Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-04-Speech-1-096"
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"en.20060904.18.1-096"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I too would like to thank Mrs Riis-Jørgensen for this excellent report, which you presented here despite the travel problems you had. The more difficult it becomes to fly, the clearer it is that the car is a vital consumer durable for most Europeans.
The present situation, in which the car is one of the most difficult objects to move inside the Union, is intolerable. Moving a car from one Member State to another entails considerable obstacles, which are still due to different tax laws and inflexible administrative legal practices. Furthermore, the citizens of the Union are treated completely unequally regarding car taxation, depending on where they live. For example, in Finland, a country where distances are long and the population is sparse, a passenger car is not exactly a luxury, but a necessity for working people and their families. If cars in Europe are to be redesigned and if there are to be more environmentally friendly cars on the road, it is appropriate to reduce car purchase tax, abolish registration tax, and compensate for that with moderate rises in circulation tax which acknowledge regional balance and on the basis of fuel consumption and polluting emissions.
There is an unparalleled number of old cars on the roads in Finland, which in other countries would have ended up on the scrapheap by now. Car taxation should also move towards a system of tax concessions for equipment that increases safety on the roads. Obviously, it is not worth talking about car tax unless you include fuel taxes. In Europe we should be promoting tax concessions on biofuels and lowering taxes on diesel. Besides, the latest research shows that carbon dioxide emissions from diesel engines are lower than those from petrol cars. This needs to be taken into account when tailoring reforms. The environmental impact of road traffic should be examined as part of the Union’s wider policy on transport, although at present there is not enough proper debate on the compatibility of taxation on vehicles, fuel taxation and road transport infrastructure charges. That is what we need."@en1
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