Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Germany proposes EU petrol tax to pay for refugees

  • The EU petrol tax was discussed at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels last week (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has proposed an EU-wide tax on petrol to cover the costs of the refugee crisis.

"If the funds in the national budgets and the European budget are not sufficient, then let us agree for instance on collecting a levy on every litre of petrol at a specific amount," he said in an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published on Saturday (16 January).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The German minister, a key ally of chancellor Angela Merkel, said the funds were necessary to strengthen the bloc’s external borders.

"We have to secure Schengen's external borders now. The solution of these problems must not fail because of a lack of funds,” he pointed out.

He did not give details on how the tax would be collected, or if Brussels would be in charge of the money.

However, he said that if any EU members objected to paying more into EU funds for refugee-related European policies, Germany should go ahead with a “coalition of the willing”.

“The problem must be solved at a European level,” he said, but added that things were moving too slowly in Europe.

“Otherwise, it won't just be Germany that suffers the consequences, as some seem to think, but our neighbours will be massively affected too, as will the Balkans, and all the way down to Greece,” Schaeuble warned.

Finland’s finance minister Alexander Stubb has already said he is open to the idea, but noted that it would be problematic for Finland to introduce it.

“For two reasons, basically: first, because no one wants to raise tax rates right now and second, because tax issues are largely the prerogative of individual nations at present. This would be a new kind of EU tax,” Stubb told the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle.

Stubb added that the EU petrol tax was briefly discussed at the meeting of finance ministers in Brussels last week.

Meanwhile, Schaeuble’s idea drew criticism in Germany, which had a surprise budget surplus of €12.1 billion in 2015 and will use it to pay for integrating refugees.

“I’m strictly against any tax increase in light of the good budgetary situation,” Julia Kloeckner, the top Christian Democratic (CDU) candidate in the March state election in Rhineland-Palatinate, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“We Social Democrats want to hold society together instead of dividing it with a new refugee toll a la Schaeuble,” SPD deputy Ralf Stegner told Reuters.

Bavarian threats

Over the weekend, Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer again threatened to take Merkel's government to court over its welcoming policy towards refugees.

Seehofer, whose state is the main entry point for the migrants, had made similar threats before, only to back down at the last minute.

He said on Saturday he would send the federal government a written request within two weeks to restore “orderly conditions” at the nation's borders.

Seehofer, who is leader of Merkel’s sister party the CSU, said if the federal government failed to do that, he would have to file a suit at the constitutional court.

More than 1 million migrants arrived in Germany last year.

Bavaria’s finance minister, Markus Soeder, told Der Spiegel that Merkel's open-door refugee policy had not been democratically legitimised and added that parliament should vote on the issue.

Merkel was also criticised by his junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD).

SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday: “We have to get from a chaotic to an orderly immigration.”

He warned that if EU policies failed to bring down the numbers of new arrivals down by the spring, then "we're moving towards numbers that become difficult".

Syrians tell Cologne: 'We're against sexism'

Syrians and Germans held a protest on Saturday to show their aversion to sexism, but also to racism. “We experience sexism from men of all nationalities," one woman said.

Tusk sets EU two-month deadline on migrant crisis

The EU Council president has warned that the March summit "will be the last moment to see if our strategy works". He also said he would soon "table a concrete proposal" for a deal with the UK.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us