A few days ago, the EU announced an EU-wide minimum tax that should gradually burden kerosene from 2023. This is probably not going fast enough for the domestic aviation representatives: Austria and Belgium are joining a Luxembourg initiative to accelerate the taxation of kerosene.

The transport ministers of the three countries sent a joint letter to the EU Commission on Tuesday. Accordingly, the European Union should refrain from the tiered model and initiate taxation "immediately". According to the draft, the minimum tax rate on aviation fuel would start at zero from 2023 and gradually increase over a period of ten years until the full tax rate is met. The environment doesn't have that much time. The European “Green Deal” can only be realized if the exemption for aviation fuel falls.

The paper also outlines possible consequences should the project not be implemented by the European Union. In the letter addressed to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, her two Commission deputies Frans Timmermanns and Margarethe Vestager and four other commissioners, the initiators point out the possibility of individual member states to take their own measures in this regard. However, this is the last resort, as the common market would suffer from it. The courier reports.

The Green Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler and Aviation State Secretary Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) signed for Austria.