The proposed levy, which will be put to Europe's finance ministers this spring, would replace in two years time two types of taxes across the 27 member states: road tax and registration tax, which - except in Britain and eight other EU countries - is paid by motorists on buying a new car.
One quarter of this new tax would be levied according to the vehicle's carbon dioxide emissions. Although the framework of new tax would be uniform throughout Europe, member state governments would be allowed to set their own rates.
The plans were unveiled by László Kovács, the EU's tax commissioner, in an interview with the British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph. He said: „I am concerned by the way that people are obliged to pay a registration tax once in one country, and when they move to another country they can be made to pay a second registration tax. That is double taxation and represents an internal barrier within the market.“
