Considerations on COM(2025)87 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 as regards simplifying and strengthening the carbon border adjustment mechanism - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2025)87 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 as regards simplifying and strengthening the carbon border adjustment mechanism. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2025)87  |
| date | February 26, 2025 |
(2) Based on the experience acquired and data collected during the transitional period, the distribution of importers of CBAM goods into the Union shows that only a small proportion of importers accounts for the vast majority of embedded emissions in those goods. The derogation applied to the importation of goods of negligible value referred to in Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 (consignments of a value below EUR 150) appears insufficient to ensure that the CBAM applies to importers in proportion to their impact on emissions covered by Regulation (EU) 2023/956. For those importers of small quantities of goods, compliance with CBAM reporting and financial obligations could be unduly burdensome. Furthermore, as part of the 2023 Customs reform package, the Commission proposed to remove this derogation 15 . Therefore, a new derogation should be introduced to exempt importers of small quantities in terms of mass of CBAM goods from CBAM obligations, while preserving the environmental objective of that mechanism and its capacity to achieve its climate objective.
(3) A new threshold based on cumulative mass per importer per year should be introduced in Regulation (EU) 2023/956, ensuring that more than 99% of emissions are maintained in scope. This is a robust and targeted approach as it accurately reflects the environmental nature of the CBAM by taking into account all imported emissions over a period of time in determining the threshold. It also eliminates the risk of circumvention through the artificial splitting of consignments by a single importer.
(4) A mass-based threshold reflecting the average emissions intensity of the volume of imported CBAM goods would better translate the climate objective of the CBAM. A single mass-based threshold applying cumulatively to all CBAM goods in the iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers and cement sectors imported by importers during a calendar year is the simplest design for importers, as they will not have to obtain or provide any data additional to those provided in the customs declaration, thereby reducing substantially any CBAM-related administrative burden for these importers. A threshold set at a level of 50 tonnes will exempt the vast majority of importers from obligations under Regulation (EU) 2023/956 while maintaining more than 99% of embedded emissions in the scope of the CBAM. To establish the threshold, a new Annex VII should be introduced.
(5) The main principles governing the threshold, including ensuring that nearly all embedded emissions remain in the scope of the CBAM, should be laid down in Regulation (EU) 2023/956 to provide legal certainty. Regulation (EU) 2023/956 should also provide for the possibility to re-calculate the threshold on the basis of updated average emission intensities of imported goods or significant changes in trade patterns or practices of circumvention affecting the coverage of embedded emissions in the scope of the CBAM.
(6) To ensure that the derogation is sufficiently targeted, it should apply to the importer. The indirect customs representative, due to the nature of its activity and the related obligations under Regulation (EU) 2023/956, should always be required to obtain an authorisation.
(7) The competent authorities and the Commission should – based on customs information – monitor the quantities of goods imported to assess compliance with the threshold. To allow the competent authorities to make an informed decision, the customs authorities and the Commission should make the necessary information and data available to the competent authorities. Where the competent authority concludes that an importer has exceeded the threshold, it should communicate that information to the customs authorities who, in turn, should not allow further importation of goods from that importer until the end of the calendar year, or until that importer has obtained the status of authorised CBAM declarant.
(8) Where an importer expects to exceed the annual threshold or intends to import goods after exceeding the threshold, the importer should apply for authorisation pursuant to Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2023/956. For importers who have not been granted the authorisation before exceeding the threshold, penalties should apply for the entirety of the imported goods in accordance with Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/956. The payment of the penalty in accordance with Article 26(2) of that Regulation should release the importer from the obligation to submit a CBAM declaration and to surrender CBAM certificates.
(9) To ensure that the definition of an importer covers all relevant customs procedures, it is necessary to amend it to include the case of the simplified customs procedure where only a bill of discharge is submitted pursuant to Article 175(5) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 16 .
(10) To strike a balance between the effectiveness of the authorisation procedure and the risk profile of the applicants, the consultation procedure should be optional for the competent authority. The consultation procedure should allow the competent authority to consult other competent authorities and the Commission when considered necessary based on the information submitted by the applicant and customs information made available in the CBAM registry.
(11) To provide additional flexibility, the authorised CBAM declarants should be able to delegate the submission of the CBAM declaration to a third party. The authorised CBAM declarant should remain liable for the submission of the CBAM declaration. To provide the required delegation and access, that third party should fulfil certain technical credentials, including holding an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number and being established in a Member State.
(12) Authorised CBAM declarants are required to submit their annual CBAM declaration and surrender the corresponding number of certificates by 31 May of the year following the year of import. In order to provide authorised CBAM declarants flexibility to comply with their obligations, a later date of submission would provide authorised CBAM declarants more time to collect the necessary information, ensure that embedded emissions are verified by an accredited verifier, and purchase the corresponding number of CBAM certificates. The date for the cancellation of CBAM certificates should be adjusted accordingly.
