Brussels, 09/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The preliminary debate on the proposed directive aiming to restructure the taxation of energy products and electricity, which was to have been conducted by the economy and finance ministers at the Ecofin Council on Tuesday 8 November (EUROPE 10490), was finally withdrawn from the agenda by the Polish Presidency, due to considerable differences in the positions of the delegations on the two planks of the Commission's proposal: taxing CO2 emissions and setting in place a single tax treatment for various sources of energy, aligning their levels of taxation on the basis of their energy content.
In particular, the countries with large CO2 -emitting industries, and Germany in particular, called for the criterion of CO2 emissions to be included only on a voluntary basis by the various member states for the taxation of the various energy sources. Although this request was not accepted, these states were threatening to block the proposal at this stage. Under these conditions, the Polish Presidency of the Council opted to withdraw the formal discussion from the agenda and asked the Council's working groups to continue work at a technical level, to seek a compromise.
The gulf was just as pronounced on the other plank (aligning the tax treatment of all sources of energy on the basis of their energy content) between countries such as Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Austria, Lithuania and Slovakia, which support the favourable treatment enjoyed by certain sources of fossil energy (particularly coal), and 15 other countries, among them France, Finland and Sweden, which are more committed to green energy and support more balanced taxation. Germany and Poland, which are large producers of coal, also took very firm stances on this issue.
It is therefore highly likely that the proposal will be revisited by the Danish Presidency, which starts on 1 January 2012. (FG/transl.fl)