In October 2012 the European Commission launched a public consultation on 'Review of existing legislation on VAT reduced rates'. T&E has been campaigning to abolish the reduced rates for international passenger transport for years due to the harmful competitive distortions caused by those rates and the implicit subsidy it provides for passenger transport, especially in the aviation sector.
The Commission should make a meaningful proposal this year for the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport. That is the message delivered by 15 NGOs to the EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard and five other commissioners in a letter dated 23 March, which specifically offers help in drawing up a proposal.
The EU should pave the way for a global action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping.
The Commission has suggested four ways of tackling greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, and has opened a public consultation. The consultation follows the failure of the IMO to agree measures for ships already in operation by the EU's 31-December deadline.
T&E reply to the Consultation of the European Commission on the ‘Green Paper on the future of VAT– Towards a simpler, more robust and efficient VAT system’
Opinion by Jos Dings - T&E Director
Did we miss something? Last year, the European Commission didn’t propose a single new legislative measure to clean up transport. To be fair, it has been spending most of its time worrying about the future of the Eurozone. As a result, for T&E this was the sort of year where seeds for smarter transport policy were sown. We’re optimistic that next year could bring a decent crop of positive changes.
A United Nations body set up after last year’s Copenhagen climate change summit has recommended increased taxes on carbon emissions and air and sea transport with the aim of raising $100 billion a year to help poorer nations fight global warming.
Two-page briefing on reducing NOx emissions from shipping and the findings of the T&E/EEB/AirClim report 'Market-based instruments for NOx abatement in the Baltic Sea'.
Joint NGO report on tackling NOx emissions from shipping using economic instruments. Published by AirClim, EEB and Transport & Environment.