The European Parliament maintained the deletion of proposed Article 27a, an emergency exemption mechanism, in its plenary vote on revisions to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on 15 September. Climate policy organisation Sandbag publicly reported Parliament's vote to remove the provision. For the aluminium supply chain, the development concerns the future availability of temporary exemptions during severe market disruptions, with the arrangements now subject to further legislative negotiations between Parliament and the Council.
Article 27a originated in the European Commission's December 2025 proposal to revise CBAM. It would have allowed the Commission to temporarily remove goods from the mechanism's scope where serious and unforeseen circumstances related to their price impact caused severe harm to the EU internal market. The Commission's January Q&A clarified that, if adopted, the provision could apply to any goods listed in Annex I, including qualifying aluminium products. Any exemption would remain subject to the provision's conditions and the applicable decision-making procedure.
The aluminium industry had previously advocated retaining the emergency tool. In a position paper dated 17 February, European Aluminium supported Article 27a and argued that, if CBAM caused severe harm to the aluminium value chain, emergency measures should apply across the sector rather than product by product, with corresponding arrangements for EU Emissions Trading System free allocation. An earlier LinkedIn post from the association likewise called for reinstating the provision under clearly defined conditions. These were earlier policy positions, rather than a new response to the September plenary vote.
The EU institutions remain divided over the mechanism. The Council's negotiating position agreed on 12 June retained a temporary exemption procedure, with additional objective criteria, time limits and procedural safeguards. For the aluminium supply chain, attention will therefore turn to whether the institutions can agree on an emergency mechanism and how the final text defines its conditions. Parliament's vote establishes its position, while the final legislation must still complete the remaining legislative process.
For the aluminium supply chain, retaining the deletion in the final legislation would mean that businesses could not seek temporary exemption through this proposed mechanism. Companies assessing EU-bound sales contracts and compliance costs should continue to use existing rules as their basis and avoid assuming that a future market shock would lead to a suspension of CBAM. Article 27a had not entered into force. The vote's principal significance is the future availability of an emergency policy tool; it does not in itself establish an immediate increase in amounts payable on aluminium products.
