MADRID: Brussels asks Spain, in a report spread yesterday, to increase “green” taxes and to reduce subsidies damaging the environment. Besides, it asks the Spanish authorities to improve water and waste management, as part of the country’s main “challenges” in the implementation of the European environmental regulations.
According to the document, the income from environmental taxes in the last decade in Spain “remained being among the EU’s lowest”, with 1.85 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014, compared to the EU’s average of 2.46 %. Brussels thinks that there is a “clear margin” to review “green” taxes, mainly in the sectors of transport and energy, but also in the fields of pollution and the use of resources.
Regarding those subsidies granted to activities damaging the environment, the report points out that this is another “fundamental” matter, since Spain “still subsidizes fossil fuel, local carbon, company cars and diesel oil compared to petrol”. Therefore, it defends that developing a national strategy for the gradual removal of these subsidies and assistance “would be positive for Spain”. Brussels issues a report advocating the improvement of water and waste management
The Commission considers that one of the first “challenges” is improving water management, where Spain shows “very high rates” in the quality of drinkable water and bathing water, although it keeps “facing the challenge of dissociating the economic growth from the water management”.
As for waste management, the report bets on introducing a national tax on waste or harmonizing regional taxes, focusing on improving the efficiency of the selective collection to increase recycling rates, intensifying cooperation between regions and completing regional plans of waste management.
