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Gas power plant in Vohburg on the Danube
Photo: Tobias Hase/ dpa
According to the will of the EU Commission, the EU states should skim off the extra profits from energy companies resulting from the increased gas prices.
The revenue from such taxes should then be used to finance investments in renewable energies and energy-saving projects.
This is reported by the Reuters news agency, citing several insiders.
The proposal does not provide for an EU-wide tax, it said.
Rather, the EU Commission simply wants to announce that such taxes from member states do not violate EU rules.
Gas prices in Europe rose to record highs last year and are still at worrying levels.
Germany and other EU countries want to reduce their dependence on energy imports in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is the most important gas supplier in Europe.
Germany gets 55 percent of its gas from the country, in the EU as a whole it is about 40 percent.
It was only on Monday that the federal government introduced a package of laws to push ahead with the expansion of green electricity at full speed.
ssu/Reuters
