The European Parliament has voted to strengthen the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), supporting a broader scope for downstream aluminium products and tighter measures against circumvention. The vote on 15 September 2026 represents a further step towards extending carbon-cost requirements beyond primary aluminium and into products further down the value chain.
Among the changes supported by MEPs is the inclusion of specific aluminium-intensive downstream goods, including fasteners, wire, springs and certain household products. The European Parliament’s position goes beyond the European Commission’s original proposal, which identified 180 downstream steel and aluminium products for inclusion.
A key amendment concerns the de minimis threshold. Parliament supports reducing the proposed exemption from 50 tonnes to 5 tonnes per importer per year for aluminium, limiting the volume of imports that could remain outside CBAM requirements. European Aluminium argues that the higher threshold could have left significant quantities of higher-value aluminium products outside the mechanism while competing with EU-produced goods carrying carbon costs.
MEPs also backed measures addressing the use of scrap and other potential circumvention practices, including rules intended to prevent emissions from being understated through resource shuffling. 
European Aluminium welcomed the vote, stating that the measures could reduce risks of regulatory arbitrage and trade diversion. The organisation has called for these provisions to be maintained during the forthcoming negotiations with EU member states.
Source: reuters.com with additional information added by Glass Balkan
