Michel Giannuzzi is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Verallia, Europe’s leading glass packaging manufacturer, and President of FEVE, the European Container Glass Federation. Present in Antwerp for the new European industry summit, he explains the challenges facing his sector on the eve of the informal EU leaders’ retreat, and calls for the suspension of the new ETS calculation rules. (Interview by Solenn Paulic)
Agence Europe - What message does the glass industry have for the EU?
Michel Giannuzzi - We represent all types of glass in Europe, including container glass, building glass, vehicle glass, perfume glass, pharmaceutical glass and tableware glass. This accounts for around half a million jobs in Europe and we contribute to a positive trade balance for Europe, with wine and spirits exports, for example.
But the sector is currently struggling: European consumption is sluggish. And our customers, who export mainly wines and spirits to Asia and the United States, are feeling the effects of customs duties and tariff barriers.
A number of factories are closing because the market is no longer there. On top of this, there is the cost of energy. This is the main cost factor in glass production, and it is three times higher in Europe than in China or the United States. Our industry is committed to decarbonisation, since it is highly energy-intensive. We are spreading our investments over time. Decarbonisation is progressing well, but because of the way our industry works - you don’t replace a glass furnace every two years - it is not moving fast enough to keep up with regulations.
In particular, in the short term, there is the tightening of the rules governing the free allocation of allowances to the unproductive sector. On 1 January, we entered a new four-year period with a new calculation method, which will double the cost for the glass industry. This is a major handicap.
What do you expect from Europe’s leaders this Thursday at Alden Biesen?
Even if we don’t change the decarbonisation objective, we need to help companies and industrial sectors that are committed to decarbonisation, either through subsidies or by stopping imposing additional charges.
We need to think about how we can accelerate the electrification of our furnaces. In addition to the cost of the technology, there is also the cost of electricity.
So we need a different way of pricing electricity; there are a whole raft of taxes on electricity and transport that could be removed. And as concerns the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), we are calling for a return to the calculation methods used in the previous phase. In the short term, this would be a great help.
We’re not hugely concerned about the need for a ‘European preference’, and we’re already a very European industry, but we need to keep a ‘made in Europe’ glass industry rather than importing glass from outside Europe. We are here today to protect our jobs.