Vice president of Orlen: EU taxation to defend European industry

CBAM, the EU border price adjustment mechanics including CO emissions₂, to be a shield for European industry. According to the representatives of the Orlen Group, although in explanation it is simply a good tool, it inactive needs to be refined. In the fertiliser industry, there are cases of circumvention of the fresh mechanism. As they emphasise, while the strategy needs to be sealed in any sectors, others request to be completely abandoned.

– The CBAM mechanics introduced by the European Union can be a beautiful good strategy to defend the marketplace and European industry. However, we inactive do not see the effect of these regulations. In our opinion, they are highly underworked. Either we focus on security, or we let part of the marketplace to operate no substance what and bypass CBAM regulations – says Newseria Witold Literary, Vice president of the Corporate Management Board of Orlen SA.

CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) is an EU border price adjustment mechanism, including carbon dioxide emissions. It concerns imports of certain goods into the European Union and aims at measuring greenhouse gas emissions generated in their production in 3rd countries. The mechanics was introduced as a shield against the phenomenon of alleged carbon leakage. This occurs erstwhile EU-based companies decision high-carbon production abroad where climate policy is little stringent and then export their products to the EU market. This means that products from the European Union are replaced by cheaper imported products with higher carbon dioxide emissions. Through CBAM, imported goods are besides to bear the cost of emissions. This is intended to destruct a competitive advantage based on inexpensive but harmful production.

– The thought with CBAM is good, but should we trust solely on it in the improvement of the EU economy and production within the European Union? Honestly, no. We should be competitive in ourselves, not relying solely on limiting the supply of cheaper products from outside the Union – emphasises Witold Literary.

The implementation of the CBAM mechanics is intended to defend the competitiveness of the economy, support the maintenance of existing ones and make fresh jobs in manufacture across the European Union. The problem is that, in the opinion of experts, not everything is working as it should.

– It comes to circumventing the CBAM regulations on fertilizers that are very crucial to us. Anwil has very large problems with the incredibly large influx of fertilisers from Russia and Belarus, outside the Union, which are produced contrary to the climate rules imposed by the European Union. Yet they flood the European marketplace and unfortunately destruct our plants – explains Vice president Orlen.

According to Eurostat data, in the 3rd 4th of 2025 Russia was the second largest supplier of fertilizers to the European Union, its share of imports from outside the Community was 13% (although it was over 33% a 4th before). any Russian and Belarusian fertilisers, including nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, were not subject to restrictions or import duties until mid-last year erstwhile the Community imposed duties and controls on them.

– In our chemical industry, reducing the influx of fertilizers from Russia could help. The European Union will finance the war on Ukraine by buying fertilizers from the East, thus having its own money developed in the European Union – emphasises Witold Literary.

According to data from the European Commission, imports of fertilisers into the Union decreased from nearly 2.5 million t in January 2025 to 1.1 million t in January 2026. Organisations bringing together farmers who are afraid about the situation are informing that this is the effect of introducing fees under the CBAM mechanism. On the another hand, the organisation which brings together European fertiliser producers Fertilizers Europe estimates that many factors have influenced this decline, including almost twice as much as last year's fertiliser inflow in December 2025.

The Polish Chamber of Chemical manufacture besides draws attention to the hazard of circumventing CBAM. Nevertheless, it is considered to be an crucial tool for protecting and equalising the conditions of competition between EU and non-EU producers. Among the demands of the Chamber is to strengthen measures against circumventing CBAM, e.g. to introduce more effective control mechanisms and to strengthen the verification mechanism.

– There are industries where CBAM should work, but unfortunately this does not happen. At this point it is simply a tool that is not full used. We besides believe that there are certain areas in which CBAM should not operate. There's oil or gas we're downloading from outside the Union. The imposition of a taxation on these energy sources would only consequence in higher prices for consumers, so this would be unfortunate. This tool must be used, but wisely and with head – noted Orlen’s Vice president for Corporate Affairs.

The CBAM mechanics includes goods from, among others, fertilizers, cement, iron and steel, aluminium, but besides electricity or hydrogen. However, the fees relate only to selected products covered by the applicable CN codes.

Representatives of the cement manufacture besides have concerns about the tightness of the system. As they stress, without effective CBAM, inexpensive cement from countries outside the European Union will proceed to compete with European production. The Cement Producers Association estimates that last year Poland could receive a evidence 1.7 million t of cement, of which almost 1 million t from Ukraine.

The CBAM mechanics and its impact on European manufacture was 1 of the topics of the expert debate "Poland 2026 Horizon of Change", organised by the European Commission, the European Parliament and Newseria. Orlen was a strategical partner of the event.