Berlin warns the EU electricity tax plan threatens national sovereignty
The European Commission wants to use electricity market legislation to tax electricity at a lower rate than natural gas, to make electrification financially attractive as part of the EU's target of 46 percent electrification by 2040; electricity today costs three to five times more than gas across the union. Germany's finance ministry objects that tax matters require unanimity and that the Commission is circumventing this by going through market rules: director general Bastian Fleig sees "significant doubts" that the proposal can be adopted by qualified majority and calls it a direct interference with national tax and budgetary sovereignty. Negotiations between the member states and the parliament begin after the summer break under the Irish presidency.