This is how Brussels wants to fix its budget. A confidential paper has been leaked, there is an appeal

natemat.pl 1 month ago

A paper has been published that shows how the Union plans to patch the fiscal gap with taxes. A confidential letter explains why cigarettes in Poland can increase nearly twice.

EURACTIV portal reached the study prepared for the Bundestag. According to the letter, Dutch taxation commissioner Wopke Hoekstra will pass on part of the taxation increase to the abandoned EU budget.

Confidential letter from Brussels

Hoekstra is supported by the Government of the Netherlands, Germany and France. The paper reveals that consumers will pay first of all for the current taxation increase. The Commissioner is pushing for an urgent revision of TED, setting minimum rates of excise duty. The money will go to the overstretched EU budget, which has deserted, among another things, after spending on arms.

According to a preliminary draft revealed at the end of June, the fresh excise directive (the Tobacco Excise Directive - TED) will rise excise work on cigarettes by 139 percent, on tobacco for twisting by more than 250 percent, and on tobacco for heating by 50 percent. It is intended to level the prices of nicotine products across Europe to a advanced level, and Hoekstra estimates show that €15 billion more would flow to the EU budget all year.

It has been under improvement since 2022. The Netherlands is peculiarly insistent on speeding up the legislative process.

As a result, in Poland the price would increase to nearly PLN 40 per pack of cigarettes. In the Netherlands, smokers pay about PLN 50 per package, which is 1 of the highest prices in Europe.

The European Commission is to approve the details of the taxation proposal next week. The Hoekstras were opposed by the Swedes, where advanced taxes hit the sleep, a product coming from their country and unique on a European Union scale. There are besides arguments that raising taxes in the current economical situation of many countries, including Poland, is not the most reasonable.

"The proposal is completely unacceptable to the Swedish government," said Elisabeth Svantesson, Swedish Minister of Finance. She added that excise money should go to associate States alternatively than to "EU bureaucracy".

In Poland, Marek Tatała, president of the Foundation for economical Freedom, appealed on X to Finance Minister Andrzej Domański.

"A Ministry of Finance and Andrzej Domanski let them defend taxation autonomy and these funds" – wrote on the X portal.