Economic, Environmental and International Trade Effects of the EU Directive on Energy Tax Harmonization

In October 2003, the European Union introduced a Directive which widens the scope of the EU’s minimum taxation system from mineral oils to all energy products including coal, natural gas and electricity. It aims at reducing distortions that currently exist between Member States as well as between energy products. In addition, the Directive increases incentives to use energy more efficiently. This will lead to changes in the energy tax schemes in a number of countries, in particular some southern Member Countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal) and most of the Eastern European EU candidate countries. In this paper, we analyze the effects of the EU energy tax harmonization, with particular focus on the EU acceding Eastern European countries with GTAP-E, a computable general equilibrium model. We investigate the effects of the tax harmonization on overall economic growth and sectoral development. Special attention is paid to international trade in order to analyze if competitiveness concerns which have been frequently forwarded in the context of energy taxation are valid. Furthermore, the effect on energy consumption and emissions and thus the contribution to the EU’s climate change targets is analyzed.