By Peggy Corlin - 1st March 2006
France wants EU member states to come on board and back Paris’ air ticket tax scheme to fund development aid.
President Jacques Chirac called on the international community on Tuesday, including EU member states, to act on the idea of an air ticket tax that would speed up the progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goals.
“I commend all countries, mostly from the south I might add, who have decided to embark upon this road and review the implementation of such mechanisms for themselves,” said Chirac.
“I call on all nations represented here today in Paris, first and foremost OECD and EU countries, to support them in this forward-looking undertaking. We will thereby rapidly raise the sums that are required to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”
French proposals to create an airline “solidarity” tax to finance development aid were originally mooted at last year’s world economic forum in Davos, but received little support on the European stage, with only the UK publicly backing the scheme.
France is to charge passengers up to €40 depending on destination and class of travel, which Chirac says will generate enough cash to buy drugs for the developing world.
But France’s call is likely to fall on deaf ears within the EU as doubts are raised on the efficiency of the new financial instrument.
There is little chance of the issue being raised by the Austrian EU presidency, as finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser attacked the idea last year as unfair for consumers and said Austria would not take part.
Air transport lobbies also urged member states to reject the French proposals.
“Airlines make a massive contribution to development by bringing tourists to destinations and transporting goods to markets,” said Giovanni Bisignani of the international air transport association.
“Making air transport more expensive is akin to biting the very hand that feeds development.”
Although cautiously embracing the French plans, a number of NGOs also warned that the initiative should be used to deflect EU member states’ pledges to reach a European target of 0.56 per cent of GNI by 2010 to fund development aid.
“This tax should not divert the attention of member states from the key targets. Member states made commitments in 2005, and 2006 is the year to deliver,” warned Oxfam’s Louis Belanger.
“Italy, Austria and Germany have still a long way to go; they have to come up with plans to reach the targets.”
“But for the time being they have failed. Italy needs to rise from 0.1 per cent to 0.57 per cent within four years,” the NGO claims.
The airline solidarity tax, which was endorsed last December by the French parliament, is expected to raise more than €200m per year and will come into force in France on July 1.
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