According to the Hungarian government, the costs of environmental protection should be paid by the big polluters, and by no means by Hungarian families, said Csaba Dömötör, the parliamentary state secretary of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office, in a video published on his Facebook page, in which he responded to Brussels' green policy proposals.
We all agree that we have to do something to protect the climate and the environment, but it doesn't matter at all who pays the bill , he said. - The main hub of the debate about the green policy in Brussels is who should pay the costs of environmental protection. According to him, the debate is becoming more and more relevant because more and more ideas, plans and proposals are "boiling in the Brussels pot".
One of the plans refers to the EU quota trading system, which has been in operation until now, the purpose of which is, in principle, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. As he said, based on the new plan, Brussels would extend this to transport and households as early as 2025. The European Commission also does not deny that, if this were to be implemented, service providers would transfer a significant part of the additional financial costs to households, "that is, families and motorists would have to foot the bill," he said.
He drew attention to the fact that the proposal is making such big waves that it is being criticized by large green organizations that are otherwise very militant. Among other things, he cited as an example that Green Peace says this proposal harms households, while it does not guarantee that emissions will be reduced at all.
He also mentioned that, according to the calculations of a study, this would mean in practice that the expenses of a gas-heated household would increase by 30 percent. He noted that if a poster campaign is planned in Brussels, "they will calmly write on the posters: overhead increase". Based on the same study, the costs of a fossil fuel vehicle would increase by 16 percent, while the vast majority of vehicles on the road today are like that.
He said that according to the calculations of German consumer advocates, the annual expenses of a German family with two children would increase by 450 euros, about 160 thousand forints. That is why even the Dutch and Luxembourg governments strongly criticized these proposals , even though they are not exactly poor countries, he added. As he said, this is not the only new plan that they are thinking about in Brussels; they also want a climate tariff, but it does not matter how such a tariff is introduced. According to its description, Spiegel writes in detail about the risks: such a new tariff could be too bureaucratic, could cause damage to European companies producing for export and could lead to tough trade battles with countries that are bigger polluters than us, yet more permissive in terms of environmental protection regulations.
So it is possible that such plans harm the European economy, while we are not moving forward at all in terms of climate protection, he said. According to him, an important circumstance is that there are already a lot of strict environmental protection rules in force , Brussels regulations, which already represent a large financial burden, for example in the area of energy efficiency.
He said that according to the calculations of Duna House in Hungary, due to the energy efficiency rules, the construction cost of a single-family house can be up to 10 percent higher. This may be good news for foreign building material manufacturers, but not for Hungarian families, he said. He also mentioned that due to the many rules, the price of cars is constantly rising, especially the price of small cars. According to German calculations, the price of cars has increased by 90 percent in the last 25 years, while salaries have not been able to keep up. Referring to an earlier comment by Mayor Gergely Karácsony, he added that he did not know if anyone had told the Germans to go on foot.
According to Csaba Dömötör, there are also big supporters of the load increase in Hungary; For example, Gergely Karácsony wants a "wide-ranging carbon tax", he previously submitted a package of 225 billion to the Parliament, and "the LMP also wants such a tax, as well as many other types" . If we supplement the whole thing with the fact that diesel cars would also be banned from Budapest , then overall this is already a pretty hefty austerity package, said the parliamentary state secretary of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office.
