Brussels/Luxembourg, 15/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of the Ecofin Council of Tuesday 14 October, several states called for the revision of the energy taxation directive (2003/96/EEC) to be abandoned. This directive aims to harmonise excise on energy, mainly from fossil fuels.
Germany kicked off proceedings by stating that it believes that it is impossible for a compromise to be found in the foreseeable future. “We should not waste too much work and time and effort which will not have an effect in the foreseeable future”, said the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaüble. The United Kingdom and Slovenia rallied behind Berlin's position. Belgium and Finland criticised the lack of ambition in the compromise of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, which is a very long way from the Commission's initial proposal. Whilst Belgium takes the view that after three years of discussions and 29 technical meetings, it is “time to reconsider the relevance of this text”, Finland simply reiterated its support for the Commission's proposal and saw no reason to continue “on any other basis”.
Only Lithuania voiced any misgivings as to the substance of the text. “We have reasonable doubts that any increase of the minimum rate of excise duties would contribute to key challenges intended to be solved by this directive”, explained Rimantas Sadzius, the Lithuanian minister. Amongst other things, he explained that heating prices in Lithuania were already high enough without raising them any further. Sadzius went on to state that there were more appropriate tools to achieve the climate and environment objectives.
Sweden does not share this opinion, arguing that the directive had a central part to play on these fronts. It supported the calls made by France, which believes that the EU should not satisfy itself with constantly stumbling over this dossier. Spain also stated that the work should be continued because although the compromise scales down the ambition of the initial text, it does keep some very important elements. Denmark and Portugal share this view.
The Commissioner for Taxation, Algirdas Semeta, was the first to admit that the negotiations had ended up in a “barely recognisable” proposal, which may even aggravate existing problems. He added that it would be for the next Commission to decide how to proceed, in light of the various positions. (EL)