Translated material
Finance ministers of five EU countries called for a tax on excess profits of energy companies due to rising fuel prices
The finance ministers of Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria called on the European Commission to introduce a tax on windfall profits of energy companies amid rising global fuel prices.
Energy companies that have made windfall profits, Reuters quoted finance ministers as saying, must “do their part to ease the impact of rising prices on the general public.”
The appeal, notes Reuters, does not indicate a specific tax rate that is proposed to be levied on the profits of energy companies. We are talking, first of all, about creating a legal framework at the EU level that will avoid litigation that arose when previously EU member states resorted to similar measures at the national level.
- World energy prices have risen sharply since the US and Israel began launching strikes on Iran in late February. Iran, in turn, began attacking US allies in the region with missiles and drones, striking, among other things, energy infrastructure. Iran also closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which one of the key oil and gas transportation routes passed before the start of the war. In Europe, as a result, gas prices have increased by 70% since the beginning of the war.
- European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen previously said that the European Union is considering different scenarios for responding to rising global fuel prices, including rationing consumption and reactivating strategic oil reserves. At the same time, Jorgensen emphasized that the EU is not going to revise plans to refuse supplies of Russian energy resources.