Environmental Taxes in Northern Europe. The Recent Evolution and Current Status in the Baltic Countries

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make a brief overview about the recent evolution of the environmental tax systems in the Baltic region. With this purpose in mind, the article contains a review of the environmental taxes used in eight Baltic countries (Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Sweden) during the period from 2002 till 2011. Environmental taxation evolution has taken different paths across European Union countries, underpinned by different environmental policy frameworks. Presently, the European Commission is stimulating the European Union Strategy 2020 to have a more secure and competitive green economy in Europe. The results of this paper show that the collection of environmental taxes differs among the Baltic countries. It is partly related to environmental policy of each Baltic country and partly due to environmental tax reforms, which have been implemented in Sweden, Denmark and Germany. It may also be due to more ambitious goals and purposes when it comes to reductions in energy use and to protect the nature of the world. In the article, attention is also paid to the problem of application of efficiency of economic instruments in the European Union. The authors discuss and compare environmental reflections in environmental policy of the European Union.