Jonah Redfern Finance ministries from Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, Portugal and Spain have asked to add an EU-wide windfall tax on oil companies to the agenda of next month's finance ministers' meeting in Dublin, arguing refining margins have outpaced crude prices since fighting escalated near the Strait of Hormuz, according to Euronews. Their letter says excessive crisis profits must be returned to consumers and calls for an EU-wide framework to tax windfall profits, per the same report.
Direct taxation remains a national competence under the EU treaties, and harmonising it under Article 115 TFEU requires unanimous Council approval — any one of the 27 governments can block it. Brussels sidestepped that veto risk in 2022 by basing its first windfall levy not on tax law but on Article 122 TFEU, an emergency clause for energy-supply crises that needs only a qualified majority.
- For oil majors: nothing is imminent. Dublin is a ministerial discussion, not a legislative proposal, and the European Commission has not signalled it will draft one, per Euronews.
- For the other 21 capitals: one objection is enough to kill a unanimity-based tax measure — the reason the 2022 levy avoided that route.
- For Germany: the push already splits the governing coalition, with the CDU opposed and the SPD in favour, per Euronews, foreshadowing how national fractures could stall any EU-level vote.
The proposal is due for discussion, not decision, at the informal ECOFIN meeting under Ireland's rotating Council presidency. Unresolved: whether the Commission tables a formal text, and which legal base — Article 115 or Article 122 — it would use.
