The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise remains strongly committed to taking part in ensuring that Europe becomes the world’s first climate neutral continent. With this in mind, we would like to submit a few standpoints to the ongoing consultation on the possible revision of the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD).
It is essential to recognize that the EU-ETS is and must remain the key tool for reducing CO2-emissions from industry and electricity generation. A new minimum carbon tax must not interfere with the EU-ETS.
In order to mitigate the negative impact of energy taxation to international competitiveness, minimum tariffs shall be kept at the current level. The introduction of a minimum carbon tax should be combined with lowered minimum energy taxes to ensure that the total minimum tax level does not increase. The energy taxation directive should not hinder the goals of the Renewable Energy Directive.
A revision of the ETD must fully consider the general competitiveness of the EU. Any revision which results in a higher total tax level and decreased international competitiveness of European business must be deemed a failure, both as climate policy and as business policy.
Please read The Confederation of Swedish Entreprise’s full remarks in the attached file.