Bjerregaard calls for action on EU-wide energy taxes

Date: 30/04/1998

By Simon Coss

ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard is warning EU governments they will not be able to meet international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unless they adopt some form of Union-wide energy taxes.

Speaking shortly before flying to New York to sign the Kyoto accord on emissions control, Bjerregaard told European Voice that member states could only hope to keep the promises made at last December's climate change talks in Japan if they bit the bullet and agreed to introduce taxes on energy products.

Asked if she thought the Union could meet its Kyoto commitments without them, the Danish Commissioner was adamant. "Not without energy taxes. I don't see that," she said, urging EU governments to support the proposals put forward by Taxation Commissioner Mario Monti.

The Monti plan seeks to extend harmonised minimum excise duties to coal, natural gas and electricity while still allowing governments to introduce rebates for eco-friendly energy production.

However, member states have so far failed to heed Bjerregaard's advice, with negotiations between top national officials on the Monti plan still deadlocked. Indeed, governments remain so far apart on the issue that plans to discuss it at May's meeting of EU finance ministers have been abandoned and most experts predict it will not even be raised at the following session in June.

Bjerregaard claims that governments are worrying unduly about what her colleague is proposing and insists they should have the courage to back up their international commitments with action.

"It is quite clear that, from what they say, they take climate change seriously. If they do, then they also need to make some serious decisions on the taxation proposal," she said.

"I think the proposal from Monti is a modest one. It is just dealing with minimum standards, which for some countries wouldn't mean that they had to change anything."

If, as seems likely at the moment, the Monti plan comes to nothing and the Union is forced to renege on its Kyoto commitments, it would be politically embarrassing for Bjerregaard. Before the climate change conference she was scathingly critical of the US, accusing Washington of lacking the political courage to face the challenge of global warming.

The EU went into the Kyoto negotiations pledging to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide to 15% below 1990 levels by 2000. Under the final deal, the Union agreed to reduce emissions of six gases - the three above plus hydroflourocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexaflouride - to 8% below 1990 levels by 2012.