Poland, Italy and the Visegrad Group sought a postponement to at least 2030, but the summit document did not grant it. ETS2 remains scheduled for 2028 under current rules.
The final text asks the Commission to reassess all effects of ETS2, particularly its design and safeguard mechanisms, which RMF FM says opens a route to a possible delay.
Tusk opposed sending part of ETS revenue to the EU budget for 2028-2034. RMF FM estimated that if 30% of ETS income flowed to the budget, Poland would send over one billion euros a year to Brussels.
President Karol Nawrocki is reported by RMF FM as a firm opponent of ETS, and any rules creating new EU budget revenue would need his signature.
On Thursday, 15 October, EU leaders in Brussels did not grant the postponement of ETS2 to at least 2030 that Poland had pushed for together with Italy and the Visegrad Group, RMF FM reported. Under current rules ETS2 is scheduled to take effect in 2028 and extends carbon pricing to road transport and buildings. Instead, the final summit document asks the European Commission to reassess all effects of the system, in particular its design and safeguard mechanisms. Polish diplomats told RMF FM that this wording put a foot in the door, but a delay to 2030 is not decided and the topic remains open.
Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš told RMF FM that discussions on energy prices and ETS ran until midnight and that the group blocked adoption of the summit conclusions several times. He said he and Giorgia Meloni presented two charts that, in his account, showed ETS1 did not match the Commission's 2020 forecasts and was damaging European industry. Poland, Italy and the Visegrad Group had argued that high energy prices leave companies in need of breathing room. Sweden, Finland and Denmark took the opposite position, warning that weakening the system could undermine investments their factories had already made in low-emission solutions.
According to RMF FM, Donald Tusk fought on three fronts on the first day of the summit: against allocating ETS revenue to the new EU budget, for shielding European industry from system costs, and for postponing ETS2. Tusk tied his opposition to the defence of the eastern border and said it was hard to expect Poland to pay more into the common pot. RMF FM estimated that if 30% of ETS income went to the EU budget, Poland would send more than one billion euros a year to Brussels. The final text also states that the ongoing ETS revision should aim at industrial competitiveness and at preventing carbon leakage, meaning factories moving to countries with looser climate rules. President Karol Nawrocki, RMF FM reported, firmly opposes ETS, and any rules creating new EU budget revenue would need his signature.
Anna Bryłka, a Confederation MEP, warned that Poland faces a clash with the European Union whoever governs after 2027.
“We have to go into a collision with the European Union, and I expect that whoever governs after 2027 will have to enter that collision.”
PiS MEP Jacek Ozdoba responded on X, accusing Tusk of feigning a fight against the postponement and recalling the final vote on the revision of the ETS directive on 18 April 2023. In his account, all Coalition, PSL and Left MEPs voted in favour while PiS was against, and the Polish government in the EU Council backed it too. Ozdoba then posted a list of 2023 votes that marked several names of MEPs from KO and Lewica.
The Commission now has to re-examine ETS2, and RMF FM reported that Poland still needs to build a wider coalition of states to win the postponement. Bryłka said on the programme Graffiti that no majority existed among member states for a delay. She said countries in the region, Italy and Greece oppose ETS2, while other states support its start in 2028. She also claimed the cost could reach 60 groszy per litre of diesel and urged Poland to tell the Commission now that it will not implement the system from 2028.
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The Brussels summit ended without the postponement to 2030 that Poland, Italy and the Visegrad Group sought. Instead, the final document requires the Commission to reassess ETS2's design and safeguard mechanisms.
AI text based on reports by oko.press, wpolityce.pl, rmf24.pl and other publishers. Published .