The EU takes away a billion from Spain for not touching excise duties on diesel.

The European Commission has cut the fifth installment of the Spanish National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) by €1.1 billion (out of a total of €24 billion) because Pedro Sánchez 's government failed to meet two objectives: the digitalization of regional and local governments (€626 million) and the equalization of excise duties on diesel and gasoline (€460 million). This second objective is particularly relevant for Italy, which, through its fiscal delegation, has initiated a gradual convergence between the two taxes. The initiative, which in our case also stems from a commitment under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Mission 7, Reform 2), has sparked strong protests from the opposition. It is therefore worth reconstructing its objectives and implementation steps. Historically, excise duties on fuel have been an effective revenue-generating tool: each time, they have been revised upwards to generate additional resources for a wide variety of purposes.

However, since fuel consumption also produces local pollutant and CO2 emissions, excise duties also effectively act as a form of environmental taxation. For this reason, the European Commission has long been pushing for them to be aligned at the same level: in fact, the negative externalities resulting from diesel consumption, despite having different characteristics, are quantitatively comparable to those of gasoline. It follows that a lower excise duty than that on gasoline acts as an implicit subsidy for diesel. This is also the approach followed in Italy in preparing the Catalogue of Environmentally Harmful Subsidies (SAD) , a periodic report from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, which has always supported this reform.

Despite pushing for alignment, Brussels has never raised any particular objections to the level of the tax (provided it is set above the minimum level agreed upon in the EU). In Spain, for example, excise duties amount to 37.9 cents per liter of diesel (one of the lowest in Europe), compared to an EU average of 52 cents and an Italian level of 63.2 cents (the highest overall). On gasoline, however, Spain imposes excise duties of 47.3 cents, compared to an EU average of 63.8 and an Italian level of 71.3. Clearly, the situation is very different: yet, what interests the Commission is not the absolute level of the tax, but simply the tax difference between gasoline and diesel.

Therefore, Brussels would have no objection if Spain aligned its taxes on the two fuels, albeit at a level between 30% and 40% lower than Italy's; however, it would continue to complain if Italy, despite having much higher taxes, kept them diversified. That this is illogical is clear to everyone: during the previous European legislature, an energy tax reform was long debated, aimed at harmonizing the tax on various energy sources (not just gasoline and diesel, but also gas, electricity, and so on) in proportion to their energy content and the emissions generated; however, that project stalled due to political difficulties in reaching an agreement. Moreover, it involved defining new minimum levels according to current criteria: member states would have retained the flexibility to set the bar at the level deemed most appropriate.

In any case, both Italy and Spain have committed, in their respective National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs), to address this issue. Italy, amidst the discontent of the majority and the fierce protests of the opposition, has initiated a process of alignment that should lead to an increase in excise duties on diesel fuel and a corresponding reduction in those on gasoline , ultimately reaching an intermediate level (still sufficient to guarantee a small additional revenue). Spain, however, has failed to achieve political consensus: the Sánchez government has extremely limited resources, so much so that it has failed to approve the budget law and has been in provisional office for two years, and so the Socialists have had to give in to the blackmail of their allies. Thus, today the Commission praises Italy and punishes Spain.

Politically, it's a paradoxical outcome: the Italian right, often accused of ignoring climate issues, has implemented a maneuver to rationalize fuel taxation for environmental reasons. Instead, Elly Schlein 's Democratic Party (PD)—as well as Giuseppe Conte 's Five Star Movement (M5S) and Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli 's AVS (Avs)—has attacked Giorgia Meloni and Giancarlo Giorgetti , accusing them not only of having implemented part of the left's program (namely, the reduction of environmentally harmful subsidies), but also of having succeeded where their hero, Sánchez, failed. In a somewhat populist manner, just as Giorgia Meloni did in her videos at the gas pump when she was in opposition, the left has dubbed the fuel tax reform the "Meloni tax." Yet, had the government followed Schlein's suggestions, Italy would have seen its NRRP funding cut by the European Union. Just as happened to Spain. On the other hand, Sánchez himself would have preferred to increase the excise duty on diesel: he lacked not the will, but the votes.

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