On April 19 the EU Parliament adopted the report of Luxemburg’s MEP Astrid Lulling (EPP), and Swedish shadow Rapporteur, Olle Ludvigson (S&D),  on European Commission  proposal for a “Council Directive amending Directive 2003/96/EC restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity” (COM/211/169). The EP can only give it its opinion as it will be an unanimous vote of the EU Member States in the EU Council to transfer the proposal into EU Law.   According to the EC  proposal, the motor fuel tax shall be split between a CO2 based and an energy based component by introducing a minimum flat tax for all fuels to be implemented stepwise until 2018,  offering an option to the Member States to postpone any tax increase to 2023. The EP report recognized the need for consistency with regards to the rates of taxation, but suggested a highet tax on diesel and supportive measures for CNG and biogas. The proposed new tax system would automatically redistribute the relative advantages of various fuels in terms of CO2 emissions. THe EU Commission in a press release welcomed the EU report but emphasized it will go ahead with their current proposal.

The EHA was informed by the Commission in May last year that the reason hydrogen was not yet included was that there is not a real market for hydrogen as a fuel yet. The Commission will review the developments of hydrogen as a fuel and might decide to include it at a later stage.
Italy announced on April 16 that it is planning to introduce a carbon tax aimed to finance renewable energy production in order to provide further support for currently funded clean power. The new tax is part of other fiscal measures in a bid to encourage Italy’s  economy and has to be passed by parliament to become law. The government is also looking to impose excise duties on energy products based on their carbon content, along with the European Union plans. Recently, Italy increased its 2020 renewable energy targets, but reduced incentives for production of energy from solar and other green energy sources by 3 billion euros a year below levels they would have achieved under the existing support scheme.