Except to expose themselves to a new disallowance

The Government has been hammering that he will not up to the carbon tax, it has not yet found the answer to the induced crisis, Tuesday evening, by the censorship of the Constitutional Council ("Les Echos" of yesterday). He was preparing to send the first cheque to households, the next week, is three weeks to make a new copy: it will be integrated into the collective budget on the large loan, submitted on 20 January by the Council of Ministers.

In fact, the Constitutional Council does not call into question the broad lines of the device, insists the Executive, and in particular the principle of a charge on the households and businesses (17 euros per tonne of CO2 emitted). "Nicolas Sarkozy remains very committed to the carbon tax." "It is an absolute priority, even though it is difficult and even if it is three months of an election deadline," said the Secretary of State for ecology, Chantal Jouanno yesterday.

But the law is the subject of too many exemptions to respect the principle of equality, before tax and the objective of combating climate change considered wise. A meeting was held at Matignon, yesterday, to assess the consequences of this decision. It in spring that the exemptions provided for exposed occupations (75 for fishermen and farmers, 35 per cent for road, River and maritime transport) are absolutely not remitted in question. On the contrary, they are justified by the pursuit of general interest, such as the safeguarding of competitiveness of economic sectors exposed to international competition", indicates the Council in its comments. They will therefore not be changed.

Compensation systems

However, the situation is different for the most polluting companies 1.018 (steel, lime, cement, tile and brick, glass) that produce 93 of the industrial CO2 but which, because they are subject to the European market of quotas, are exempt fully from the carbon tax. However, these quotas are currently free of charge, below a certain threshold, and will fully pay that from 2027, explains the Board. It would therefore submit these companies not only to European quotas, but also to the carbon tax, which would represent additional costs EUR 2.5 billion at the current rate. "This is suicidal." "This is a big problem of competitiveness and employment", said Gilles Carrez, rapporteur UMP of the budget to the Assembly. "The Council is more comfortable with old concepts with the economic reality companies," said his Senate counterpart, Philippe Marini.

The Government shares the same point of view, but he can hardly disregard constitutional censorship. Except to expose themselves to a new disallowance. It thus seeks to "how to combine the market of quotas and the carbon tax, without imposing double penalty business." The first solution would be to apply reduced rates of carbon tax. The second would be to implement the systems of compensation, as is the case in Sweden. "The ecological dimension of the Act requires that everyone pay the carbon tax." "But the Constitutional Council may not prohibit refunds based on other criteria, such as value added," explains Michel Tali, Chairman of the tax Committee of the Institute of business.

Convince the majority

Beyond technical issues, which are not insurmountable, the Government must also convince the majority to discuss once again the matter urgently, before the regional. The President of the Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, President of the UMP group, Jean-François Copé, or even the General Secretary of the UMP, Xavier Bertrand, are mounted to the niche yesterday to support the Executive. But some parliamentarians are hardly enthusiastic: "In view of the lack of willingness of our international partners, I would prefer see as at 1 January 2011", said Philippe Marini, while the MP Hervé Mariton calls on Government to not "rush" the majority (see page 3). Because even if Matignon will seek to confine the debate to only grievance of the Constitutional Council - it is not matter, in particular, to change the scale or offsets for individuals - num - ber of trade unions (CGT, CFDT, FO), (environmental, consumer) associations and parties are already mounted in the niche to demand a flat full remission of the device.

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