Opinion of the ECSC Consultative Committee on the proposal for a Council Directive restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products (adopted unanimously at the 355th session of 5 April 2001)
Date: 2001-04-05
Institutions: Consultative Committee of the European Coal and Steel Community
Subjects: ECSC, coal industry, competition law, energy-generating product, iron and steel industry, tax system

C 170/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.6.2001

14.6. The Consultative Committee does not consider the
integrated pollution prevention and control or large
combustion plant Directives
as being suitable
means of determining sectoral eligibility for a
trading
trading scheme.
should be open to any sector which chooses to
join.

In principle, emissions

14.7. Auctioning permits is unacceptable, as this would
simply impose another irrecoverable cost burden
on EU manufacturing, with no environmental
benefit. Targets must
take account of both the
degree of energy efficiency already achieved and
the scope for future improvements. (In countries/
sectors where
efficiency
agreements apply, the allocation of permits should
relate to the agreed targets.)

negotiated

energy

in order

to minimise

the initial allocation of permits is
14.8. The issue of
distortion of
crucial
competition, and several systems are available.
It
needs to be recognised that, whichever allocation
method is used,
it will never be totally fair,
otherwise there would be no reason for trading.
allocation system should
However,
the
avoid any severe economic dislocation or

initial

the

strangling of investment to industry, and provide
sufficient liquidity to the permit market.

14.9. Targets and the emissions trading system should not
be so defined as to inhibit the expansion of EU
manufacturing in terms of
either volume or
increased added value.

14.10. Any maximum values for CO2 emissions must take
into account
the additional energy consumption
caused by regulatory requirements to reduce other
emissions.

14.11. The banking of emission rights for use in later years

should be possible.

international emissions

15. EU trading must, where appropriate, be made compatible
with a comprehensive,
trading
system and the other flexible Kyoto instruments and be
able to include as wide a range of
third countries as
possible without serious complications or delays. This
include the need for a common global system for
will
measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. The
fact that some EU Member States are proceeding with
Kyoto implementation in advance of other signatories
will make it more difficult to achieve such compatibility.

Opinion of the ECSC Consultative Committee on the proposal for a Council Directive restruc-
turing the Community framework for the taxation of energy products

(adopted unanimously at the 355th session of 5 April 2001)

(2001/C 170/05)

1. THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE EUROPEAN COAL

AND STEEL COMMUNITY,

1.1. referring to its Resolution on the proposal submitted
by the European Commission for a Council Directive
restructuring the Community framework for
the
taxation of energy products (1);

1.2. stressing

its

fundamental

any
attempt by the EU Member States unilaterally to
taxes, which would make
introduce
European firms less competitive internationally;

reservations

ecological

about

1.3. with reference to the considerable efforts which the
industry has made over the past few
coal and steel
decades, and more particularly in recent years, in the
field of environment policy;

1.4. with reference

a

to the

(cid:145)Towards

recommendation of

the security of energy supply(cid:146) (2)

the
European
Commission Green Paper
to
strategy for
increase energy taxes in the EU and to resume the
for a Directive of 1997,
discussion on the proposal
and with a view to the request for additional
(cid:145)fiscal
measures(cid:146) contained in the Communication from the
action
sixth
the
Commission
programme of the European Community (3).

environment

on

2. REQUESTS THAT,

IN THE DISCUSSIONS CONDUCTED BOTH
WITHIN THE COMMISSION AND IN THE MEMBER STATES,
PARTICULAR ACCOUNT BE TAKEN OF THE FOLLOWING:

2.1. the need to avoid distortions of competition in the field
of energy resulting from an approach to energy
taxation which is insufficiently coordinated between
Member States and industrial sectors;

(1) OJ C 356, 22.11.1997, p. 3.

(2) COM(2000) 769 final.
(3) COM(2001) 31 final.

14.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 170/11

2.2. the need for Europe to maintain competitive energy as

the basis for competitive products;

2.3. the danger that, with the plans for taxation currently
being promoted, approaches which are in some cases
in contradiction to one another might be adopted in
the various Member States;

2.4. the impossibility, so far, of achieving genuine harmon-

isation by means of a minimum rate;

2.5. the need to avoid any discrimination against a
particular fuel, as is currently found in some Member
States;

2.6. the possibility of supporting renewable energies by
dedicated measures rather than by tax measures for
other energies;

2.7. any taxation of the input for electricity generation has
to be avoided since this achieves the opposite of what
is intended;

2.8. the unacceptable nature of

taxation proportional

to
CO2 production,
to take
account of other greenhouse gases as well as of other
environmental problems related to energy use and runs
counter to the objective of tax harmonisation;

since such a tax fails

2.9. the fact that any taxation of energy needed for fuel
production would be tantamount to double taxation.

3. ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS

3.1. From the point of view of the coal industry

3.1.1. The Commission proposal for the taxation of
energy products makes
to
maintain the energy mix in the European

it more difficult

Community that is increasingly vital in view of
the permanent risk of an oil crisis. Any taxation
of input energy as proposed in Article 13(1)(b)
would substantially reduce the competitiveness
of fossil fuels and thus distort competition as
regards the energy mix within a given Member
State and between Member States.

a

at

be

disadvantage. Any

3.1.2. If the tax exemptions referred to in Article 14
to renewable
were applied (cid:151) in particular
energy sources and natural gas (cid:151) solid fuels
would
such
application would be discriminatory, would
distort competition and would run counter to
European Treaties. The
the
the
Commission could no longer fulfil
its energy
policy remit as laid down in the White Paper
the European Union(cid:146),
(cid:145)An energy policy for
reasonably
a
to guarantee
namely
priced and environmentally sound supply of
energy.

aims of

secure,

3.2. From the point of view of the steel industry

3.2.1. The Commission’s tax concept is at odds with
the voluntary commitments made by the steel
industries of some EU Member States with a
view to reducing energy consumption and CO2
It would make these commitments
emissions.
entirely superfluous
a
double taxation.

and could generate

3.2.2. The tax exemption referred to in Article 13(1)(a)
for the use of certain energy products for the
purposes of chemical reduction and in metal-
lurgical and electrolytic processes must apply
steel
energy products used in the
to all
industry,
the very least, distortions of
competition between steel processes are to be
avoided.

if, at