Council adopts CBAM simplification and 50-tonne threshold

Core record and legal stage

On 29 September 2025 the Council adopted a simplification regulation within the Omnibus I package, introducing a single mass-based 50-tonne threshold for CBAM imports. It aimed to reduce costs for small and medium-sized companies while preserving almost all emissions coverage. The Council estimated about 99% of embedded emissions in imported CBAM products would remain covered. That is an official design estimate, not a statement that the policy already cut emissions by 99%.

Mechanism

The change alters which importers have to comply with the authorisation and certificate framework. For a low-volume importer, fixed administrative burdens can dominate the monetary carbon adjustment. The quantity threshold seeks to reduce that imbalance. Above-threshold buyers must still arrange installation data and carbon accounting. It is a mass test for relevant imports, not a general tax-free allowance for every type of imported merchandise, nor a guarantee that splitting invoices eliminates obligations.

Decision-makers, money and stakes

European policymakers faced an efficiency trade-off: enforcing a complex emissions rule against thousands of small importers might consume administrative resources without capturing much carbon. Large-volume industrial importers account for a substantial share of targeted emissions, making concentration plausible. Smaller EU distributors benefit from the exemption, and customs authorities can direct efforts toward more consequential flows. But companies near the cutoff may face uneven incentives, while exporters may be asked for less emissions information if their EU customers cease being declarants.

Strongest counter-view

The most serious critique is the opportunity for artificial splitting or restructuring of import arrangements to stay below the limit. Defenders point to the high share of emissions still covered and lower compliance overhead. Enforcement should examine aggregation and anti-circumvention as well as the threshold itself. The EU's environmental ambition did not automatically change merely because the administrative scope was narrowed. The final regulation, commencement rules and competent-authority guidance govern individual obligations.

What to watch

The reform is a concrete example of feedback from an implementation phase changing legislation. It also helps explain why comparing the number of CBAM declarants in 2024 and 2026 without adjusting for eligibility is misleading. Fewer reporting entities could reflect the simplification rather than reduced trade or weaker enforcement. Analysts need import tonnage and embedded-emissions denominators to determine coverage properly.

What the threshold does not measure

A 50-tonne threshold is a volume measure, not an estimate of the value of cargo or a direct measure of its carbon content. Two importers moving the same weight of different goods can have very different embedded emissions. The policy relies on the empirical observation that larger importers account for most covered emissions, but regulatory effectiveness still depends on preventing artificial splitting and maintaining correct classifications. A published assertion that nearly all emissions remain covered should be tested against actual post-reform import records, not merely repeated as an environmental achievement.

Why the 99% statistic needs its denominator

The Council's roughly 99% claim concerns the share of embedded emissions in imported CBAM goods that it expected to retain within scope after simplification. It is not a claim that 99% of firms remain regulated, nor that 99% of emissions will be eliminated. The distinction is the reform's political rationale: relieve numerous small importers while keeping the bulk of the carbon-intensive trade covered. A credible later audit would combine customs quantities with emissions intensities, and check whether importers cluster just below the annual threshold. A fall in the number of declarants could be evidence of successful simplification even if the emissions footprint of regulated trade stays broadly similar. Conversely, unexpectedly large volumes moved through excluded importers would be a reason to re-examine the design.

Practical consequences for procurement

A business that normally imports a small annual quantity of covered aluminium may be spared authorisation and certificate administration; it is not exempted from normal customs law. Import volumes may vary by year, and an importer approaching the threshold needs monitoring before entering additional transactions. The legal unit is the importer and the relevant annual covered mass, not a line item or supplier invoice. For policymakers, the challenge is to ease fixed compliance costs without encouraging deliberate restructuring solely to avoid the instrument. Neither the claim that every small company benefits nor the claim that the reform defeats CBAM can be established from adoption alone.