COMMISSION TAKES CAUTIOUS LINE ON OIL PRICES AS NATIONAL TAX BREAKS MULTIPLY.

With a majority of member states rivalling one another in ingenuity in efforts to dampen the disquiet of economic sectors particularly exposed to rising oil prices (transport, agriculture, fisheries, to start with...), the European Commission has yet to note any contradiction of recent commitments by EU Economic Affairs and Finance Ministers at the informal EcoFin Council (September 9/10 in Manchester - see Europe Information 2988). In a commitment later confirmed by the EU25, the twelve euro-zone countries pledged not to take fiscal steps to offset the increase in oil prices in order not to send out any counterproductive signals (at a time when energy saving is once again becoming the top priority).

The Commission will nevertheless scrutinise the measures adopted by various European governments. Tax credits, tax refunds, transport tickets, instructing oil companies to cut profit margins: France and Belgium, to name just two countries, have already announced a raft of measures which, in the main, have still to come...