Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-28-Speech-3-261"
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"en.20050928.23.3-261"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, expensive oil is, of course, the best incentive for both the authorities, industry and consumers to look for alternatives, and it goes without saying that we unreservedly endorse the initiatives you have developed in this area over the past few weeks. This is all good and well in the longer term, but in the short term, as has already been pointed out this afternoon, countless families, single people, both the old and young, are at risk of being left in the cold, quite literally, in the next few months, because they can simply no longer pay their heating bills. I fear that the Commission, with its consistent, yet somewhat harsh stance, has too little consideration for this.
Meanwhile, various national governments have taken all kinds of new and diverse measures. The Belgian Government, for example, intends to reimburse some of the heating oil in order to relieve the pressure, but such measures do not, of course, solve the heating problems of the very many people here and now, and that is why I appeal to you to at last do something in the short term. A temporary reduction in VAT on fuel oil may not be such a bad idea. I know, Commissioner, that it is not one that you favour, but this is a social measure, after all. In the longer term, you may want to put a kind of bandwidth in place. With this, I mean not only a minimum, but also a maximum rate, in other words a lower limit and an upper limit within which the Member States should move. In that way, we can do something about the huge and ridiculous price differences between the Member States.
Fuel oil, gas and electricity are all basic necessities for heating houses and are definitely not luxury goods. They are vital and, as you know better than I do, much of the price goes on VAT and excise to boost the national coffers. There is therefore definitely room to take structural measures, certainly in the short term.
On a final note, Commissioner, whilst you must obviously protect the EU’s interests in the longer term, you could make a very kind gesture towards all those vulnerable families who are at risk of getting into difficulty in the coming weeks."@en1
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