Brussels, 28/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European employers call on finance ministers to take new measures to eradicate the rise in oil prices. In a press release published on the eve of the Ecofin Council in Brussels, UNICE remarks that "energy taxes in the EU are 5 times those of the US; there is a limit to the ability to pay. (…) In recent months the cost of road haulage in Europe has gone up by 10 to 15% as a result of the hike in oil prices". "This development must make Finance Ministers realise how essential it is to cut energy taxes in Europe to more reasonable levels, in line with those paid by our competitors", states UNICE General Secretary Dirk Hudig.
Haulage employers call, for their part, on ministers to take decisions to put an end to the speculation surrounding fuels by releasing part of the strategic reserves, reserves which were expressly set in place to guarantee the stability of oil prices", the general secretary of the International Road Workers' Union (IRU), Martin Marmy, said on Thursday in Brussels. Hauliers also call on ministers to lower excessively high taxes that hit this sector and to do so in a harmonised manner so that there is no further discrimination on the basis of hauliers' nationality, he specified. According to European legislation on excise duties, taxes may be limited to an amount equivalent to $33 per barrel, but they reach up to $140 per barrel in some States, he remarked.
"When oil prices were falling, the European countries increased taxes, unlike the United States, and at levels that differed from one Member State to the next, thus creating competition distortion", noted the IRU representative. Also, the "explosion in oil prices due to buyer and oil company speculation is intolerable", he said, stressing that transporters have not been able to pass the 30 price increases over the past few months onto their customers. "Ministers must harken the desperate cries for survival from hauliers", he pleaded.