Proposal for a Council Implementing Decision authorising Croatia to apply tax exemption to gas oil used to operate machinery in humanitarian demining in accordance with Article 19 of Directive 2003/96/EC

Taxation of energy products and electricity in the Union is governed by Council Directive 2003/96/EC (hereafter referred to as the ‘Energy Taxation Directive’ or the ‘Directive’). Pursuant to Article 19(1) of the Directive, in addition to the provisions foreseen in particular in its Articles 5, 15 and 17, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise any Member State to introduce further exemptions or reductions in the level of taxation for specific policy considerations.

The objective of this proposal is to allow Croatia to apply tax exemption to gas oil used to operate specialised machinery in humanitarian demining. This exemption is meant to reduce the costs for legal persons registered to conduct demining activities and thus speed up these activities and contribute to the implementation of humanitarian demining policy in Croatia.

The tax reduction will expedite the demining activities which are taking place in accordance with the international Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Ottawa Treaty, 1998), the international Convention on Cluster Munitions signed in Oslo in 2008, which prohibits the use, transfer, stockpiling and destruction of stockpiled cluster munitions within a period of eight years, and the 2005 Humanitarian Demining Act of the Republic of Croatia.

The aim of the measure to be applied by Croatia is to give an incentive for quicker clearance of suspected minefields, freeing-up of agricultural land and forests thus making them accessible again for economic activities. The measure is also expected to have immediate positive effects on human life and health in the areas contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance.

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)673: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:673:FIN

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