A4-0200/98

Resolution on the Commission communication: Environmental taxes and charges in the single market (COM(97)0009 - C4-0179/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission communication (COM(97)0009 - C4-0179/97),

- having regard to Articles 92 and 93 of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to Article 99 of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to Article 130r of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to the Community guidelines on State aid for environmental protection ((OJ C 72, 10.3.1994, p. 3.)),

- having regard to the Commission's White Paper 'Growth, Competitiveness and Employment - the challenges and ways forward into the 21st century¨(COM(93)0700),

- having regard to the Commission's Green Paper 'Towards fair and efficient pricing in transport - policy options for internalising the external cost of transport in the European Union¨ (COM(95)0691),

- having regard to the conclusions of the presidency of the Luxembourg European Council in November 1997 (employment summit),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection and opinions of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy (A4-0200/98),

A. welcoming the Commission initiative to produce a communication on environmental taxes and charges,

B. welcoming all initiatives in the Member States concerning environmental taxes and charges,

C. whereas the European Union and the Member States must take additional steps in order to fulfil their obligations resulting from Rio and Kyoto,

D. whereas in the Member States many environmental elements exist in or are being discussed in relation to the tax system, such as for example a CO2 energy tax or increased value added tax on energy,

E. having regard to the Austrian Presidency's commitment to make further progress on tax proposals for energy products and the efforts of the Monti Group in this same area,

1. Regrets that the Commission has not made any new statements concerning environmental taxes in its communication;

2. Welcomes the Commission communication but points out that its sole purpose is to clarify how national environmental taxes and charges can be brought into line with Community law with regard to the single market; hopes that at a later stage the Commission will examine the question of the broad economic impact of environmental taxes and charges, including their effect on the creation and destruction of jobs and on international competitiveness;

3. Calls on the Commission to put forward binding and non-binding common guidelines as to how environmental taxes, aiming in the same direction and neutral with regard to competition, might be introduced by a large number of Member States;

4. Regrets that the Amsterdam Treaty did not make any progress on facilitating decisions concerning environmental taxes at EU level;

5. Calls on the Commission to make proposals as regards environmental taxation on the basis of Article 130s of the Treaty;

6. Points out that, although environment policy instruments were not envisaged in drawing up the EU Treaty and the new treaty has made no significant progress in the environment sector, this objective must remain a priority;

7. Notes that the Court of Justice has so far made a very restrictive interpretation of environmental levies within the Community's legal framework;

8. Notes that it is important for the European Union to promote the use of environmental taxes on an international level, for example in the framework of the WTO;

9. Requests the Commission to bring forward immediately proposals concerning the application by all Member States of economic instruments aimed at reducing pollution and non-sustainable use of natural resources;

10. Points out that minimum environmental levies should be adopted through effective coordination among the Member States to expedite the 'polluter pays' principle;

11. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up coordination, in particular between competition, the internal market, taxation and agricultural policy with a view to clarifying which legal framework should be applied when Member States wish to introduce environmental taxes and charges; considers that the clarification of the legal framework of environmental taxes and charges the Commission provides in its document is a good starting point for a debate which will develop in future about how to handle the concept of subsidiarity in this field;

12. Requests the Commission to assess the compatibility of environmental taxes in Member States with EU legislation;

13. Urges the Commission to ensure the abolition of hidden subsidies for heavily polluting economic processes or products in the Member States;

14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote consumer information on environmental issues; to encourage teacher training to integrate environmental issues into education, to set up the development of renewable energy sources and to transfer information on experience with environmental levies in the Member States; feels that integration of environmental issues into education can also be a task for the Structural Funds;

15. Notes that the use of environmental levies in Member States could distort competition in the internal market thus making it desirable for such levies to be introduced by all Member States together, and that environmental targets in general can be achieved more effectively if measures are taken at Community level; therefore urges the Commission to assess the use of unanimity voting on the harmonization of legislation concerning taxation;

16. Requests the Commission to show sufficient flexibility when evaluating levies in Member States, while still respecting the internal market;

17. Calls on the Commission, in the event of conflict between internal market and environmental aspects, to use its scope for interpretation to benefit environmental policy and under no circumstances to allow a claim of distortion of competition to be accepted as an argument against environmental measures;

18. Stresses that the simple fact that an environmentally-friendly technology is more widespread in one Member State than in another is not an argument against the promotion of this technology by the Member States;

19. Urges Member States to respect a European code of conduct on tax issues to be established in the environmental sphere aimed particularly at avoiding dumping in environmental taxation and the tax penalization of the labour component; this is the only way in which the instrument of environmental taxation can be effectively applied in the Community in the long term so as to abolish barriers to the smooth functioning of the internal market;

20. Urges the Commission to make recommendations to the Member States so as to contribute towards transferring the tax burden away from the labour component towards the environmental consumption component;

21. Believes that this communication should be seen as a first step towards an environmental framework programme, since it shows the Member States the areas in which powers have already been transferred to the Community; it is in the interest of all Member States to avoid a renationalization of environmental policy and to view this communication as an incentive for a common environmental policy in the fiscal sphere which should include an environmentally useful Community resource;

22. Recognizes the efforts made by the Commission to combat new market barriers which could be set up by the Member States under the pretext of environmental protection; but draws attention to the fact that this is without prejudice to the right of certain Member States such as Austria, Finland and Sweden to safeguard the high standard of their environmental policy by applying Article 100a(4) of the EC Treaty;

23. Considers that it is equally important, however, that serious efforts to solve the significant environmental problems facing many regions of the European Union should not be obstructed by market players, Member States or Community institutions under the pretext of protecting free competition, thereby slowing down genuine progress on environmental taxes or making it impossible; considers, moreover, that it is essential to take into account the needs which will be engendered by possible enlargements of the Community regarding environmental protection and environmental taxes;

24. Requests the Commission to take measures to facilitate harmonised economic policies in sectors such as energy and transport;

25. Requests the Commission to promote the use in the Member States of the environmental levies which are listed in the annex to the communication in order to promote the functioning of the market;

26. Requests the Commission to produce a study concerning the use of environmental levies and environmental impact in the following sectors:

- water

- energy

- transport (freight, cars and aviation)

- packaging

- construction

- chemical pesticides

- fertilizers and leakage of fertilizers

- chlorinated compounds in industrial processes;

27. Requests the Commission to propose environmental EU levies for specific products;

28. Calls on all the parties involved in the decision-making process, and on the Council in particular, to expedite the adoption of a directive introducing a CO2 energy tax and a directive restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products;

29. Recognizes that as long as a CO2 energy tax is not introduced at European level the Member States have an interest in ensuring that any national measures to be introduced in this field have no effect on competition; calls on the Commission, therefore, to examine whether a change can be proposed to the directive on value added tax with the aim of facilitating the introduction of a higher rate of value added tax on energy;

30. Requests the Commission to make a survey of environmental taxes and charges in use in the central and eastern European countries which have applied for membership in the European Union;

31. Requests the Commission to initiate more research into the economic modelling of environmental taxes, and especially to help reconcile differences in models, and to integrate dynamic and multiple effects into analysis of policy packages;

32. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.