The Finance Ministers of the EU countries have requested the European Commission to update European energy tax laws to fit the current time. This would allow fuel use and emissions from shipping and cruise ships to be taxed.
The directive, which is nearly twenty years old, does not take into account the new EU climate goals, modern technologies, or bio and other alternative fuels. Until now, aviation and shipping have been exempt from taxes.
According to Dutch Minister Wopke Hoekstra, such exemptions should no longer be part of the future. On the initiative of the Netherlands, nine EU countries already called on the commission last month to draft a European aviation tax proposal.
Promotion
The EU aims to be climate neutral by 2050. For this, the legal frameworks and the impacts on citizens and government revenues must be studied and established. In June, the European heads of government instructed to quickly get to work on this.
The Finance Ministers also decided that the EU will not yet accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment until risks, regulations, and supervision have been properly defined and addressed. The EU ministers acknowledge that “stablecoins” offer opportunities for cheap and fast payments, especially cross-border.
However, according to the ministers, there are risks with cryptocurrency for consumers and investors as well as for financial and monetary stability. They also express concerns about misuse of the virtual system, such as fraud, money laundering, and financing terrorism.
Without naming Facebook’s Libra coin specifically, the ministers’ statement says that some recent global projects have not provided sufficient information on exactly how they intend to manage those risks.