EU weighs new energy Taxes

EU weighs new energy taxes as Germany calls for ‘drastic’ steps

HELSINKI: The European Union is considering new energy taxes to meet its climate targets, top officials said on Friday, with Germany calling for “drastic steps” to reduce carbon emissions.
In the last decade, EU countries have led the global shift towards renewable energy and set up the world’s largest emissions trading system to price carbon and reduce reliance on more polluting fuels.
However, the bloc’s rules on energy taxation have not changed for more than 15 years.
They are “outdated and poorly adapted to climate change challenges and developments in energy policy at EU level,” according to a document which EU finance ministers will discuss at meetings in Helsinki on Friday and Saturday.
Arriving at the meeting, German finance minister Olaf Scholz said “drastic steps” were needed to counter climate change and urged an international approach on the matter.
“We are in the process of finding out how we can limit CO2 consumption in agriculture, small businesses or transport,” Scholz said.

The bloc’s top economic commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters that options included a carbon tax and an overhaul of energy taxation.
Possible measures in a document prepared by the Finnish presidency of the EU included higher minimum tax rates on energy, fossil fuel levies and the end of waivers for the air and sea transport sectors.
Ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2030 are part of the agenda of the new European Commission which will take office in November.
A confidential work programme prepared in July by Commission officials before the appointment of the commission’s president-designate Ursula von der Leyen envisages legislative proposals to end tax exemptions for air and sea transport by early 2020 and a review of minimum tax rates on energy products by the end of next year.

Merkel’s conservatives want tax hike for domestic flights

BERLIN: Seeking to tackle climate change, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives want to increase taxes on domestic flights and reduce the cost of long-distance train tickets, a party document seen by Reuters on Friday showed.

The German government – made up of Merkel’s conservatives, their Bavarian CSU sister party and the Social Democrats (SPD) – is expected to present a far-reaching package of climate protection measures on Sept. 20.

The flight levy for domestic flights currently stands at 7.40 euros ($8.21).

“We want to double this ticket tax for all domestic flights and triple it for short-haul domestic flights under 400 kilometers,” said a party document that the board of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) is due to review on Monday.

The document, called “Climate-friendly Germany – using innovations as we head into the future”, showed that the party also wants to make long-distance rail travel cheaper by reducing the value-added tax levied on train tickets.

The document said a premium worth several thousand euros should be introduced to encourage people to scrap old, inefficient heating systems so that climate targets for buildings can be achieved.

Germany warns against early troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

BERLIN: A withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan could see the country falling back under the strict rule of the Taliban, German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Saturday.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, who also heads Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and is seen as the chancellor’s most likely successor, said a pullout of foreign troops would be particularly tough for Afghan women.

“I am worried that if we were to ditch our responsibility (in Afghanistan) we will face horrifying images of women being stoned and hanged and of girls not able to attend school and married off,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told a gathering of CDU women.

US President Donald Trump this month cancelled a planned meeting with Taliban leaders at his Camp David retreat, dealing a blow to talks between his administration and the group aimed at ending the almost 18-year conflict.

The United States had said it would withdraw almost 5,000 troops from Afghanistan and close five military bases under a draft agreement with the Taliban.

Trump cancelled the peace talks with Taliban leaders after the insurgents said they were behind an attack in Kabul that killed an American soldier and 11 other people.

Germany has some 1,300 soldiers in Afghanistan. Their parliament-approved mandate ends in March 2020.

The United States has some 14,000 troops in the country, where the US military has fought its longest ever war which started with a campaign to toppled the Taliban in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks on American soil.

Trump has been putting pressure on Germany to meet a NATO-mandated military spending budget of 2% of economic output.

Merkel said last month she was taking her government’s commitment to meet that goal seriously.

Under current budget plans, Germany would spend just more than 1.4% of output on defence.