Brussels, 12/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to German governmental sources, Berlin has serious reservation about the proposals presented by the Commission on Wednesday with a view to promoting the use of biofuels (EUROPE of 8 November, p.6). The German authorities, and above all the Ministry for Agriculture and Consumer Protection, considers that keeping a minimum level of excise on biofuels (50% at least of the rate of duty applicable to corresponding mineral oils) would make the latter more expensive than traditional fuels, a position that is shared by UFOP, the German association for the promotion of biofuels. Germany, which does not apply taxes on biodiesel, is said to consider that the level of taxation proposed by the Commission for biofuels would mean that they would purely and simply disappear from the market, in so far as the production of 1000 litres of biodiesel costs 300 euro more than production of the same quantity of conventional diesel. The German agricultural cooperation associations, DRV, and farmers' association, DBV, consider for their part that the national tax exemption system for biodiesel must be maintained at least until 2008. The German authorities fear, moreover, that the aim of Brussels to increase, by 2005, the share of biofuels to 2% of all diesel and petrol sold in Member States (as opposed to 0.3% at present) is unrealistic. They consider it more reasonable to establish a 2% replacement target solely for diesel on the market.
It is the same tune in Brussels where the presidents of the two large farming lobbies, COPA and COGECA, consider that Member States should be allowed to choose the most appropriate instruments for achieving the substitution rates of traditional fuels proposed by the Commission and "from now on speed up tax exemption procedures in progress as these are indispensable for the biofuel channels pending application of the new directives". Also, the proposal that a 50% excise duty should be applied to biofuels is, they believe, "contradictory to the Commission's objective of promoting the use of biofuels".