Taux de TVA réduits pour les produits animaux

Question parlementaire n° E-000220/2022 de madame Sylwia Spurek, de madame Anja Hazekamp, de monsieur Francisco Guerreiro, de madame Eleonora Evi du 18.01.2022

Taux de TVA réduits pour les produits animaux.

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Question for written answer E-000220/2022

to the Council

Rule 138

Reduced VAT rates for animal products

QUESTION

In line with the position of the Council of 7 December 2021, the possibility of exemption from VAT will apply, inter alia, to foodstuffs for human and animal consumption. The European Commissioner for Economy indicated that the introduced changes would ensure consistency with European priorities, including the green transformation of the EU economy. At the same time, in the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, the Commission pointed to the need for EU tax systems to ensure ‘that the price of different foods reflects their real costs in terms of use of finite natural resources, pollution, GHG emissions and other environmental externalities’.

We would therefore like to ask:

1. How, according to the Council, in light of its position that the VAT exemption may be applied to meat, milk and other animal products, will this contribute to the objective of reflecting the high environmental costs of animal products in their prices?

2. What decisions and actions regarding the abovementioned possibility for exemption from VAT have already been taken by the Council?

3. Are there any plans to introduce legal or policy tools that would allow the actual cost of food to the environment and climate to be reflected in food prices, and if so, what are they?

ANSWER

given on behalf of the European Commission

The Honourable Members are referring to the general approach(1) of 7 December 2021 on the draft Council Directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards rates of value added tax. As the legal act has not yet been adopted, the Council is not in a position to provide a reply beyond the position presented in the general approach.

Under the consultation procedure, the Parliament was addressed by the Council on 9 December 2021 with a request for its opinion on the abovementioned general approach of the Council.

It is worth noting that in its Conclusions(2) of 22 February 2022, the Council reiterated the EU’s full commitment to delivering on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and reaffirmed the EU’s determination to work with all its partners to accelerate progress towards building sustainable food systems that ensure the world’s lasting capacity to provide safe, nutritious and affordable food for all within our planetary boundaries.

The Council also stressed consumers’ expectations with regard to health, food and nutrition, with an ever-increasing focus on approaching the food system as a whole and on building a more equitable marketplace for food worldwide that duly recognises and rewards the sustainability efforts made by food producers.

Should the Commission table new proposals containing the provisions mentioned by the Honourable Members, they will be discussed by the Council and its preparatory bodies.

(1) 14754/21

(2) 6298/22