20
May
2026
Watch
Reviewing the ETS system to support European competitiveness (topical debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, ETS, three letters, an acronym that smells of above-ground bureaucracy and a question that always comes up: Who's gonna pay the bill? Three letters that strangle our industrial flagships, sacrificed for a breathless carbon market. Three letters that cause every day cascading bankruptcies in all the European flagships of the steel, chemical, construction sectors, all those sectors that make the strength and pride of our countries. Three letters that already resonate like the nightmare of French, German, Italian or Polish motorists. As early as 2028, the entry into force of the ETS II system will cause pump prices to soar by €0.15 per litre. It is more than 600 euros per year of additional tax on the bill of a French family dependent on his vehicle to work, to move, to visit his family or to go on vacation. In Brussels as in Paris, you keep hitting the same ones out of ideology: the middle classes, working families, workers, the liberal professions and entrepreneurs. Energy, we will not stop reminding, it is the blood of our economies. In the international context that we know, Ormuz reminds us every day, it is one of the most vital resources for our countries. It must in no way remain a luxury on our continent, otherwise reindustrialisation will only be an additional slogan to your balance sheet. Our factories will not recover without the takeover of our national electricity tariffs, without freeing the economy and labor from fiscal and normative constraints, without economic patriotism or intelligent protectionism against the American and Chinese superpowers. Here is what the peoples of Europe expect from us: to produce here and at home, to defend and protect our industries, to reconnect with the spirit of power, the taste for growth, the common good and, above all, for prosperity.