Three Democratic Party mayors from Emilia tell the party secretary: the ETS system isn’t for everyone

Rome. A handful of PD mayors, in the heart of Emilia governed by the pragmatic Democrat Michele De Pascale. Mayors who, from the ceramics district – a manufacturing belt spanning the provinces of Bologna, Modena and Reggio Emilia – stand up and tell PD Secretary Elly Schlein (fresh from a meeting with Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini), and to the European Commission and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, that the ETS system must be changed, because, as it stands, the ETS stifles investment in energy-intensive industries, hampers competitiveness and puts the Italian ceramics sector at a disadvantage compared to competitors from countries that do not adhere to the same environmental standards (such as India and China). (Rizzini, continued in insert IV)

The mayors of Sassuolo, Matteo Mesini, and Fiorano Modenese, Marco Biagini, authors of a letter sent simultaneously to Schlein and Meloni, explain to Il Foglio that Europe “cannot lose its manufacturing sector”. If new rules are to be drawn up (and perhaps, in September, the much-talked-about but elusive centre-left programme), “we must start at the local level”, say Mesini, Biagini and Giorgio Zanni, mayor of Castellarano and president of the Province of Reggio Emilia, who flew to Brussels alongside Mesini and the vice-president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Vincenzo Colla, to champion the cause of a sector “that creates jobs, innovation and true sustainability every day”. In Brussels, and in their letter to Schlein and Meloni, the mayors also extended an invitation: come and see a district that works and provides jobs for 40,000 people. “These aren’t just numbers,” says Mesini: “They are families, professionals, an industrial supply chain that sustains an entire region.” What are these mayors asking of the Prime Minister and her secretary? “Rules that protect those who are genuinely competitive, those who work, and those who invest in ceramics – a sector that is already the greenest and most sustainable in the world.” “A nationwide response is needed to defend the district and thousands of jobs,” reads the letter sent to the Nazareno and Palazzo Chigi. The point is this: the issue is a national priority; the Sassuolo ceramics district accounts for 87 per cent of the sector’s national output, with over 14,000 direct employees and around 40 million people involved in the entire supply chain, including ancillary industries, services and logistics. The initiative, explain the district’s mayors, follows on from the warning issued by Orsini himself during Confindustria’s National Assembly regarding the risk of undermining the competitiveness of the Italian and European industrial systems through unsustainable energy costs and environmental burdens. This concern, they say, also affects the labour market: local trade unions have, in recent months, expressed concern over the rise in the use of the wage supplementation scheme and the potential impact on employment linked to the combined effects of the energy crisis and regulatory uncertainty at European level. Without adequate corrective measures, the ETS system – when applied to ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors such as ceramics, which still lack technologically mature alternatives to natural gas – risks imploding. The call is for Italy to take a strong stance at European level. “Our companies are already among the most sustainable in the world,” says Mesini, “but they continue to face deeply unfair competition from non-European producers. “The concern now is for people, the social repercussions of this scenario,” says Biagini. As it stands, the ETS system risks draining resources and effectively becoming a tax: “We are not questioning the validity of the underlying principle, but without a change of course, there is a risk that businesses will relocate to other areas,” the three mayors reiterate. In short, it would be better to avoid over-ambitious measures on emissions reduction, “to enable regions and businesses to remain competitive”. Zanni adds: “The sector is under strain. The combination of the energy crisis, rising energy costs and the ETS system is creating a short circuit. And not all industries are the same. We must listen to local communities on sensitive issues such as these, where the relationship between the centre-left and the business community is already based on new paradigms, with mutual and fruitful dialogue. And let us remember that the business world creates jobs”. Forewarned is half-saved? In the meantime, the mayors are awaiting official responses.