August 9, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

LATEST
New EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureEurope Leans on Beijing to Keep Climate Talks Alive Before AntalyaNew EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureEurope Leans on Beijing to Keep Climate Talks Alive Before Antalya
August 9, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

LATEST
New EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureEurope Leans on Beijing to Keep Climate Talks Alive Before AntalyaNew EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureEurope Leans on Beijing to Keep Climate Talks Alive Before Antalya

ETS review for 2031 to 2040 opens with high-level industry roundtable

Atli Samper
Policy Watch Editor, Energy and Climate

Frankfurt: The Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action convened a high-level roundtable on 13 May 2026 with industry, civil society and selected stakeholders to explore policy priorities for the upcoming review of the EU Emissions Trading System and the Market Stability Reserve for the 2031 to 2040 period. The roundtable, chaired by Director-General Kurt Vandenberghe, sits at the procedural starting line of a review process that will shape the bloc’s principal climate instrument through the second post-2030 decade.

The ETS, established in 2005 and substantially reformed in 2023, covers approximately 40 per cent of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. Its scope has been progressively extended — to aviation, maritime transport, and from 2027 to a new ETS2 covering road transport and buildings. The Market Stability Reserve absorbs surplus allowances and stabilises the carbon price during periods of supply shock. The combined architecture has produced sustained carbon price signals that have driven significant emission reductions in covered sectors.

The review’s central questions concern the post-2030 emissions trajectory, the integration of ETS1 and ETS2, the treatment of negative emissions technologies, and the role of carbon contracts for difference in accelerating industrial decarbonisation. The Commission’s 90 per cent emissions reduction target for 2040, adopted in 2025, sets the framework target that the ETS must operationalise. Stakeholders at the roundtable raised concerns about the sequencing of policy decisions and about the predictability of the regulatory environment for the major capital investments required to meet the target.

Philipp Jäger, a senior policy fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre, has warned that any substantial weakening of ETS1 in 2026 without complementary strengthening of other pillars would risk destabilising the entire decarbonisation structure. The political context complicates the policy choices: voters in France, Italy and Poland head to the polls in 2027, and political appetite for ambitious climate action is closely tied to industrial competitiveness concerns. The Commission has proposed dedicating 35 per cent of the long-term budget to climate and environment objectives, a figure that civil society organisations consider insufficient.

The carbon removal dimension is gaining structural importance. The EU Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Regulation, adopted in 2024 and in implementation, establishes the certification framework for removals achieved through industrial technologies, carbon farming and storage. The integration of certified removals into the ETS — as a complement to emission reductions rather than a substitute — is among the most contested questions on the review agenda. Environmental organisations have argued that loose integration risks dilution of mitigation ambition, while industry voices have argued for flexibility that recognises the unavoidable residual emissions of hard-to-abate sectors.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, in full operation from January 2026, intersects with the ETS review. CBAM applies to imports of carbon-intensive goods at the EU border, mirroring the carbon cost paid by domestic producers under the ETS. The mechanism’s expansion to additional sectors is under review, and the coherence between ETS phase-out of free allocations and CBAM scope must be maintained throughout the review process. Free allocations in covered sectors will be phased out by 2034 under the current legislative framework, with CBAM revenues accruing to the EU budget as one of the new own resources.

The Commission’s planned legislative proposals on Energy Union Governance, the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive will all feed into the post-2030 climate architecture. The review of ETS is therefore not a stand-alone exercise but a centrepiece in a broader recalibration of climate, energy and industrial policy. The Commission has signalled that the next concrete steps include a comprehensive impact assessment, additional stakeholder consultations and a legislative proposal in the second half of 2026.

Comments