Fuel pricing: a briefing for policy makers

On 28 November 2000 the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) and Heidi Hautala MEP held a seminar in the European Parliament on the potential synergy between the demands of environmentalists and fuel price protestors.

The recent widespread protests over fuel prices have led to a public debate on transport tax levels and how the money raised should be used.  Meanwhile there has been an intensive expert debate on transport and the economy for several years that has explored ways of making the transport pricing system fairer, more efficient, and environmentally sound.  The seminar looked at the potential overlap between the apparently opposing views of environmentalists and fuel price protesters.

The seminar highlighted the problems of reliance on fuel taxation as the major fiscal instrument either to raise revenue, improve the transport sector or improve, its environmental performance.