Brussels, 11/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - Whereas European finance ministers announced in Versailles over the weekend that they did not intend cutting tax on oil products (see other articles, pp. 7/8), lobbies are taking contradictory stances over the subject, some calling for a cut in taxes, others concerned at the consequences of such a measure on the environment. Thus:
The International Road Transport Union, IRU based in Geneva, in a press release, pleads in favour of the rise in the price of fuel being compensated by a cut in national taxes. "The tax burden, in many EU countries today, represents over 50% of the price of diesel and other fuels at the pumps"; this is why, "the IRU is calling for the tax on the price of fuels to be used as regulating element by governments to avoid the harm currently being suffered by the road sector (…) The regulatory function of the price is only possible if tax levels on fuel are reduced at least to the minimum levels required by EU Directive 92/82 and 92/81", says the IRU.
The representative of European railways, CCFE, observes for its part the protest movement of the hauliers with "great concern". While "respecting the political decisions that will be taken" to face this crisis, the CCFE "emphasises that no permanent tax reduction policy could be acceptable if we want to achieve the objectives decided on in Kyoto on reducing greenhouse effects". It recalls that "25% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transport, mainly by road transport". European railways whence insist on the integration, in the cost of transport, of environmental costs caused by the emission of greenhouse gases "being secured through a tax on energy linked to the quantity of carbon emitted and the distance covered".
The European Federation for Transport and the Environment (T&E) is also concerned at the impact of the tax gift granted to hauliers on the respect of the undertakings made in Kyoto. To give in faced with protests "will undermine the efforts made to combat climate change, unless a tax per kilometer is introduced throughout Europe", says T&E. Such a tax would have the advantage of being equitable whatever the mode of transport or location of haulage companies in the EU.