The European Union failed again yesterday to forge a common energy tax policy to help fight global warming, as Italian demands for tax breaks for truckers scuppered proposals that are five years in the making.
But the Greek minister who chaired the meeting of finance ministers said he hoped the plan to raise existing minimum tax levels for oil products and introduce EU-wide minimums for coal, gas and electricity, could be agreed in the coming weeks.
"Never in the past have we been as close as now in reaching a final agreement in these painstaking negotiations," Greek Finance Minister Nikos Christodoulakis told a news conference after the meeting.
Christodoulakis said the 15 EU countries would try to reach the unanimous agreement which is required to pass the tax levels ahead of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels in March.
The proposal is part of a move to fight global warming and pollution from fossil fuels and nuclear power and was first proposed in 1997.
EU leaders backed the bill in principle at a summit in Barcelona last year, but states continued to haggle over exemptions for households, truckers and big industry.
The latest snag was from Italy, which relies heavily on road transport for exports and wants to extend tax breaks for truck fuel launched in 2000 after protests over rising oil prices.
Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti stressed to reporters the importance of road transport for a country separated from its EU trading partners by a mountain chain.
"The Italian position is rather peculiar due to a number of special circumstances caused by the Alps," he said.
Rome says its hauliers need compensation for the loss of access to the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy, which reopened last year following a three-year closure caused by a major fire. Italy is also fighting against tough limits Austria imposes on heavy duty road traffic.
Tremonti said that if the EU created a common tax policy, it also needed more of a common market for transport.
EU diplomats say Italy wants the tax breaks to remain in place until it has secured easier access through the Alps.
But Germany, where fuel duties are higher than in most EU countries, argued against extending Italy's diesel tax breaks because they said it would put German road hauliers at a disadvantage.
France has introduced similar tax breaks, but is ready to phase them out by the end of 2004, according to diplomats.
Environmentalists see the energy tax as essential to spur companies and individuals to use energy frugally and reduce pollution caused by fossil fuels and nuclear power.
They said an agreement was needed before the EU takes in 10 new members next year, which would make it more difficult to get unanimous support for the package.