On the second day of the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) the ministers discussed energy taxation and also EU fiscal rules. Hosted by Finance Minister Mika Lintilä at Finlandia Hall, the conference began with resilience to hybrid threats as the main theme. The ministers agreed that the financial sector must beef up its capacity to combat hybrid threats and infrastructure disruptions.
Energy taxation in support of climate action
On the first day of their meeting, the EU member states’ finance ministers had discussed how action on climate change could be taken forward within their sphere of responsibilities. On Saturday 14 September, the second day of the meeting, the discussion on climate action continued when ministers discussed energy taxation. The European Commission has just published its evaluation of the Energy Taxation Directive.
The main themes that emerged in the discussions were competitiveness, climate change mitigation and the extent to which energy taxation is generally socially acceptable.
“We all agreed that energy taxation can be used to further the achievement of climate and energy objectives. I’m confident the outcome of our discussion will be taken into account if the decision is made to revise the Energy Taxation Directive,” said Minister Lintilä.
During its Presidency of the Council, Finland is stressing the need for the EU to raise its profile as a global leader in climate action. The aim is to establish a long-term climate strategy for the EU that will enable it to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Source: https://eu2019.fi
