EU
climate chief Wopke Hoekstra goes to war with airlines
EU plans to
hike airlines’ green taxes are “complete bullshit,” says lobby chief Willie
Walsh.
Wopke Hoekstra is taking a hard look at the sweet deal that
airlines are getting on taxation in a bid to make flying bear more of its real
environmental costs. |
December 23, 2024 4:25 am CET
By Tommaso Lecca
BRUSSELS — European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra's
push to slap more tax on airlines is set to be one of the crunch political
battles of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's second term.
It sets the Dutchman up for a showdown with not only the
airlines — led by Irish industry heavyweight Willie Walsh, who calls the tax
plans "bullshit" — but also vocal EU countries that fear their
tourist industries will be undermined.
Hoekstra is not only climate commissioner, but also has a
second, less well-known role, being in charge of taxation. He wants to hike the
taxes airlines pay as part of the effort to slash emissions from transport by
90 percent by 2050 under the EU’s Green Deal.
Adding taxes
to air transport “is something I truly deeply care about,” Hoekstra told
POLITICO in a recent interview.
Airplanes account for about 4 percent of the EU’s greenhouse
gas emissions and 13.9 percent of all transport emissions. Now, Hoekstra is
taking a hard look at the sweet deal that airlines get on taxation in a bid to
make flying bear more of its real environmental costs.
“I do think it is fair that the logic of ‘polluter pays’ is
at the heart of many of our policies. And if I look at the domain of aviation,
there clearly is a step we can take,” said the Dutch commissioner.
Taxation has historically favored airlines; they pay no tax
on kerosene and no VAT on tickets in most countries.
Although airlines are covered by the EU’s cap-and-trade
Emissions Trading System, they were long exempted from paying for emissions
permits, unlike other polluting industries. However, the EU is ending free
allowances for aviation by 2026 and airlines have already started paying for
pollution from short-haul flights within Europe.
Hoekstra’s goals include introducing a tax on fossil jet
fuel, putting a carbon price on extra-European airline emissions and ending the
zero-VAT rates on international travel.
That’s setting off alarm bells in airline lobby groups and
in the tourism ministries of sunny European countries that rely on airborne
tourist traffic.
“For a politician to say we’re doing this in the interest of
the environment … that’s complete bullshit. That’s lying,” Walsh, director
general of the International Air Transport Association airline lobby, told
POLITICO.
Taxation has
historically favored airlines; they pay no tax on kerosene and no VAT on
tickets in most countries. |
Walsh, the former chief executive of Aer Lingus and British
Airways, warned that “it is almost impossible for any of that money [from
taxes] to flow back to the industry to improve environmental performance.” He
added that the only effect of new levies will be to make it more difficult for
people to fly, lowering aircraft load factors instead of emissions and leaving
the habits of the biggest polluters unchanged.
According to Walsh, any new tax on flights “is just to
generate revenue. Will it stop anybody flying in a private jet? It’s not going
to stop it, you’re not going to see a change in behavior and that’s the issue.”
Angry
sunny spots
Hoekstra’s pledges to tax aviation are particularly angering
tourism-dependent Mediterranean countries.
On Dec. 10, during a Council meeting with economy ministers,
the southern countries reiterated their rejection of the kerosene tax proposed
by the European Commission as part of the reform of the Energy Taxation
Directive.
“The tourism sector represents 20 percent of our GDP in
Greece and that applies even more for the Greek islands,” Greek Economy and
Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told Hoekstra during a debate on the reform.
The tax on kerosene “may undermine competitiveness of the
Greek tourism at least toward third [non-EU] Mediterranean countries where the
cost would not be increased and no further tax would be imposed,” Hatzidakis
added, echoing the views of Italy, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta.
Polluter
pays
Industry also complains that higher EU taxes will make
European airlines less competitive than rivals from other jurisdictions.
“I’m the first to acknowledge that it’s not easy [to tax
aviation] and that it will take a long time to establish something that is
either completely or at least roughly global,” Hoekstra said.
The EU isn’t deaf to the danger of imposing tougher
regulations only on the bloc. Its update to the ETS and aviation gave the
United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization until 2026 to align
its currently lighter carbon pricing scheme, called CORSIA, with the European
ETS.
If that does not happen, “the Commission should propose to
extend the ETS to departing flights [from the EU],” Hoekstra told the European
Parliament after his nomination as climate commissioner. That would affect
non-EU airlines flying out of Europe as well.
The effort to tackle climate change is adding to pressure on
Hoekstra.
Although aviation isn’t the largest contributor to global
warming, its share is rising fast as the popularity of air travel explodes.
“Aviation is, frankly speaking, one of the very few domains
where the trend is in the wrong direction, not in the right one,” Hoekstra said
during his confirmation hearing before the Parliament on Nov. 7.
During his confirmation hearing, Hoekstra appeared open to
the idea of a frequent-flier tax or VAT on aviation, saying, “We could and
should be forward-leaning” on such ideas.
“There is currently a widespread application of zero VAT
rates, particularly for international air and maritime transport, regardless of
their environmental impact,” he said in his written replies to
parliamentarians.
“The taxation of the aviation sector is part of a wider
reflection that the Commission has started on the future of the VAT,” he added.
But getting any of those changes through will be difficult.
Other pillars of the Green Deal, such as banning the sale of CO2-emitting cars
after 2035, are already under fire, showing the political danger of painful
green policies.
EU tax reforms require a unanimous decision by member
countries, and for now that looks a very remote prospect.
Zia Weise and Barbara Moens contributed reporting.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário