Finance minister defends VAT waiver on energy

Finance Minister Alena Schillerová has defended the government’s decision to waive the VAT on energy in November and December in order to help end-users in the face of growing energy prices. Under fire from the opposition over the move, the Czech  finance minister said Prime Minister Andrej Babiš had received assurances from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the Commission would tolerate the waiver for the given period.

Minister Schillerova also highlighted the fact that Prime Minister Babiš had successfully tabled his concerns about the Emissions Trading System at the summit, blaming speculation about the EU’s carbon price for the recent spike in energy prices around Europe.

The Czech prime minister blocked the summit negotiations for several hours and eventually got the Commission to agree on the need to assess whether certain trading behaviours require further regulatory action.