On 15 January 2019, the European Commission published a Communication proposing a gradual shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting (QMV) in the field of taxation. So far, this initiative has been widely overlooked, despite its potential significant impacts on EU decision-making. As stated in the Communication, taxation is the last EU policy area where decision-making exclusively relies on unanimity. During the past 30 years, decision-making procedures in other areas […]
Green Budget Europe (GBE), the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), the Ex’Tax Project Foundation (Ex’Tax) and the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra) have published the final report of a one-year project, which looked at fiscal and other incentives to promote circular economy objectives in Finland. The following measures were included in the scenario, which was modelled by Cambridge Econometrics: Air pollution: A carbon floor price; Fossil fuels: Removal of the […]
The recent “yellow vest” movement in France has pointed out the need to look into social equity concerns when introducing new fiscal measures, which aim to promote sustainability and low-carbon alternatives in our economies. This aspect has been underestimated during the past years when policies on resource efficiency and circularity have been devised. We need to reconsider our approach to ensure that if and when proposals on market-based instruments and […]
Green Budget Europe (GBE), the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), the Ex’Tax Project Foundation (Ex’Tax) and the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra) organised on Tuesday 27 November a seminar at the European Parliament to present the results of a one-year project which looked at fiscal and other incentives to promote circular economy objectives in Finland. At the seminar, hosted by MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen (former Finnish Minister of the Environment and […]
Green Budget Europe, together with the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and the Ex’Tax Project Foundation from the Netherlands, organises a high-level seminar on circular economy on Tuesday 27 November from 2 to 4 PM at the European Parliament (Altiero Spinelli building, room A5E-3) in Brussels. The seminar will discuss the results of a project commissioned by the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), which looked at the Finnish economy and […]
Green Budget Europe was well-represented at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation (GCET) hosted by the Faculty of Law, CEU San Pablo University, Madrid, from 26-28 September. The topic of the event was Environmental Tax Challenges in the 21st Century: Urban Concentration and Increasing Transport. One of the most important outcomes of the conference was the new Spanish government’s clear expression of its ambition and political will to promote environmental […]
According to an article published in Nature magazine in July, the current trade war between the United States and its main partners could provide an opportunity to tackle two multilateral problems at the same time: protectionism and global warming. As trade relations between the greatest economic powers of the world are becoming increasingly tense, the authors of the article (Michael A. Mehling and others) suggest that governments should introduce a […]
Janez Potocnik has agreed to become Ambassador of Green Budget Europe. Potocnik is Co-Chair of the UN International Resource Panel (IRP) and former European Commissioner for the Environment, Science and Research. “I am really thankful that Dr Potocnik has decided to join our list of Ambassadors, which is already an impressive group of experts from the highest level of society. Potocnik will bring new clout to our activities as he […]
EU Budget Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger is currently on what he has called “the MFF27 Tour”, which is a tour across Europe to gather views on the future of EU finances and the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). This tour has so far taken him to the Netherlands, Hungary, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Spain, Malta, Ireland and Croatia during 2018. We are clearly approaching the turning point concerning the budget negotiations […]
The European Commission launched in February a brand new policy agenda entitled “European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy”. This strategy sets up an objective of all plastic packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2030 and targets a reduction and/or elimination of single-use plastics. Eric Liégoise (DG GROW) presented it during the second day of “Petcore: Strategy for PET in the Circular Economy”, an annual conference, which took […]