The Committee criticized the situation where fees and VAT on electricity ranges from 4.7 per cent in the UK to 45.6 per cent in Denmark. This variation distorts the market and heavily penalizes consumers and energy-intensive industries, it said.
It recommended creating a common tax framework that links the tax rate to the energy source and factors in carbon emissions.
Rapporteur Pierre-Jean Coulon said there was “a hotchpotch of national practices, markets and providers” in Europe, despite the European Commission’s plan to complete an internal energy market by 2014.