EC Notified Romania On Dec 22 That New Car Tax Breaches EU Laws – EC Official

"The Commission and the Romanian authorities have been in regular contacts as regards the new car tax legislation in Romania. Those discussions with the Romanian authorities are informal and confidential. We try to help the Romanian authorities understand the different elements of compatibility with community law for any new national legislation to be introduced in the car taxation area,” Assimakopoulo said.

She added the Commission wrote a letter to the Romanian authorities on 22 December, ascertaining that based on information received from Romanian authorities, a first analysis showed that the new measures didn’t seem to be in line with European legislation.

In this letter we ascertain that the information provided to us is incomplete to make a full analysis of the new legislation. However, our first analysis based on the information provided is that the new measures seem not to be in line with the EU legislation

“Within this process, I can confirm that the Commission wrote a letter to the Romanian authorities on 22 December. In this letter we ascertain that the information provided to us is incomplete to make a full analysis of the new legislation. However, our first analysis based on the information provided is that the new measures seem to be not in line with the EU legislation,” Assimakopoulou said.

The European Commission informed the Romanian Government that the emergency decree issued by the former cabinet, which triples the country’s car tax, breaches EU laws and Romanian authorities are working to find a solution to comply, Romania’s head of the Department for European Affairs, Vasile Puscas, told MEDIAFAX late Monday.

"The European Commission found the emergency decree breaches European laws and we have to fix it,” Puscas said.

He added he will have talks in the upcoming period with Prime Minister Emil Boc and the ministers involved, to find a solution.

Romania’s new coalition government was sworn in on Dec 22, 2008.

The country’s car tax could be lower in value at the time of vehicle registration and later included in the annual tax paid by owners and calculated in ratio with the vehicle’s pollution standards, according to one of the variants the government is considering in a move to change the car tax regime.

Environment minister Nicolae Nemirschi presented at the end of last year several variants to change the car tax regime in a press conference Monday and said a decision will be made after the propositions are analyzed by the government and after European institutions are consulted.

He said one option would be to suspend the decree the former liberal government passed in December and go back to the tax values charged in July.

The minister presented another variant, where the registration tax would be lowered, but vehicle owners would pay an annual tax calculated in ratio to the car’s pollution standards.

A decision in about the car tax will be made after Jan 15, after the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Transport analyze this vehicle taxation regime.

Romania’s former liberal government decided April to introduce the pollution tax for cars, calculated depending on the technical data of each car, based on carbon dioxide emissions, which replaced as of July 1, 2008, the tax for the first registration of cars which was then effective.

Amendments to the car tax brought a fall in the number of new cars, and boosted used car imports.

On the backdrop of the increase in the number of imported second-hand cars, the government decided via an emergency decree in December to triple the car tax for used cars, and to suspend it for new cars with Euro4 engines of up to 2,000 cubic centimeters, registered or the first time in Romania and the European Union.