BERLIN (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch is proposing that individual member countries drop their right to veto decisions on energy taxes, a move that could facilitate the introduction of a carbon tax across the whole bloc.
AP
The EU’s energy commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, said Tuesday that no longer requiring unanimous votes would allow “the potential of energy taxation to foster the clean energy transition can be freed.”
Approval of energy tax decisions instead would need a qualified majority, or 16 of the current 28 countries representing at least 65 percent of the EU’s population.
Taken in the context of Brexit and the political battle in Washington this suggests that the progressives are not backing down. They are in complete earnest about the Green program and will push it as hard as they can.