EU considers allowing taxes "equivalent" to the tax on oil companies

The countries of the European Union are considering allowing national taxes "equivalent" to the tax on oil and gas companies that the European Commission has put on the table, as long as they pursue the same objectives and collect "at least" what is expected with Von der Leyen's initiative.

This is stated in a draft proposed by the Czech Republic as the rotating presidency of the EU, to which EFE has had access, with a view to the extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers at which they will seek to agree on the emergency measures proposed last week by the EU executive to tackle the energy crisis and, in particular, the rising cost of gas.

The text, which is still far from final, introduces some changes with respect to the Brussels project to create a "solidarity contribution" on the extraordinary profits of oil companies, gas companies and the refining sector, which all countries will have to introduce "unless they have adopted equivalent national measures", a precision that is not included in the original proposal.

The European Commission's draft regulation also detailed that any national measures with the same objective (to reduce the extraordinary profits of the companies concerned) must "comply with or complement" the European solidarity levy.

The new document under consideration by the capitals no longer includes the verbs "comply" and "complement", and instead states that national taxes, in addition to sharing "similar" objectives, must "be subject to equivalent rules" and "generate revenues at least equal to those estimated by the solidarity levy".

The clarifications made on the design of the complementary measures implemented by European governments directly affect Spain, where the government has also proposed a mechanism to reduce the revenues of energy companies, including electricity companies in this case (and not in the European one).

However, the Spanish tax would be levied at 1.2% of the income of the companies affected, while the European "solidarity contribution" would be a 33% tax on the extraordinary profits of oil and gas companies, defined as any profit 20% higher than the average for the previous three years.

In any case, the final design of the new European figure will depend on the final agreement reached by the EU-27, which the energy ministers will try to reach on Friday 30 September, so the wording on this point is still subject to change.

With regard to reducing electricity consumption, the draft maintains the objective of reducing it by 10% on average and by 5% at peak times, with this second target being mandatory, although it deletes the reference indicating that the savings must be monthly, as envisaged in the proposal.

It also maintains the main lines of the initiative to reduce the income from renewable sources, nuclear and coal by establishing a maximum price of 180 megawatts per hour (MWh) in the wholesale electricity market.