BRUSSELS - The Italian photovoltaic (PV) industry leader has expressed his opposition to the European Commission's decision to impose punitive duties on Chinese solar products.

Speaking to Xinhua in a recent interview, Emilio Cremona, president of the Italian PV Industry Association, forecast a shrinking solar market, job losses and factory closures hitting Europe as a result of the duties.

The association, also known as GIFI in Italian, represents around 165 Italian PV companies and more than 50 percent of the Italian solar market.

The remarks came just a month after the European Commission decided to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of solar panels, cells and wafers from China -- a decision rejected by 18 EU member states and supported only by four including Italy.

From June 6, EU imports of Chinese solar products have been subject to a punitive duty of 11.8 percent until August 6, after which duty will be raised to 47.6 percent if China and the EU cannot sort out the dispute through negotiations.

Citing studies by "prestigious international analysts," Cremona, also president of Universal Sun, a leading Italian PV firm, said that the duties would have a strong negative impact on the European PV market.

Due to the duties on Chinese solar products, the European solar market would shrink by 6 gigawatt (GW), 3 GW of which would be in Germany and 2 GW in Italy, he said.