Study on environmental fiscal reform potential in 12 EU member states : final report to DG Environment of the Eruopean Commission

This study, undertaken by Eunomia Research & Consulting in conjunction with Professor Mikael Skou Andersen of Aarhus University, has, as its central aim, to: "provide empirical data or secondary sources on the potential economic and social benefits of environmental fiscal reform, to support the input in the European Semester process on environmental protection and resource efficiency". The specification elaborates on this as follows: The task includes presenting data on the potential of revenues from environmental taxation and other indirect benefits (such as job creation) resulting from environmental fiscal reform in 12 selected countries, using the methodology the EEA has applied, with methodological assistance of EEA Of the 12 countries selected, 8 received country specific recommendations in the 2013 European Semester related to EFR (Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania), 2 had received such a recommendation in 2012 (Austria and Slovakia), Croatia was considered as new Member State and Poland was also included. The approach taken in this study was to highlight the potential for revenue generation using environmental taxes. The intention was to indicate where this potential may lie, and to demonstrate the magnitude of the revenues that could be derived from the taxes.