In his speech at the 2008 Annual Conference of the European Environmental Bureau, the Commissioner stated that the aim of the Commission is to review the current Energy Taxation Directive to make it fully compatible with the energy and climate change goals of the European Union.

Two EU proposals mentioned by the Commissioner include:

• To table the amended Energy Taxation Directive and an envisaged proposal to apply reduced VAT rates on services promoting energy efficiency, on energy saving household appliances and environment friendly materials in the framework of a Green Tax Package to the Council at the end of the year.
• Change the structure of car taxation introducing a CO2 emission element into the tax base.

The Commissioner's full speech is available at

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/kovacs/speeches/0926EEBConference.pdf