European Council stalls on energy, Italy and Visegrad countries push back on Ets

The European Council meeting in Brussels ended in deadlock over part of the conclusions dedicated to energy. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, the Visegrad group — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary — backed by Italy and Greece, proposed watering down the section of the final document dedicated to the Ets, the European emissions trading scheme. The proposal split the room and forced leaders to postpone the finalisation of the text.

The summit had an unusually packed agenda, so much so that it unfolded over two days instead of just one, as AdnKronos reports. On the energy front, heads of state and government nonetheless agreed, according to Il Globo, on the need for short-term measures to protect households, businesses and national economies from the impact of energy costs — common ground that did not, however, translate into a shared text on the Ets.

On the eve of the summit, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had outlined Italy’s priorities in Parliament. Addressing both chambers, as ANSA reports, Meloni pointed to the cost of energy as the problem weighing most heavily today on the competitiveness of the Italian economy, stressing that the country’s energy mix still retains a significant share of gas. A position that explains, at least in part, Rome’s alignment with the countries asking for a softening of the emissions rules.

The second front of the summit was the Union’s multiannual budget. At the centre of the negotiations, AdnKronos reports, is the search for €450 billion in new own resources, proposed by the Commission starting in 2028, to finance the 2028-2034 financial framework. A figure that remains on the table without the Council having reached a definitive agreement over the two-day meeting in Belgium.

On the second day of talks, leaders heard from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the latest developments in the conflict, as Il Globo confirms. The briefing came within a summit that had to hold together, on the same agenda, the war on the Union’s doorstep and the resilience of national budgets in the face of rising energy prices — two issues that, according to the conclusions still under discussion, remain more intertwined than ever.

On the domestic front, Meloni had also reiterated that, with regard to Ukraine, the Italian government’s position does not change, remarks made in Parliament before departing for Brussels. A continuity of line that Italy brought to the European table together with the request, shared with five other countries, to revise the section of the document on the Ets.

“Our goal remains to reach an agreement by the end of this year” — Antonio Costa, President of the European Council

The text of the conclusions thus remains open on the energy section, while negotiations on the 2028-2034 budget and the knot of the €450 billion in new own resources will continue in the coming weeks of talks among member states.