Germany proposes EU petrol tax to pay for refugees

Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has proposed an EU-wide tax on petrol to cover the costs of the refugee crisis.

"If the funds in the national budgets and the European budget are not sufficient, then let us agree for instance on collecting a levy on every liter of gasoline at a specific amount," he said in an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published on Saturday (16 January).

The German minister, a key ally of chancellor Angela Merkel, said the funds are necessary to strengthen the bloc’s external borders.

"We have to secure Schengen's external borders now. The solution of these problems must not fail because of lack in funds,” he pointed out.

He did not give details on how the tax would be collected and if Brussels would be in charge of the money.

Schaeuble said however that if not all of the 28 members of the bloc agree to pay more into EU funds for refugee-related European policies, Germany should go ahead with a “coalition of the willing.”

“The problem must be solved at a European level,” he said, but added that things are moving too slowly in Europe.

“Otherwise, it won't just be Germany that suffers the consequences, as some seem to think, but our neighbours will be massively affected too, as will the Balkans, and all the way down to Greece,” Schaeuble warned.

Finland’s finance minister Alexander Stubb has already said he is open to the idea, but noted that it would be problematic for Finland to introduce it.

“For two reasons, basically: first, because no one wants to raise tax rates right now and second, because tax issues are largely the prerogative of individual nations at present. This would be a new kind of EU tax,” Stubb told the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle.

Stubb added that the EU petrol tax was briefly discussed at the meeting of finance ministers in Brussels last week.

Meanwhile, Schaeuble’s idea drew criticism in Germany, which had a surprise budget surplus of €12.1 billion in 2015 and will use it to pay for integrating refugees.

“I’m strictly against any tax increase in light of the good budgetary situation,” Julia Kloeckner, the top Christian Democratic (CDU) candidate in the March state election in Rhineland-Palatinate, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“We Social Democrats want to hold society together instead of dividing it with a new refugee toll a la Schaeuble,” SPD deputy Ralf Stegner told Reuters.

Bavarian threats

Over the weekend, Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer again threatened to take Merkel's government to court over her welcoming policy towards refugees.

Seehofer, whose state is the main entry point to the country for the massive influx of migrants, had made similar threats before, only to back down at the last minute.

He said on Saturday he would send the federal government a written request within two weeks to restore “orderly conditions” at the nation's borders.

Over 1 million migrants arrived in Germany last year.

The leader of Merkel’s sister party, the CSU, Seehofer said if the federal government fails to do that, he will have to file a suit at the constitutional court.

Bavaria’s finance minister, Markus Soeder, told Der Spiegel that Merkel's open-door refugee policy was not democratically legitimized and added that parliament should vote on the issue.

Merkel was also criticised by his junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD).

SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday: “We have to get from a chaotic to an orderly immigration.”

He warned that if EU policies don’t bring the numbers of new arrivals down by the spring, then “we're moving towards numbers that become difficult.”