At the Agriculture Council meeting on Monday 26 January in Brussels, Austria, supported by a number of countries, including France, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Romania, called for the immediate suspension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism for fertilisers.
CBAM requires importers to pay a carbon price equivalent to that paid by European producers under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). For fertilisers, which are energy-intensive, this automatically increases the cost of imports (see EUROPE 13791/11).
“The situation in the arable farming sector is alarming”, according to France.
Finland and Germany were cautious about suspending CBAM for fertilisers.
The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, pointed out that the European Commission had already taken steps to mitigate the impact of CBAM on farmers, including: - the introduction of a flat rate reduced to 1% per year for the default values used to calculate the carbon load of fertilisers; - a proposal to revise the CBAM Regulation to monitor the impact of CBAM on the internal market and temporarily suspend CBAM for certain products in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
On the subject of customs duties, Mr Hansen said that the Commission had proposed a temporary suspension of duties on ammonia, urea and potentially other fertilisers.
The Commission is also preparing an action plan on fertilisers for the first half of 2026, including: - short- and long-term measures; - the partial substitution of chemical fertilisers by recycling nutrients; - the reduction of the use of chemical fertilisers; - the diversification of imports to reduce dependency.
Finally, he indicated that he would carefully examine the Austrian proposals to see if any of them could be integrated into this future action plan.
The EU’s agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) point out that the price increases linked to the entry into force of the CBAM are putting “unsustainable pressure on the viability of farms”. The broad support expressed by ministers in favour of urgent action is therefore welcome, according to Copa-Cogeca, which is calling in particular for an immediate pause in the application of CBAM to fertilisers until the uncertainties linked to CO2 pricing have been resolved. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)