Luxembourg: EU energy ministers pushed back on 29 October against a Commission provision that would tax electricity more lightly than gas, and at least 13 member states said the Energy Taxation Directive is the proper place for such a choice, according to Euronews. They called for the provision to be scrapped because decisions on tax need unanimity.

The named critics include Germany, Italy, Malta, Czechia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, Romania, Croatia, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Hungary. Their objection is about procedure as much as policy. The Commission proposes to adopt the provision by qualified majority, while the Energy Taxation Directive gives every government a veto, so a tax measure placed elsewhere could bypass that veto. The Energy Taxation Directive route keeps that veto in place.

Some governments backed the Commission with conditions. Spain, Denmark and Luxembourg supported the plan with flexibility, and Danish permanent representative Søren Jacobsen asked for room for member states to set clear political priorities. France looked for a middle path that would secure the legal basis and tie the measure to circumstances such as a gas crisis. Luxembourg floated replacing the provision with a general duty to promote electrification, and Swedish energy minister Ebba Busch called for better regulation instead of more bureaucracy.

Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen defended the text. He said the proposal makes a lot of sense and that the legal services of the Commission and the Council judged it legally sound. The political backdrop is a promise from EU leaders in February to make electricity taxation more favourable than gas, and Euronews notes that European electricity prices were twice those in the United States and China before the current energy crisis.

A second fight concerns grid charges. The Commission wants common EU rules for calculating network charges without asking member states and the European Parliament for fresh approval each time. Italy, France, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Spain and Finland, among others, said this would undermine national regulators, and Finland said its parliament formally concluded that the proposal violates that principle.

The Irish Presidency, which mediates between the camps, wants a compromise on network charges in December. The reporting gives no date for a decision on the tax provision and no figures for the proposed difference in rates, so the size of any tilt toward electricity remains unknown. Talks on the Energy Taxation Directive itself continue in parallel.

For households and industry the stakes are practical. A lower tax on electricity would make heat pumps, electric vehicles and industrial electrification cheaper to run against gas boilers. Governments that rely on gas revenue or gas-heavy industry want to keep control of that choice, and the Energy Taxation Directive talks will show whether unanimity still protects them.