PRESS RELEASE
14 July 2021
Europeans for Fair Competition (E4FC) supports the ambition of the European Commission to reduce carbon emissions but sees the need to introduce smart measures to avoid competitive distortion and carbon leakage.
E4FC believes that the Fit for 55 package is a comprehensive policy approach encompassing several elements applicable to aviation, most markedly the revision of the EU ETS as well as the ReFuelEU Aviation initiative promoting sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).
While still assessing the impact of this robust package, E4FC reminds the EU institutions that aviation is a global industry and legislation cannot address it in isolation from the rest of the world. The proposed initiatives will require substantial investments and add to the costs of European airlines, thereby most certainly impacting the global competitiveness of European network airlines and their employees. As parts of the proposals have the potential to trigger “carbon leakage” (counteracting the environmental efforts of the EU), E4FC is calling for smart measures to avoid such effects, for example by including aviation in a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). This is not the case in today’s proposals.
E4FC also expects that the EU will ensure that measures taken in relation to the global climate challenge are carefully assessed so that these do not create adverse effects regarding other major challenges the EU aviation industry is facing. An example is the efforts the EU is putting into creating a more socially sustainable aviation that should not be jeopardized by the recent proposals.
Therefore, E4FC calls on the EU institutions to ensure that the new initiatives contain elements that prevent competitive disadvantages to European airlines and their employees both at the EU internal market and vis-à-vis third country airlines and unintended environmental consequences are avoided.
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