FACE welcomes the vote of the European Parliament on aluminium as a strategic material, a longstanding request. Europe must act now to save its aluminium industry and make green aluminium a key material of its decarbonisation and reindustrialisation policy.
To this end, a trade war with the US must be avoided, outdated import tariffs on raw aluminium must be eliminated, the CBAM should be replaced by a super and simple IRA-style incentive (using and redirecting hundreds of billions of euros from our Covid and other stimulus packages).
Our European open strategic autonomy must be build around a robust downstream sector which needs abundant, competitive and low carbon supplies of primary aluminium from everywhere to fill our colossal EU raw material deficit and sustain our companies facing fierce international competition.
Smelting and recycling must be equally supported in the EU, notably with subsidised electricity prices and an ambitious revival of civil nuclear energy programs alongside the ending of fossil fuels and the rise of renewables.
Europe needs energy-intensive industries to remain a world power. The only way is to prioritise simultaneously competitiveness, decarbonation and support to SMEs.
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