to container transshipment activities located in the immediate vicinity of the Union, i.e. within 150 miles from a port under the jurisdiction of a State unless equivalence with measures from third countries. It is A broader definition of "port of stopover" to include offshore operating sites in order to countering circumvention by ships engaged in operations offshore.

Waiting for reactions to the proposed revision of the EU ETS presented today by the European Commission, this seems however to incorporate the various requests made by shipowners on different fronts, in particular with the establishment of the SMAP mechanism to support the production and distribution of sustainable fuels and with the extension of derogations for islands, outermost regions, ships ice-class, while not paving the way for the achievement of the more ambitious targets outlined by ECSA. The derogations, in fact, the clause IMO introduces an attenuation tool (the deduction of allowances) rather than an automatic withdrawal mechanism of the EU ETS in the case of a global measure, and the issue of double taxation with the energy taxation remains outside this text.

As regards the other modes of transport, if the transport of the on the road is not directly affected by this proposal being already governed by the separate ETS2 scheme established by the revision of the 2023 directive and set to become fully operational in 2028, for the aviation sector, the proposal has the objective of ensuring effective carbon pricing for the EU's share of international aviation emissions through the application of the EU ETS to international flights departing to destinations within 5,000 kilometers of the center and all flights in and out of aircraft from (business aircraft), through a list that the Commission will adopt by implementing acts.