Czech environment minister calls for expanded EU carbon border measures

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) should cover more products, such as building or textile materials, Czech Environment Minister Petr Hladík told Euractiv Czechia, adding that it could encourage the world to reduce emissions.

The CBAM is the EU’s tool to combat carbon leakage. From January 2026, foreign producers of iron, steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium, electricity and hydrogen will have to pay the same carbon price as EU producers. The tool is currently in the initial phase of collecting and reporting emissions data to the European Commission.

According to the Czech minister, the CBAM should have a broader scope.

“If there is one thing I want after the European elections, it is to extend CBAM to a whole range of products, such as textiles, insulation materials, building materials,” Minister Hladík said in an interview for Euractiv Czechia.

The Czech minister said that expanding CBAM could help European manufacturers and encourage the rest of the world to reduce emissions.

“If anything motivated India and other big players, including South America, to make a commitment at the climate conference, it was the European CBAM,” Hladík added.

Commenting on the EU’s green agenda after the EU elections, Hladík said that two main tasks are currently being discussed by EU ministers. First, the EU should focus on cutting red tape. Second, the EU’s climate policy should be more pragmatic.

“We (Czechia) have always said that, and I think it is now the position of the whole EU,” the Czech minister explained.

Hladík also has doubts about the Green Deal as a title for the EU’s key strategy. “It (Green Deal) has become a buzzword. I think the term misrepresents what it is all about. If it was ‘Deal for Future’ or ‘Deal for Life’, it would reflect the objective much more,” he told Euractiv Czechia, adding that the main goal should be modernising the European economy.

(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)