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Thank you very much, Theresa.

Ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon to all of you.

Today's proposal on the ETS brings together 3 key goals. Sustained truly ambitious climate action.

Much more competitiveness and a huge boost for our independence.

It advances climate action,

but at the same time it transforms the ETS into a genuine engine for innovation and investment and reindustrializing Europe for the clean economy of the future.

It also helps to significantly level the playing field for companies and industries across the European Union.

Strengthen the business case for made in the EU.

Follows our simplification logic, cutting unnecessary red tape, and if we deliver on this plan,

it would literally mean hundreds of billions in additional investments on European soil.

But before I dive in, please allow me to consider what the ETS is and what it has done.

No other policy instrument in Europe has helped to reduce emissions on the same scale as the ETS. It is a phenomenal asset.

In our climate toolbox and if you look at the numbers,

you would find that since 2005 the ETS has helped cut emissions by roughly 50%,

50% in the sectors that it covers.

And that is important because it helps to tackle the huge climate problem we are facing.

It helps because it reduces the dramatic dependencies we have on fossil fuels that we need to bring into Europe.

Without the ETS, Europe would now consume 100 BCM more gas,

making us even more vulnerable than we are already today.

And of course what it has also done, it is a much needed revenue generator,

and we have used that to then invest in innovation and industrial decarbonization,

and the number is roughly 270 billion since 2013. So a truly great design.

But let's also acknowledge that it comes with 3 weaknesses we have insufficiently anticipated.

First, the world has changed considerably with key European industries facing an unlevel playing field. Heavy state subsidies, dumping.

Dubious labor conditions abroad, all of that have wrecked havoc in key sectors of our economy.

We've rectified the balance to some extent with changes to CEA.

But there is more that we have to do within the domain of the ETS and beyond.

Second, a great deal of companies have made investments in a clean future.

We also have to acknowledge that others have not done enough to decarbonise in Europe and have invested rather outside of Europe. And that in our view, cannot stand.

Third, if you look at the picture of what happens with the money,

Member States receive roughly 80% of all the revenues from the ETS.

But of that 80%, less than 10% has been spent on industrial decarbonisation, and that was always the promise.

It was not a tax, it was an engine for industrial decarbonisation.

So industry in our view rightly demands that more significantly more should flow back to decarbonize these sectors.

In terms of the main elements, first on the direction and the ambition.

Today's proposal sets a trajectory that is fully in line, and I would like to underline it fully in line with the EU's 2040 climate goals,

the 90% that we have set before, so that makes it truly ambitious,

yet it rewards investments that have been made.

Second, we are adopting a more business friendly and, may I say so,

savvy approach which recognizes those who have invested in the clean transition.

If you're an economic first mover, if you are a frontrunner in the transition, You will continue to be rewarded,

and our objective is to boost the industries at the heart of the European economy.

We'll do so by extending free allocations after 2030,

but then in return for companies investing in decarbonisation in Europe.

That is one of the key differences with before. Free allocation does not mean free cash.

100% of the free allowances will need to be invested in Europe in decarbonisation.

This addresses in our view, the problem of companies.

Some of them are doing that, pocketing the free allocations and then selling them on the market and using the money elsewhere.

The next point to this is that Member States will also be required to spend 50% of their national ETS revenues on investments to decarbonise ETS sectors,

and alongside all of this, we will dramatically ramp up investments in innovation and in decarbonisation.

The EU's ETS Innovation Fund will continue to support first commercial applications of truly innovative technologies in a wide range of sectors.

On top of that,

there will be a new industrial decarbonisation bank with €100 billion in funding going towards industrial decarbonisation all across Europe at scale.

Part of that is a 30 billion ETS investment booster that will be available already before 2030.

And when all of that is combined, we're turning the ETS truly into an innovation and investment engine.

To make Europe's industry fit for a clean future.

Third, the ETS will cover more sectors, helping to drive the clean transition truly across the economy,

all in all, hundreds of billions in the next decade.

On maritime, we will be channeling a lot more money back to the sector.

About 15 billion a year, which is roughly 8 times the current level.

We will also be giving the maritime industry a solid push to get its decarbonisation efforts off the ground with support for sustainable maritime fuel,

and in turn this will help to establish a pan-European market for refining these fuels. We're also bringing smaller ships into scope.

With some deliberate exemptions, for example, for ferries.

Finally, we've introduced measures which show how strongly we stand for a level playing field.

We're adding more ports in the southern Mediterranean to tackle ETS evasion, and we're not asking anything from anyone that we're not asking from ourselves,

but we do want to make sure that garbage is not being leaked.

Done on aviation There is One of the few,

some would say the only major sector where emissions are going up rather than going down.

At the same time, the EU faces a level playing field issue.

Currently, the ETS only covers the EEA, and quite a few countries subsidize their airlines in ways we do not.

And that is why as of 2029 carbon pricing will apply to any flight that lands within 5000 kilometers of the geographic center of Europe.

That means, for example,

that a flight now from let's say Brussels to one of the Greek islands will be treated in the same way as a flight arriving in the neighborhood but then outside of the EU.

We're also planning to channel much more money back to the sector.

We're talking about $15 billion between 2029 and 2040 as opposed to 1.5 billion currently over an eight-year period.

And just as we have done for maritime, we will give the aviation sector a huge boost,

as they've rightfully asked for, for sustainable aviation fuel. Also all private jets.

All private jets either departing or landing will be covered.

If you ask yourself why a family flying again from Brussels to for example Benidorm,

paying ETS for the tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids should pay ETS while someone flying in a private jet can go up and forth and not pay a single time.

That we should change and that should be stopped.

Municipal waste incineration, another area covered by the ETS or in the future covered by ETS, and the idea here is to encourage waste prevention and recycling,

making it more cost effective than incineration and giving a real boost to the circular economy.

Of course, not everything can be recycled, and when that's the case,

incineration is accepted, provided the carbon is captured.

Will also add 250 million tons of permanent domestic carbon removals into the ETS,

and that will give EU industry a bit more breathing space and help kickstart the market for removals.

Ladies and gentlemen, in today's ETS proposal, we truly take a major step forward. We're bringing together once again.

Ambitious climate action with competitiveness, opening the door to Europe's reindustrialization,

making a real push for energy independence.

We're modernizing it, we're strengthening it, and we will do it differently for our industry.

While the ETS is important, of course we will need to fix. EU's industry more at large.

We simply need outside of this domain to continue the quest for simplification.

Completion of our internal market, a capital markets union, and an end to the unlevel playing field too many of our companies are facing.

We're convinced that along with all these measures,

today's review is the best way forward once again for climate competitiveness and independence. Thank you.