The current director general of DG Climate Action (DG CLIMA) at the European Commission, Jos Delbeke, has vehemently criticised member states’ tax systems for causing the predominance in Europe of diesel vehicles. He was speaking on Tuesday 8 November at a meeting of the European Parliament’s EMIS committee, which is investigating the Volkswagen scandal.
Questioned by Krišjānis Kariņš (EPP, Latvia) about "technological neutrality" for emissions in EU legislation, the senior European official said he held the member states responsible for introducing tax incentives for diesel vehicles to the detriment of petrol vehicles.
Delbeke, who is Belgian, spent time discussing the Belgian system, where the tax system differs for company and private cars, making company cars cheaper. He explained that half of all cars in Belgium are company cars and most of them run on diesel.
He said action needs to tackle this if one wants to substantially improve air quality but the European Union has no power over tax issues, which remain in member states’ hands.
This view has much in common with that of Karima Delli MEP (Greens/EFA, France), who among other things, in an own initiative report in 2015, criticised member states’ tax systems for encouraging the use of diesel (see EUROPE 11445). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)