Windfall taxes on European energy companies 'weakened' by intense lobbying, says new study

euronews (in English)

Fossil fuel businesses across Europe have managed to weaken and delay windfall taxes imposed on them during the recent energy crisis, according to a new report by a coalition of environmental associations.

Transcript

00:00 tell you about in a minute. Fossil fuel companies across Europe have managed to weaken and delay

00:04 windfall taxes imposed on them during the recent energy crisis. The accusation comes

00:11 from a report by Fossil Free Politics, a coalition of environmental associations that organizes

00:16 protests in Brussels. And every country has a different story. In Italy, energy giant

00:23 Eni saw its net profits more than double due to rising gas prices, but avoided a windfall

00:28 tax of 25% on it, decided by the former government led by Mario Draghi. The law was written so

00:35 badly that all energy companies have appealed legally against this law. And so from the

00:43 initial expected income, which was 11 billion euro, the actual income that was generated

00:50 by the tax was 2.8 billion. In the Czech Republic, the owner of energy company EPH publicly threatened

00:57 to move one of his companies abroad due to the proposed windfall tax initially designed

01:01 to cover profits made from 2022 with 100% tax for that year. They were able to postpone

01:09 the implementation of the windfall tax for 2023. So most of their profits are not taxed

01:16 by the windfall tax. And also they were able to soften it that it's not 100%, but only

01:23 60% from 2023. Spain also saw some troubles in the application of its windfall tax, a

01:30 levy of 1.2% of companies revenues since 2022, when their profits increased by 35%, as this

01:37 activist explains.

01:38 The government of Spain has used this tax in an administrative context that is not yet

01:49 resolved, because what they say is that what the European Union recommended was a tax on

01:55 profits and not on income, and that this harms them.

02:00 In September last year, the EU agreed on a temporary levy on fossil fuel companies applied

02:04 on profits exceeding 20% of a company's average. Activists claim the tax was watered down by

02:10 a fossil fuel lobbying association and put posters on EU institutions headquarters to

02:14 denounce this. The association that represents the sector denies the accusation.

02:19 In an energy crisis, one that is linked to gas supply, I think it's just perfectly normal

02:24 for the gas sector to engage in those discussions with the European Commission in this case.

02:32 For me, it's common sense.

02:35 According to the report called "Cold Homes, Hot Profits", there were over 200 meetings

02:39 between EU officials and fossil fuel lobbyists the year after Russia's invasion. Almost one

02:44 meeting per working day.

02:46 [Music]

02:48 (whooshing)

Category

Transcript

Recommended