On Saturday 30 August, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU prepared a compromise proposal on the energy taxation directive for the meeting of the working group on tax issues scheduled for Friday 5 September. According to the document obtained by Agence Europe, it proposes to exempt public road transport, in the same way as air and sea transport.
As announced in July (see EUROPE 13676/24), Denmark hopes to reach an agreement at the November Ecofin Council on this directive, which has been on the negotiating table since 2021. In response to the extension of the existing exemptions for aviation and maritime transport until 2035, proposed by the Hungarian Presidency in October 2024 (see EUROPE 13507/17), the current Presidency is proposing to include scheduled public passenger transport by road in the exemption. This includes both bus and coach transport, provided that the service is regular, accessible to the general public and follows a fixed timetable and route.
The Presidency also suggests that the exemption for air navigation should not apply to aircraft used for the carriage of passengers and having a maximum of 19 seats, unless they are scheduled commercial flights, armed forces, other national security forces, search and rescue services and public authorities. Similarly, the exemption would not apply to private pleasure boating in EU waters. In the case of inland waterway navigation, Member States should be able to exempt it or reduce the level of taxation.
Different tax categories depending on environmental performance. Denmark is also proposing to exclude waste used as heating fuel from the scope of application, with the exception of energy products used as motor fuel and other hydrocarbon-containing products used as heating fuel. Energy products used in fuel cells installed on board vehicles, ships and aircraft should therefore be considered as fuels. In addition, energy products used as fuel in stationary fuel cells should be considered as heating fuels, which would also allow them to be taxed as if they were used to produce electricity.
The Presidency also believes that energy products should be divided into different tax categories according to their environmental performance. It considers that it is “necessary to establish different Union minimum levels of taxation according to the use of energy products and electricity”. Where the Directive allows for differentiated tax rates, this should be understood as single use. “Single use should be the legal ground after the Directive to differentiate for example between tax level of electricity used for charging vehicles and for heating purposes”.
Read the Presidency’s compromise proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/i84
Read the agenda of the working group: https://aeur.eu/f/i85 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)