On Thursday 23 July, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive, which has remained unchanged since 2003.
“The aim is to reshape energy taxation so as to encourage consumers and businesses to behave in a more environmentally friendly way”, the Commission explains.
The Commission wants to revise the minimum tax rates applicable to energy products and to electricity, which have not been updated since the Directive’s entry into force. To this end, it asks in its consultation whether the minimum rate of taxation for an energy product should be based on: - its energy content rather than its volume or mass; - the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per joule; - the cost of all its externalities; - or on an annual index based on average inflation in the EU.
The Commission also intends to rethink current tax exemptions in order to reduce implicit subsidies to fossil fuels and to certain economic sectors.
It is also asking stakeholders how the social impact of energy taxation can be compensated for, by reducing other taxes, for example.
The Commission has already carried out a public consultation on its inception impact assessment, which ended on 1 April (see EUROPE 12439/17).
The parties concerned have until 14 October to send their comments to the Commission at the following address: https://bit.ly/3fUIBoe (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)