The Rome-Brussels axis is inflamed over the Green Deal with the Italian government which is ready to clash with the European Commission and also with the majority of the European Parliament and the governments of the member states on the strategy to be put in place. This was confirmed by the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, yesterday in Brussels, speaking with the press at the end of the EU Competitiveness Council. In the crosshairs, not so much the aims of the Green Deal that Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission had proposed since the beginning of her mandate, at the end of 2019, as the new strategy for economic growth of the Union, but rather the double choice of the Executive community to strengthen and accelerate the ecological transition, instead of slowing it down and readjusting it downwards, first in response to the crisis caused by the Covid pandemic, then to the consequences (especially in terms of energy) of the Russian war in Ukraine. Forced and close steps have been added to the path towards climate neutrality (a goal to be achieved by 2050), including the obligation of zero emissions for new cars placed on the EU market from 2035 (approved by the European Parliament on 14 February , and blocked in the EU Council by Italy in these days), or the Commission’s proposal for the new Euro 7 standards for all car emissions, or the more recent one which sets a 90% reduction target by 2040 for emissions from heavy trucks and buses. That’s why “We need to change – said Urso – the stages and methods of those appointments, so that they are sustainable”. But the Green Deal does not only concern the climate, but all environmental policies. And Italy, indicated the minister, explicitly asks to review the Commission’s proposal on packaging waste (which focuses on the reuse of certain materials instead of only on their recycling), and that on textile products, which should comply with the environmental protection even when they are imported from third countries. Rome asks for “reasonableness” “We – Urso pointed out – do not question the dates of 2035 or 2050″ or rather the objectives for zero-emission cars and for climate neutrality in the EU. “We ask that there be a reflection on the basis of concrete data which are there for all to see, and which have led the European business associations and European workers to ask the Commission for a change of pace”. “We – he reiterated – protect Italian and European businesses and jobs, and I think this is one of the fundamental points in a Europe that wants to be supportive and competitive on a global level. This is why we ask that the stages and methods for reaching those appointments be changed, so that they are sustainable”.
