For the European Commission, the answer to the Ukraine war and the dependence on Russian raw materials is not less, but even more climate protection.

This raises the question of how European industry can keep up with international competitors in the future.

So far, it has received most of the certificates it needs for its CO2 emissions free of charge.

However, the Commission intends to change this because it reduces the incentive to invest in reducing emissions.

Instead, she wants to introduce a border tax equal to the EU's emissions trading price, which companies from countries that have lower climate protection goals should pay.

This should initially apply to the import of cement, steel, aluminum, fertilizer and electricity - which, however, covers almost half of the emissions in the EU emissions trading system.

This is what the Commission proposed in its Fit-for-55 climate package presented in July 2021, which aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

The idea for the levy came from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Accordingly, when France took over the EU Council Presidency in January, he made it clear that passing the tax, usually abbreviated to its English name CBAM, had absolute priority for him.

Government initially skeptical

Because Macron wanted to campaign for a second term in office, the agreement had to be in March.

After all, the first ballot is at the beginning of April.

On Tuesday, the French were able to report completion.

At their meeting in Brussels, the EU finance ministers supported the CO2 tax by a large majority.

The federal government had blocked itself for a long time, but was unable to assert itself.

She had argued that there was no point in adopting the border tax separately from the rest of the climate package.

Finally, CBAM is closely linked to the other proposals.

This applies above all to emissions trading.

According to the Commission's proposal, the border tax is to be introduced gradually over a period of ten years after a two-year test phase.

At the same time - according to the proposal for emissions trading - the allocation of free certificates in the affected sectors should fall to zero by 2036.

If the states now change something about this, CBAM must also be revised again so that it does not violate world trade rules.

According to the plans of the French Council Presidency, the states should deal with the proposal for emissions trading at the end of June.

The EU Parliament still has to approve the climate package.

A decision on how to use the income from CBAM has also yet to be made elsewhere.

The federal government also wanted to ensure that CBAM is closely linked to the goal of founding a climate club with other countries.

That could make the border tax superfluous.

The climate club is now at least mentioned in the French compromise text, which is why the federal government finally gave up its resistance.

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) welcomed the agreement.

"We have to maintain the competitiveness of the economy in Europe, but at the same time increase our efforts to protect the climate," he said and at the same time made it clear: "It is important to the Federal Government that we embed this border adjustment mechanism in Europe in global initiatives." The Federal Government is also pursuing it as G-7 presidency, the goal of a global climate club that strengthens common ambitions for global climate protection remains unchanged.