WRITTEN QUESTION E-1315/03 by Bernard Poignant (PSE) to the Commission. French regions and variations in the rate of domestic duty on petroleum products.
Date: 2003-04-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: France, derogation from EU law, excise duty, petroleum product, region, tax system, transfer of competence

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These developments will no doubt concern the Commission, since Poland has already transposed EIA
legislation into national law, and it now appears it could backtrack on those legal provisions. Bearing in
mind that once a major road is built and has damaged or destroyed key environmental sites, this damage is
often irreversible, will the Commission please give its assessment of the situation, and can it then assure
Parliament that Poland will still apply the full EU environmental requirements to decisions on road-
building, both in the run-up to accession, and from the date of accession onwards?

Please note that it is necessary to act fast, since the vote will take place on 2 April in the Polish Senate!

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(16 May 2003)

On accession to the Union, Poland will be bound by Union law, including on environmental impact of
projects and in particular their impact on any natural site of special value. Moreover the Commission
encourages Acceding Countries to apply and implement the provisions of the environmental acquis already
during the pre-accession period,
in particular as regards all new investments such as motorways. The
relevant Directives are those on Habitats (92/43/EEC (1)), Birds (79/409/EEC (2)) and Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) (97/11/EC (3)) and the Directive on the Assessment of the Effects of Certain Plans and
Programmes on the Environment (2001/42/EC (4)), which has to be applied from July 2004. Community
funding for any such investment will only be made available if the requirements of Community legislation
on environment and interoperability are respected.

Regarding the ‘special act’ referred to, the Commission raised this matter at the Union-Poland Sub-
Committee No 6 on Transport, Environment, Energy and Trans-European Networks (TENs) held on
27 March 2003 in Warsaw. The Polish authorities assured the Commission that the concerns raised
regarding the ‘special act’ were not accurate. According to Poland, the only relevant legislation being
prepared is two regulations that will complete the transposition into Polish law of the EIA Directive. They
are a Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture on the requirements to be met by impact assessments
regarding the impact of motorways on farmland, and a Regulation of the Minister of Environment on
detailed requirements to be met regarding the impact of motorways on the environment and cultural
heritage.

(1) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora,

OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2) Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds, OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.
(3) Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 amending Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of

certain public and private projects on the environment, OJ L 73, 14.3.1997.

(4) Directive 2001/42/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of

certain plans and programmes on the environment, OJ L 197, 21.7.2001.

(2004/C 11 E/199)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1315/03

by Bernard Poignant (PSE) to the Commission

(7 April 2003)

Subject: French regions and variations in the rate of domestic duty on petroleum products

The French Republic is a unitary state. The President of the Republic and the Government, together with
Parliament when it comes to voting on legislation, exercised all state powers. Public legal bodies existing
within the French state (regions, departments, local authorities, public undertakings for intercommunal
cooperation, etc.) enjoy jurisdiction based on the ratione materiae, established by central government, laws
and regulations.

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For some years now, France has been seeking to decentralise power to the regional authorities. The French
Government has put forward various proposals,
including the possibility of allowing the regions to
determine the domestic duty on petroleum products (TIPP).

The Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, stated in a speech on this issue that:

(…) We will fund the transfer of powers by transferring taxation, and not by grants.

(…) We will assign part of
departments and regions.

the national domestic duty on petroleum products (TIPP)

to the

(…) We will give the regions the option of varying the regional TIPP rate, as soon as we have resolved
the legal problems with the European Union; but we will get there, since this has already been done in
various Member States (…).

In respect of European legislation, do regions actually have the right to adjust the rate of this duty? Do
those Member States whose decentralisation is far more advanced transfer powers of this kind? In which
country are there differentiated rates of taxation between regions at present?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(7 May 2003)

Council Directive 92/81/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties
on mineral oils (1), Council Directive 92/82/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the approximation of the rates of
excise duties on mineral oils (1) and the case-law of the Court of Justice lay down that, for each product
subject to a harmonised excise structure, Member States must apply a single national rate of taxation
which must be higher than the minimum rate stipulated at EU level (2).

The procedure under Article 8(4) of Directive 92/81/EEC, however, allows the Council, acting unanimously
on a proposal from the Commission, to authorise Member States to introduce exemptions or reductions in
duty for specific policy considerations.

Rates of excise duty on mineral oils are differentiated in a number of Member States owing to geographical
factors, e.g. in France, where differential rates are granted in the framework of certain policies aimed at
assisting areas suffering from depopulation. The differentiation generally relates to specific regions and
products. Italy for instance is allowed to reduce the excise duty on fuel oil for the production of steam, and
on gas oil used in ovens for drying and activating molecular sieves in the region of Calabria.

Such derogations, therefore, are specific rather than general and of limited duration.

At the end of 2001, Spain passed an act (3) allowing a differential rate of fuel tax to be implemented at
regional level. The revenue from the tax would be used, it said, to finance the health system, responsibility
for which in future would fall to the regions. The Commission is currently examining whether the act
complies with Community law.

The Commission would underline lastly that the use to which excise revenue is put is a matter for the
Member States themselves.

(1) OJ L 316, 31.10.1992, as last amended by Directive 94/74/EC (OJ L 365, 31.12.1994).
(2) Note too that this general principle is the cornerstone of the future energy tax directive on which Finance Ministers

reached political agreement on 20 March 2003.

(3) Act 24/2001 of 27 December 2001 (BOE of 31.12.2001).