EU countries approve energy windfall tax levies
STORY: European Union countries agreed on Friday to impose emergency tax levies on energy firms’ windfall profits.
The leaders also began talks on a possible bloc-wide gas price cap.
Ministers from the EU member countries met in Brussels on Friday (September 30), where they approved measures to contain an energy price surge.
Which is stoking record-high inflation and threatening a recession.
The package includes a levy on fossil fuel companies' surplus profits made this year or next.
Another levy on excess revenues low-cost power producers make from soaring electricity prices.
And also a mandatory 5% cut in electricity use during peak price periods.
Following this deal, countries began talks on the EU’s next move to contain the price crunch, with 15 member states, including France, Italy and Poland, backing a broad gas price cap.
Though others, most notably Germany, remained opposed.
It warned, along with Austria and the Netherlands, that caps could leave countries struggling to buy gas if they cannot compete with buyers in price-competitive global markets.
