Prime Minister Fico Proposes Moratorium for ETS at Informal EU Summit

Bilzen-Hoeselt, 13 February (TASR-correspondent) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated after the informal EU summit at Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium on Thursday that the emissions trading system (ETS1) and its extension to transport and housing (ETS2) is inappropriate under the current crisis conditions in the EU and should at least be subject to a moratorium, TASR has learnt from its correspondent. According to Fico, an analysis prepared by the European Commission (EC) several years ago outlined how the price of emission allowances would rise, indicating around €80 in 2042. However, according to Fico, the price is almost €90 in 2026. Referring to a proposal to cap the prices for allowances, as presented by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, the Slovak prime minister said that "it's impossible to do this at a national level, with some countries applying or not applying the cap. It must be capped for the entire EU". "We must clearly say that this system doesn't work well for us, that it's not good, and that the resulting hikes in electricity prices will make us uncompetitive," added Fico. He noted that the ETS2 system covering emissions related to transport and housing was also mentioned at the summit. "The timing for introducing this system was bad because there's a crisis and we aren't doing well," he warned. Fico welcomed the fact that ETS2 has been postponed by one year, but at least the Visegrad Four countries (V4: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) want it to be scrapped for good or postponed at least until 2030, or until the situation is stable again. Fico recalled that Babis, in his letter to the EC, pointed to much higher prices than those anticipated by the EU executive in 2020. "I don't know what the EC president will come up with, because she must come up with a proposal," he said. The Slovak prime minister added that the European Council, the most important political body, isn't able to come up with certain legislative proposals, as this would require changing the basic treaties, which is basically impossible. "I'm only pointing out that the current situation, in which we are completely dependent on what the EC submits, isn't entirely good," stated Fico. jrg/df