The iran war initiated by the US and Israel on February 28, in addition to causing a great increase in fuel prices at the European level, has caused energy companies obtain extraordinary benefits.
These windfalls from rising energy costs (colloquially called ‘windfall profits’) have caused Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria and Portugal complain to Brussels the launch of a tax that taxes that additional money who are getting the companies of the.
Specifically, it was at the beginning of this month of April when the first vice president and minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, together with his counterparts from Germany, Italy, Austria and Portugal, sent a letter to the European Commission requesting the creation of a new tax on the profits of energy companies after the armed conflict in the Middle East.
In that sense, the Minister of Finance, Arcadi Spainhe recently expressed, in an interview in TVEthat “what Spain is going to do is monitor the current situation, study with our community partners the option that we have proposed and then the decisions that are made will be made, but our option, at this moment, is the European option.
Ursula von der Leyen does not contemplate creating a new tax on energy companies
However, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is not up for the job to approve at European level any measure through which to increase tax revenue from energy companies.
has had access to the different drafts of the package of measures that the Community Executive is preparing so that the old continent faces the energy impact of the war in Iran and None of them contemplate the possibility of approving this new tax. on the ‘fallen from heaven’ benefits of energy companies.
From the aforementioned medium they assure that “Brussels plans to settle the petition from Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Portugal with a mention that States can already do it, at the national level”. Therefore, everything indicates that this “European option” that the Minister of Finance spoke of will not go ahead.