(13) The embedded emissions of some aluminium and steel goods currently included in the scope of CBAM are primarily determined by the embedded emissions of input materials (precursors), while the emissions arising during the production steps of those goods are typically relatively low. They consist of finishing processes that are carried out by separate installations not covered by the EU emissions trading system (‘EU ETS’) as provided for in Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 17 , except for the case of integrated facilities. The embedded emissions of those production processes should be excluded from the system boundaries of the calculation of emissions.
(14) Where input materials (precursors) have already been subject to the EU ETS or to a carbon pricing system that is fully linked with the EU ETS, the embedded emissions of those precursors should not be accounted for in the calculation of the embedded emissions of complex goods.
(15) Authorised CBAM declarants are required to submit an annual CBAM declaration containing the calculation of embedded emissions on the basis of either default values or actual values verified by accredited verifiers. Default values will be calculated and made available by the Commission. Therefore, the verification of embedded emissions should only apply to actual values.
(16) Information collected during the transitional period illustrates difficulties for reporting declarants to obtain the required information on the carbon price effectively paid in a third country. To facilitate the deduction of the carbon price, the Commission should, where possible, establish an annual average carbon price expressed in EUR/tCO2e of the effective carbon price paid, based on the best available data from reliable, publicly available information and information provided by third countries, including on a conservative basis.
(17) Authorised CBAM declarants may claim a reduction in the number of CBAM certificates to be surrendered corresponding to the carbon price effectively paid in the country of origin for the declared embedded emissions. Since the carbon price may be paid in a third country other than the country of origin of the imported goods, such carbon price should also be eligible for deduction.
(18) To improve the reliability of the emissions data contained in the CBAM registry and to facilitate the submission of data, accredited verifiers should be allowed to access the CBAM registry to verify the embedded emissions upon request from an operator in third countries. In addition, parent companies or related undertakings of those operators should be allowed to access the CBAM registry for the purpose of registering and sharing relevant data on behalf of the controlled operator. The operators should be required to provide a corporate or activity registration number to ensure their identification.
(19) To foster the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 at national level, Member States should ensure that the competent authorities have the necessary powers to perform their duties.
(20) To provide authorised CBAM declarants sufficient time to prepare for compliance with the amended obligations under Regulation (EU) 2023/956, Member States should start selling CBAM certificates in 2027 for emissions embedded in goods imported during the year 2026. The price of CBAM certificates, purchased in 2027 and corresponding to emissions embedded in goods imported into the EU in 2026, should reflect the prices of EU ETS allowances in 2026.
(21) The obligation for the authorised CBAM declarants to ensure that the number of CBAM certificates on their account in the CBAM registry at the end of each quarter corresponds to at least 80 % of the emissions embedded in the goods they have imported since the start of the year, is insufficiently tailored to the expected financial adjustment. It is therefore necessary to both reduce the ratio from 80 % to 50 % and integrate the free allocation of EU ETS allowances. Furthermore, the authorised CBAM declarant should be able to rely on the information submitted in the CBAM declaration in the previous year, for the same goods and third countries.
(22) The repurchase limit should likewise align more accurately with the number of CBAM certificates which the authorised CBAM declarants are required to purchase during the year of imports.
(23) Since CBAM certificates are cancelled without any compensation, there is no need for an exchange of information from the common central platform to the CBAM registry at the end of the working day.
(24) The competent authorities, when applying penalties, should be able to take into account the specific circumstances such as the intentional or negligent behaviour of the declarant. That would allow for a reduction of the amount of the penalty where minor or unintentional errors are made.
(25) The CBAM applies to certain carbon-intensive goods imported into the Union. The list of CBAM goods in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 includes ‘[o]ther kaolinic clays’ in the list of cement goods. While calcined kaolinic clays are carbon-intensive products, this is not the case for non-calcined kaolinic clays. Non-calcined kaolinic clays should therefore be excluded from the scope of the CBAM.
(26) Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2023/956 lists the goods for which only direct emissions should be taken into account in the calculation of embedded emissions. For goods not listed in that Annex, both direct and indirect emissions should be taken into account. Since indirect emissions are not relevant in the case of electricity generation, electricity should be added to the list of goods in that Annex.
(27) It is also necessary to simplify the means for determining default values when reliable data for the exporting country would not be available for a certain type of goods. In such cases, to prevent carbon leakage, the default value should be set at the level of the average emission intensity of the ten exporting countries with the highest emission intensities for which reliable data is available, which is an appropriate average to ensure the environmental objective of the CBAM. This is without prejudice to the possibility to adapt these default values based on region-specific features pursuant to point 7 of Annex IV of the CBAM.
(28) In order to amend certain non-essential elements of Regulation (EU) 2023/956, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending the threshold in Annex VII to that Regulation, where necessary, as determined in accordance with Article 2(3a) of that Regulation. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making*. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
* Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making, Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making, (OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1–14, ELI: data.europa.eu/eli/agree_interinstit/2016/512/oj ).
(29) Since the objectives of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, namely simplifying certain obligations and strengthening the mechanism that the Union has adopted to prevent the risk of carbon leakage and thereby reduce global carbon emissions but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.
(30) Regulation (EU) 2023/956 should therefore be amended accordingly.