Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-20-Speech-3-044"
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"en.20000920.4.3-044"2
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"Mr President, let us put this matter in perspective. This is not as much of a crisis as the 1970s. It is as much a taxpayer’s crisis as an energy crisis. It is not acceptable for governments to put the blame on OPEC, on oil companies, on peaceful protesters, on other political parties, or even on the European Union for protests about levels of taxation that are too high.
In the UK, tax takes 75% or three-quarters of the price of a litre of petrol or diesel and that is the responsibility of the government, no one else. Energy supply is more elastic than demand. We learned this in the 1970s, when higher prices brought more oil fields into production yet did not reduce consumption in the transport sector.
High taxation raises revenue, but fails to cut consumption. Nevertheless, the price increases and the tax protests are timely, to remind us both about our dependence in Europe on imported energy and about the difficulties we face in achieving environmental objectives such as CO2 emission reduction.
If taxation of energy is to be used for pursuing environmental aids, then the policy has to be transparent and consistent so as to carry public opinion with us. Where policies are perceived as unfair and inconsistent, as in the UK, then protests will enjoy widespread popular support. To put fuel taxes up so much as to make industry uncompetitive while reducing taxes on domestic household energy consumption, is crazy politics and bad economics.
Let us not be beguiled by arguments about harmonising taxation, because harmonised taxes under socialists have only one way to go and that is up. That is not what the taxpayers and consumers of Europe want."@en1
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